GivebearStructure your fundraising
Set up funds, campaigns, goals, recurring giving, and giving pages exactly as the dashboard supports them.
This guide shows you how to organize fundraising in Givebear. You will create funds and campaigns, set goals, and share the giving pages donors use.
Two building blocks carry most of your fundraising:
- A fund is an ongoing cause donors can give to, like a building fund or a food pantry.
- A campaign is a goal-driven appeal you share as a link, like a year-end push or a relief drive.
Most organizations keep a small set of funds and run campaigns on top of them. A campaign can point donors at one or more funds.
Funds and campaigns both have a draft and a live state. Nothing is visible to donors until you publish it.
Choose funds or campaigns
Pick the object that matches what the donor is giving to.
Use a fund
Use a campaign
Do not create a new campaign for every accounting category. Use funds for destinations and campaigns for moments.
Create a fund
Open Funds in the dashboard, then add the causes donors can choose from.
Select New fund and give the fund a name. This creates a draft and opens the four-step builder.
On Name and story, write what the fund supports and why it matters.
On Photo, add an image for the fund. A real photo helps donors connect.
On Amounts, set the suggested gift buttons and the pre-selected amount. Add an optional goal. Donors can always enter a custom amount.
On Review and publish, check the summary. Turn on Make it live now to publish, or save it as a draft.
When the fund goes live, Givebear gives you a shareable link to its public page. You can reorder funds by dragging the cards on the Funds page.
You cannot delete a fund that has recorded gifts. Its gift history, statements, and totals depend on it. Unpublish the fund instead to take it off your giving pages.
Need to bill in fixed units, like $50 per meal? On the Amounts step, open the advanced option and set a price per unit. Donations then have to be a multiple of that price.
Some faith-giving starters (such as zakat or tithes) appear as templates when your plan includes the matching add-on. See the add-ons reference.
Create a campaign
Open Campaigns to build a goal-driven appeal that wraps a story around your funds.
Select New campaign and give it a name. This creates a draft and opens the four-step builder.
On Name and story, write the headline and the case for giving.
On Photo, add a banner image for the campaign page.
On Goal and deadline, set an optional goal and end date. Both are optional (see Set a goal and deadline).
On Funds and publish, pick the funds this campaign raises for, then turn on the publish toggle to go live. Leave the funds empty and donors give to the campaign's general fund.
You can add a new fund without leaving the campaign builder. When the campaign goes live, Givebear gives you its shareable link.
Set a goal and deadline
Goals and deadlines are optional on both funds and campaigns. They change what donors see on the giving page.
- A goal adds a progress bar toward the target amount.
- An end date on a campaign adds a countdown.
On a campaign's Goal and deadline step, you can also open the advanced options to set a launch date and a matching gift. A matching gift records a sponsor name and the amount they will match up to.
Let donors give monthly
Recurring giving is a donor choice on the giving page, not a separate object you create.
On a campaign or fund page, donors switch from one-time to Recurring, then pick how often to give (daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly) and the interval, up to 52. Recurring online gifts become subscriptions on your connected Stripe account.
When a donor picks a one-time amount, the page offers to make it monthly ("Make it $50 a month?") with Make it monthly and No thanks buttons. A donor who declines is not asked again in that browser session. The offer never appears on funds where recurring giving is off.
Some fund templates come set up for one-time giving only (for example, zakat). On those pages the recurring option stays hidden.
Recurring gifts need an internet connection. A kiosk in offline mode only takes one-time card-present payments. See offline payments.
Donors manage and cancel their recurring gifts from the donor portal. See receipts and recurring gifts.
Let donors cover fees
Every giving page shows a Cover processing fees option. When a donor leaves it on, they add the fees on top so your full intended amount reaches your organization.
This is on by default for donors, and it is not an admin setting you configure. Fees follow your plan plus Stripe processing at cost. See pricing for the current rates and donations and finance for how payouts and fees appear in your reports.
Let donors hide their name
The donor details on every giving page include a Don't show my name publicly checkbox. A gift made with it checked is left out of the public recent-activity feed on your donation page, including its count. Your dashboard still records the donor's name and email with the gift.
Share your giving pages
Each published fund and campaign has its own public page. Use the Share button on the Funds or Campaigns page to copy the link or open the share options.
To put giving on your own website instead, use an embed.
Donation widgets
Developer SDK
Who can manage fundraising
Creating and editing funds and campaigns is limited to organization owners and admins by default. Custom roles can grant fund permissions (view, create, edit, delete, and reorder) and campaign permissions (view, create, edit, and delete) to specific staff.
Manage roles under settings, roles, and billing.
You cannot publish a fund or campaign until your organization is fully set up, including Stripe and plan readiness. The dashboard prompts you to finish setup before going live. See getting started.