Create a giving page - fundraise online!!!
SHELTER HOUSE has teamed up with CanadaHelps to provide participants/teams with their own personal fundraising pages. You can set a fundraising goal, tell people why you are participating in the RELAY FOR SHELTER, keep track of donations you've received, post a photograph, and send out e-mails to all of your contacts with a link to your web page. It's easy to set up, safe and secure for you and your donors. Here's how it works:
1. Click on this link to go to CanadaHelps to start creating your personal giving page. A new window will open so that you can continue referring to these instructions. You'll need to register with CanadaHelps to create your login account and password.
(CanadaHelps is a public, charitable foundation that provides online fundraising support for Canadian charities. More information is available on their website).
2. Once you've created your account and logged in, click on “Create a giving page”
3. Fill in the information requested on the page:
· In the personal message section let people know why you are supporting RELAY FOR SHELTER and why you think they should make a donation. Here's a sample which you can use, or you can write your own message:
“I'm participating on June 2nd to help the homeless people in Thunder Bay. In its 18th year the RELAY FOR SHELTER is the largest special event fundraiser for Shelter House. With a guiding mission to provide short term relief to those people in need of shelter, food, clothing, and to support access to the resources and services these people require in order to improve their own capacity to meet their basic needs. Thank you for your support.
· You can upload an image – a photograph of yourself or something to do with the RELAY FOR SHELTER.
· You can include a fundraising goal – if you do, a bar will be displayed on your page showing how close you are to achieving your goal
· You can choose whether you want your page to display the donations you receive. If you select to display the donations, individual donors can still choose to make their donations anonymously. You can also choose to be sent an e-mail message whenever someone makes a donation to your page, which gives you the opportunity to thank them for it.
· You should indicate the page expiry date, which is the last date for receiving donations. You should set this for some time after the relay takes place to allow for late donations.
· Put your name in the "Message to Charity" box and, if you're participating with a team put the team's name as well. Then, every time a donation is received on your giving page, SHELTER HOUSE/THUNDER BAY will receive an e-mail letting us know that the funds raised should be considered as part of your own and your team's totals.
4. After you've entered this information, click “continue”, and then enter “SHELTER HOUSE/THUNDER BAY” in the “Search for a Charity” box. When the SHELTER HOUSE/THUNDER BAY charity is returned, click “Add to Giving Page” so that your friends and family can donate to SHELTER HOUSE/THUNDER BAY
5. At this point you can preview your page, and then click “Finish my Giving Page” to finalize everything (although you can come back later and make any changes you want).
6. Now that your new giving page has been created, you can send the link for your page to your friends and family using your e-mail.
