Getting Started with Virtuous Raise

Congratulations! You are on the road to build better donor relationships and increase impact with your new Virtuous Raise subscription. We’ve created this guide to help you get set up with your Virtuous Raise account. We’ll cover the main steps for your team to take to be live in Virtuous Raise!

1. Set Up a Virtuous Payments Stripe Account
2. Projects and Premiums
3. Campaigns and Segments
4. Set Up Integrations
5. Create a Page or a Form
6. Manage Notification Settings
7. Test Transactions
8. Embed or Provide Links to Your Published Page

Set Up a Virtuous Payments Stripe Account

If you don’t already have a Stripe account connected to Virtuous Payments, your first step is to establish one. If you already have a Stripe account with Virtuous, our team will assist you in connecting it to your Virtuous Raise instance to ensure smooth payment processing.

For organizations currently in the Onboarding process, your Implementation Manager will help guide you through this. Learn more about configuring your Virtuous Payments Gateway and the required documents here.

If you are not currently in Onboarding, our Support team will assist you in creating and connecting your Stripe account to your Virtuous Raise instance. To get started, open a support ticket by sending an email to support@virtuous.org.

Projects and Premiums

Projects in Virtuous Raise are the programs or funds your Donors may choose to support. Before you start accepting gifts, you need to create these designations. If you only have one Project for all your donations, that's ok too. Just make sure it's created and Active before publishing your first Donation Page.

Note: If you will be integrating with Virtuous, you will want your Projects to match your existing Projects in Virtuous.

Donor Paid Fees Set Up 

If you are using Virtuous Payments, you'll see a project called Processing Costs. This Project is used to designate any processing costs associated with a donation or given in addition to a donation.

You have two options in regards to how this functions in your Virtuous Raise instance.

1. “Only Split when Donor Covers Costs” means Virtuous Raise will break out the costs portion of the incoming gift and designate it to the Processing Costs Project (Project Code:CREDITCARDCOSTS) only when the donor opts to donate an additional amount to cover the processing fees.
2. “Always Split Costs” means Virtuous Raise will always allocate the costs portion of the incoming gift and designate it to the Project Costs Project regardless of the donor opting to cover the processing fees.

To learn more about the Processing Costs Project, check out this Support Article. 

Create a Project

To create a new Project, click Projects in the menu on the left and then select + New Project in the top right.

Then, you'll be given fields to include your Project name, code, and description. You're able to add your admin emails to be notified of receipts of gifts made to this project. And you're able to include an image. Make sure the toggles for Active and Available Online are toggled on in the top right. Learn more about creating new Projects here. 

Premiums

If your organization gives incentives for certain Gifts, you’ll need to set up Premiums next. Premiums are used to track non-tax-deductible benefits that givers receive in return for their contributions.

To create a Premium, select Premiums in the left-hand menu. Then select the New Premium button in the top right. Here enter the Premium Name, Code, Description, Donation Amount, and more.

Learn more about creating and Managing Premiums here.

Campaigns and Segments 

Campaigns are an integral piece of data to track how successful various asks and channels are in your fundraising strategy. Creating a Campaign and associated Segments will allow you to track different asks to different audiences in a strategic manner.

Create a New Campaign

Navigate to the Campaign page using the left-hand menu.

Next, select "+ New Campaign" in the top right corner of the main Campaign page.

On this next page, you will build out the details of your specific campaign. The required fields are Campaign Name and Campaign Start and End Date.

Keep in mind, the contents entered into the Description box could be included in a public-facing page so be sure to tailor this content in alignment.

Create a Segment 

Segments will be available as an option when building a Page or Form to track a specific audience. Select "+ Add Segment" to open the fields. 

Next, enter the necessary details for your first Segment. The required fields include Segment Name and Segment Code.

Note: Segment Codes MUST be unique.

Virtuous Raise will be able to populate a custom code while you are entering the Segment Name. If the Segment Code automatically populated does not fit your need, you can change the code. The Description field is not required but it's an excellent opportunity for clear communication across your organization. Once you've entered all your desired information, select "Add Segment" to complete the process.  

If you have additional Segments to be created, select "+ Add Segment" below your newly created Segment. 

After all your necessary Segments are created, your Campaign is fully built and ready to be used in Pages and Forms! 

Set Up Integrations

After you've created your Projects, Campaigns, and Premiums, you'll need to configure any integrations. Are you using Virtuous CRM+? Google Analytics? You can find more details about your specific integrations or all of our integrations here!

To activate those integrations, navigate to Settings and then Integrations.

Here, you'll find icons with all of our integrations! Select the icon of your integration and activate that platform integration.

Create a Page or Form

In order for your Donors to make donations, you need Giving Pages with Forms for them to submit their gifts! These are the forms that can be embedded on your website or provided to donors on a Virtuous Raise-hosted landing page.

To create your first page, navigate to Fundraise in the menu on the left.

Then, find the green + New Page or Form button. 

You'll be asked to choose between a fully hosted donation page or an embeddable form. Start with a Donation Page. You'll have 5 sections to walk through and customize for your giving page. 

Once your giving page is built, make sure you Save & Publish it by selecting the green button in the top right.

Learn more with the full guide on Creating a new Giving Page or Form here.

Manage Notification Settings

Ensure Donor communications and internal notifications are up to date by reviewing your notification settings. This includes custom emails for donations, Receipts, and Acknowledgments.

To get started, navigate to Settings and the Notifications under System Settings.

Here, you’ll find a variety of types of Notifications that can be configured for both Donors and your internal team. Learn more about Emails and notifications here.

Test Transactions

Before going live with your new Giving Form, it’s important to perform test transactions to verify that everything works as expected. Enable Test Mode to ensure Payment Processing, Forms, and notifications are functioning properly.

To enable Test Mode, save and publish your Page by clicking on the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner. Inside the Builder, select the Settings Icon, and select the URL under the Test Mode heading.

Learn more about Test Mode and test transactions here.

Embed or Provide Links to Your Published Page

Finally, the last step of setting up your Virtuous Raise account is to provide a link to your published page or, better yet, embed a Form! Once your page is published you can begin taking donations directly through your Virtuous Raise hosted donation page!

If you're ready to embed, Save & Publish your new Form then you can use the Embed Form code to add these to your web editor.

Once pasted and published on your website, your form is live! Let the gifts start rolling in! 

Need More Help?

Need more help optimizing your Giving Pages? Virtuous Professional Services can customize, build, and optimize your Virtuous Raise Forms or Pages to boost donor engagement. Click here to learn more about our Professional Services offerings, or contact your Customer Success Manager to get started!