Do you know the key terms in digital fundraising?

Digital fundraising may seem daunting, but you do not need to be a computer expert to be able to be successful! We have broken down the key terms you may come across. Being familiar with these terms will help your church become confident with raising funds online.

• Affiliate fundraising allows people to support your church through their everyday online shopping purchases, at no extra costs.
• Firstly you must register your church with an affiliate fundraising website, such as The Giving Machine or Easy Fundraising. Then encourage your church and community to shop through those sites, where with every purchase your church gets a small donation.
• Do your research into providers. View the EasyFundraising simple guide, which may be a good place to start.

• A call to action is a statement designed to encourage the person reading it to take immediate action.
• When you are fundraising online, it's important to include call to actions to boost engagement and encourage people to support your church.
• On social media posts, for example, call to actions could be ‘like our page’, ‘donate below’ or ‘sign up to our online coffee morning’.

• Crowdfunding is the concept that, rather than having one major investor, charitable projects can harness the power of the internet to get lots of small gifts. An individual project or appeal is known as a crowdfunder.
• It's used to raise funds for a specific project, and is usually targeted at a wider group of people from outside your church.
• More information on crowdfunding can be found in our digital webinar: Digital fundraising and crowdfunding.

• Live-streaming is where you can broadcast video and audio live over the internet.
• We saw many churches live-stream services over lockdown, but you can also use live-streaming to hold fundraising events such as a live music concert. There are several platforms available for you to livestream events, such as Facebook, YouTube or Zoom.
• The Church of England Guide: Getting started with Live Streaming gives guidance on live-streaming and how to set up.

• An online giving page or platform allows you to receive donations via the internet. It's a great first step to starting any kind of digital fundraising.
• There are many online giving providers available, with different costs, benefits and functionalities. Do your research to find the best provider for your church. The Church of England have complied a helpful list of providers.

• A QR code is a unique image made up of black and white squares, linked to a website. When a QR code is scanned by a camera on a smartphone, the user is taken directly to the linked website.
• Your church can set up a QR code to link to your online giving page. You can then print or put the code on your website, so people can scan it with their smartphone to go to your giving page.
• More information on QR codes can be found on the Church of England site.

For more guidance, watch our digital fundraising webinar: Digital fundraising and crowdfunding.

To learn more key terms in fundraising, read our factsheet with top tips