Fundraising Progress Meters Raise Excitement at Events
The RainbowTribe.ME,A few months ago, we released our donation progress meter out of beta, and it’s been a big success with our nonprofit customers. This feature allows you to display a thermometer during your event with “mercury” that rises as donations come in. We wanted to tell you about an improvement we’ve made to the progress meter that will make it even more effective for your organization.
Now your thermometer progress display page will automatically refresh every 15-45 seconds. You will see the mercury rise to its new levels automatically, without having to manually refresh your screen.
Screen Refreshes Automatically at Intervals You Choose
Up until now, you had to manually refresh your screen to see the mercury rise. Not any more. Now, we’ve added some scripting which automatically refreshes your thermometer display page. Your page will refresh every 15 - 45 seconds, depending upon the rate at which donations are coming in.
The refresh rate can actually be set to whatever you like. So, if you think donations will come in hot and heavy, we can set the refresh rate to as low as 5 seconds.
This way you won’t have to remember to refresh your screen. To see this in action, visit this page and watch how the screen refreshes every 15 seconds.
How The Progress Meter Works
Here are the steps to getting your donation progress meter up and running.
Request this service by simply contacting us and requesting it. We will upgrade your account automatically and build your thermometer display page. We build everything for you; there is no set up or technical knowledge needed on your end.
Tell us the donation meter goal amount. This is the amount that goes at the top of your fundraising thermometer. The mercury rises to this level as donations come in.
Supply us with the email address and mobile phone number of the person who will receive the donation payment updates and text message opt ins. We recommend that you designate a person or persons for this, so that you will know, in real time, when new donations are coming in.
During your event, our staff will be on stand by. As donations come in, you will automatically be notified via email. Our system will check your donation payment form for new donations every 15 mins. We will send you an email with new donations every 15 minutes. You will also receive a text message from us instantly when a new prospect opts in to your keyword. So, you’ll never have to worry about waiting too long to be notified of new opt ins.
Don’t worry — your thermometer display page will refresh every 15-45 seconds, so even if you haven’t yet received your 15-minute email, your donation meter will still update more frequently.
Note: There is a $15, one-time set up fee for this service.
When you use our payment processor and set up your fundraising progress bar with us, our system will poll your payments every 15 minutes. If it finds a new donation, it will automatically send you an email from us alerting you that a new donation has come through.
In addition to the 15-minute emails, you’ll receive SMS messages in real time when prospective donors opt in to your keyword and toll free number. This helps you track the rate at which you’re receiving donations during your live event.
Set It And Forget It
Once everything is set up, you’ll just broadcast your donation thermometer display page during your event. You can do this many ways; perhaps the easiest is to just broadcast your web page on a projector using a screen-sharing application like WebEx, GoToMeeting, Zoom, or Google Hangouts.
Since your screen will automatically refresh frequently, you can just set it and forget it. As donations come in, the progress bar totals will dynamically update, you’ll get text alerts in real time, you’ll receive email updates every 15 minutes, and your mercury will rise to the new levels — all without your having to do anything!