Written by: Lynn Cadet
Edited by: Lillian Castro
TL; DR: Qgiv optimizes the fundraising process and the donor experience with digital donation and event services. Its comprehensive software platform allows users to build online donation forms, manage events, create peer-to-peer campaigns, and facilitate text fundraising and other strategies. Qgiv simplifies digital fundraising and streamlines the process with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Qgiv also provides hands-on and attentive customer service that includes software training and custom solution assistance.
Fundraising is the heartbeat of charitable and nonprofit organizations. It allows them to fund their mission, provide for their cause, pay expenses, and improve operations to benefit future clients. For many years, fundraising mainly consisted of direct mail and in-person donations. But gone are the days of one-dimensional fundraising.
Now, nonprofits can raise donations in a myriad of ways by leveraging digital tools. But integrating technology isn’t always simple. Fortunately, there are tools that help nonprofits of every background and technical expertise establish robust donation channels and strategies online. Qgiv is a fundraising platform that enables nonprofits to raise money while assisting them in digital transformation.
“Our number one focus as a company is the nonprofits we serve—our product is designed to be an asset for fundraising professionals. By closely monitoring consumer trends and proactively reaching out to the nonprofits we serve for feedback, Qgiv offers a product that’s modern, intuitive, and meets the needs of nonprofits in an increasingly digital world,” said Todd Baylis, CEO of Qgiv.
Qgiv provides users with a customizable and easy-to-use fundraising platform. It allows nonprofits to personalize their donation experiences with custom forms, text fundraising, peer-to-peer campaigns, auctions, and event management features. Users can easily build branded and smooth digital experiences for their donors while streamlining their fundraising efforts and management.
Simplifying the Fundraising and Donation Process with User-Friendly Technology
Qgiv launched in 2007 as a fundraising software to help users build online landing pages to accept donations. Qgiv’s founders developed the platform to make online fundraising more straightforward, intuitive, and accessible for nonprofits with little or no digital experience. Over the years, the company has expanded its services to include auction fundraising, text giving, and other fundraising options. But what distinguishes Qgiv from other donation software is its simplicity.
“Qgiv is constantly iterating and testing our product to create a simple and intuitive user experience. We know that perceived complexity can prevent a donor from completing an online donation or registering for an event. The average online donation form has an abandonment rate of 50-70%, so creating fundraising technology that connects with donors and converts them is of the utmost importance,” said Chris Morata, Qgiv’s Vice President of Product.
Maintaining an easy-to-use interface is the guiding light for many company updates and strategies. It is the foundation of the platform, enabling users to create presentable and functional donation channels for their donors. So the Qgiv team sets out to instill simplicity as much as it can throughout the platform design and interface.
“We want our fundraising tools to help nonprofit professionals save time, so the tools we provide are designed to be easy to use. Qgiv’s Product Team is full of incredibly knowledgeable software engineers and UI/UX designers that couple customer feedback with the latest usability trends and accessibility standards. The result is a phenomenal product that simplifies fundraising so the organizations we serve can spend more time changing the world,” said Chris.
Qgiv recently released an event management platform spun from its event registration forms. The team completely redesigned their event forms and added several new features to develop a comprehensive system. Qgiv developed the platform to make it user-friendly and require fewer steps when completing registration actions. The new platform also allows nonprofits to organize all necessary event information in one central hub.
“During any product redesign we’re thinking about the end user, donors, and members of a nonprofit’s community. A robust and streamlined event registration experience is top of mind for our team so our clients can experience success ,” said Chris.
Assisting the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and its ensuing lockdowns prompted industries to evolve to survive in a growing digital landscape. Many charitable organizations saw their primary methods of fundraising become impractical. These nonprofits had to leverage digital tools or risk falling behind since all in-person events and strategies were shutting down.
Qgiv helped many nonprofits adapt to the new tech landscape. One customer story that stands out was how the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank responded to its COVID crisis with the support of Qgiv. Located in a high-population area, the food bank was inundated with a drastic and immediate demand for its services. People seeking food and services waited in lines that backed up to local highways and interstates.
“Suddenly, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank had to change the way they accepted food donations in the face of heightened need for their services. We worked with them to create individualized donation forms for specific needs, and a digital storefront where people could donate different dollar amounts, providing different groceries to the food bank,” said Melaina Chromy, Qgiv’s PR and Communications Manager.
One of the specialized fundraising appeals involved coordinating direct mail with the digital experience. The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank created a letter to express its increased need for contributions and how supporters could help. The food bank implemented a QR code and positioned Qgiv’s peer-to-peer platform as a storefront with the help of its support team.
“They ended up raising more and had an incredibly successful fundraising year. Qgiv’s technology helped them because they were able to easily clone different donation forms and events as the pandemic was ramping up and they experienced this increased need for their services,” said Melaina.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is one of many examples of how organizations leveraged Qgiv’s digital experiences for their donors to overcome the pandemic. Brother Wolf Animal Rescue is another nonprofit that used Qgiv’s services before and during the pandemic and has since incorporated them into their processes even though in-person events have returned.
Championing Customers Through Hands-on Service
Qgiv also stands out from its competitors by supporting its customers with hands-on client services throughout the fundraising process. Qgiv constantly refers to direct customer feedback to update its platform by leveraging a request system. The team places customer enhancement requests in a queue and prioritizes those requests during its product development. But listening to customer requests isn’t the only way Qgiv champions clients.
“Here at Qgiv we’ve offered free, unlimited support for our clients since our founding. Our new clients are assigned a Customer Onboarding Specialist to help them with initial trainings and product setup. In addition to live support and onboarding, all of our clients have access to a user community to connect with other nonprofit fundraisers and Qgiv users,” said Jennifer Mansfield, Qgiv’s Vice President of Customer Experience.
The Qgiv support team takes a hands-on approach and sets out to understand and answer client needs. Most Qgiv team members have nonprofit backgrounds, and they take great pride in making the fundraising process a success. Qgiv support members walk clients through the platform and train them to ensure they have the best possible experience.
“We don’t give our customers the tech and then vanish into the background. We really take a hands-on approach and want to ensure their success,” said Jennifer.
Designing donation forms and tools tailored to client needs is Qgiv’s specialty. Users can personalize their donation channels with their branding and develop solutions for their specific operations. And the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank’s digital storefront is a prime example of how Qgiv partners with its clients to create solutions that answer their immediate needs.
