Generative AI is capable of producing a wide range of outputs, from texts and images to videos. However, the quality of the results largely depends on you. Here’s what you should keep in mind when writing prompts.
Do you want to introduce marketing automation in your NGO but don’t know how? We will help you with the first journeys, providing both know-how and technology.
Aktion Deutschland Hilft has been successfully using FundraisingBox for many years. We spoke with Thilo Reichenbach and Martin Hodsman about their work and digital fundraising:
Please tell us a little about Aktion Deutschland Hilft and the mission that drives you.
TR: Aktion Deutschland Hilft is an alliance of over 20 aid organizations that provide life-saving emergency and disaster relief during major crises and catastrophes. We believe that people affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crises have the right to solidarity and rapid assistance.
In addition to joint and coordinated emergency and disaster relief, disaster preparedness is another important pillar of our work. Disaster preparedness projects prevent suffering before it occurs.
For humanitarian aid at home and abroad, we pool many societal forces. We unite religious, non-religious, large, and small organizations in one alliance, thus reflecting the plurality of society. The donations and relief actions of every individual citizen, the support of politicians, associations, organizations, and municipalities, and last but not least, the commitment of small and large companies that believe in the principle of solidarity, make our aid possible.
How did you come across FundraisingBox, and why did you look for digital fundraising solutions like ours? Why did you choose FundraisingBox?
TR: We have been working with Wikando for more than ten years now. It all started in 2010 when one of the co-founders of Wikando introduced us to the peer-to-peer platform Helpedia and the embeddable donation campaign tool for our own website. The possibility for supporters to start a fundraising campaign for Aktion Deutschland Hilft together with their friends, and thus become brand ambassadors and fundraisers themselves, immediately excited us.
When Johnny Häusler, a well-known blogger, became aware of our donation campaign tool following the earthquake in Haiti and, almost overnight, raised over 27,000 euros together with his readers, it was an important moment of realization for us. We recognized the great—and still largely untapped—potential of peer-to-peer fundraising, which was relatively unknown in Germany at the time. Even back then, the management of the donation campaigns worked without any problems, and this new method of community-based fundraising excited not only us but also our donors. With every donation, donors can leave a comment. These comments provide a wonderful counterpoint to hate and incitement on social media.
Online fundraising campaigns help make social media what it should be—prosocial media.
As we became increasingly dissatisfied with the capabilities and innovation of our former donation form provider in the following years, switching to Wikando was a logical next step. Since 2014, we have been using the donation form as well. We haven’t regretted the switch for a second. On the contrary, the decision to collaborate with Wikando/FundraisingBox has proven to be the right one.
Which FundraisingBox products do you use, and how do you utilize them? Which features do you appreciate the most?
TR: Currently, we use the donation form, online fundraising campaigns, and gift donations.
We greatly appreciate the intuitive operation of both the backend and frontend. As intuitive as the forms and campaign tools are for donors, they are equally intuitive for our colleagues.
The integration of new payment methods such as Sofortüberweisung (now Klarna) or Amazon Pay went smoothly, and the service from the Wikando team is always top-notch.
With increasing brand awareness and the rise in donations, it has been and remains crucial for Aktion Deutschland Hilft to offer donors a secure and 100% reliable payment system. As an alliance of 22 aid organizations, Aktion Deutschland Hilft provides emergency relief during major disasters. While disasters cannot be predicted, one can still be prepared.
For us, it is essential that our website is highly available in the event of a disaster, and we expect the same from our donation form. This page is one of the most important pages on our website for an organization like Aktion Deutschland Hilft, which is almost entirely funded by donations. When, for example, ARD Tagesschau calls for donations on behalf of our alliance, the form must be fully available at all times. Even a downtime of just a few minutes can quickly cost donations in the five to six-figure range. Donations that are no longer available for humanitarian aid.
Over the many years of collaboration, FundraisingBox has proven to be a highly reliable partner whose competence and technology we can fully trust after many years of experience and over half a million transactions processed. We are also looking forward to many things to come, as we know that Peter Kral and his team are always keeping an eye on current developments like Apple Pay, voice donations, and much more. And they will continue to provide us with the technology that allows our donors to support our joint humanitarian aid quickly and seamlessly.
You have been very successful with our fundraising campaign tool. What measures do you take to make your supporters aware of this opportunity?
Aktion Deutschland Hilft explains the fundraising campaign tool on their website with a motivational video.
MH: On our website, we have placed numerous links to online fundraising campaigns. We are happy to highlight good examples of online fundraising campaigns. For this purpose, we dedicate articles to them on our website and publish posts on social media and through our newsletter. There is also a section called “Fundraising Campaign of the Month.” In addition to thanking the initiators, we always link these posts with a call to start your own campaigns. We have also included a note about online fundraising campaigns in our email signatures and experimented a bit with Facebook ads and advertorials. However, the marketing of fundraising campaigns definitely has room for improvement and will be further intensified.
Have the fundraising campaigns led to an increase in donation income, donation amounts, or changes in the donor structure (new target groups, etc.)?
MH: Measured against our total donation volume, the donations generated through online fundraising campaigns play a minor role, but the value of each online fundraising campaign started lies more in the supporters’ show of trust. When someone asks friends and family to donate to our alliance on their birthday, we are very happy to have a strong tool available for this. And individual campaigns, whether from private donors or companies that want to donate together with their employees, can sometimes reach five-figure sums. More important than the monetary outcome of a fundraising campaign is that people can help other people together and with joy. This is what makes online fundraising campaigns so valuable.
You also used our relatively new feature “Gift Donations” quite early on. What do you like about it?
The gift certificates are very well received by the donors of Aktion Deutschland Hilft.
MH: For several years, we have been offering our donors the option to give donations as gift certificates for Christmas. Until 2020, we manually sent these certificates—digitally or printed by post. The response from our donors to this option has been very positive.
In this sense, we were very pleased when FundraisingBox offered the new feature. What we particularly like about this feature is that it saves us significant labor compared to manually creating and sending gift certificates. Additionally, we appreciate the clear understanding of the form, including the certificate preview, and the ability to offer our donors multiple designs to choose from.
How did you implement the gift donations?
MH: We set up a separate donation form with the option to send a gift certificate pre-selected. For this form, we designed three images. We integrated this form into a landing page for donations during Christmas. Our conclusion for the feature and this implementation on our website: Very good! Many donors used this form during the Christmas season. The donation process, including the sending of the gift certificates, worked flawlessly.
This ad was placed by Aktion Deutschland Hilft in the Stern supplement “Lametta”.
Thank you, Thilo and Martin, for your trust in us and your indispensable work. We are happy and proud to be a small part of it!
