Raise Lead Forms and Pages capture supporter information, preferences, and insights without requesting a donation. Use Lead Forms and Pages to collect information for relationship building and stewardship, for example, email list preferences, volunteer interest surveys, or program feedback. Gathering data like this is a crucial aspect of listening, part of the Responsive Fundraising framework.
Table of Contents
Setup
To get started building a Lead Form/Page, navigate to the Experiences section from the main menu in the top left. Select + New Page or Form.
A modal will appear to walk you through Experience Types and Build Types.
Experience Types: Select Lead to create a Lead Form/Page.
Build Types: Select Build a Page to build a standalone page that lives on its own link or Embed on My Website to create a form to add directly to your website with an embed code. (This article will walk through building a page.) You will also be prompted to fill out the following information:
- Form/Page Name: Internal name of the Form/Page to label what this form and page are for
- Internal Form/Page Name: Internal name of the Form/Page to label what this form and page are for
- (For Pages) Page Slug: Customize the ending of the Virtuous Raise-hosted website with a custom word or phrase (e.g., https://rd.givevirtuous.org/donate/homepageform)
Select Create.
You will then be prompted to create a blank template from scratch.
Build
Now you can begin building and customizing it! In the Builder, a default Form/Page has already been configured with a couple of Components, or elements, which can be used as is or customized to fit your needs.
Select an existing Component (e.g. “Sign up for Newsletter” text) to modify or delete from your Form. To add a new Component, select the + icon in the top right of the Form/Page, and a menu will display the available options.
The Component Options include:
- Text: Add headings, paragraphs, or formatted text
- Text Input: Gather basic information like names, emails, or comments
- Image: Add visual elements or branding
- Video: Embed video content
- HTML: Insert custom HTML code
- Button: Add clickable buttons with custom actions
- Button Group: Create multiple buttons side by side
- Icon: Include visual icons, for example, for social media profiles
- Spacer: Add vertical spacing between elements
- Divider: Insert horizontal lines to separate sections
- Custom Field: Collect unique data specific to your organization
- Custom Collection: Group related fields together to capture more complex datasets and/or multiple entries
While all of these Components may help you gather information from your supporters, the Text Input, Custom Field, and Custom Collection elements will be particularly useful in Lead Forms.
SMS and Email Opt-Ins
The Phone Number and Email Address Text Input fields both include a toggle to Show Opt In, which creates a label and checkbox for supporters to opt into SMS or email marketing from your organization.
SMS Opt-Ins
For phone numbers, Raise syncs SMS opt-in data to Virtuous CRM+ Marketing to include in texting campaigns.
Email Opt-Ins and Marketing Integrations
For email opt-ins and subscription preferences, Raise syncs to Virtuous CRM+ Marketing, Mailchimp, and Active Campaign to add supporters to Email Lists. To sync your marketing platform, you will need to configure the integration under System Settings beforehand.
To learn more about each integration:
- Click here for syncing with CRM+ email marketing
- Click here for syncing with MailChimp
- Click here for syncing with Active Campaign
After your email marketing integration is configured, select from the Available Email Newsletter(s) dropdown in the Text Input Component to include specific Lists on your Form/Page. Supporters will be able to select from your different Email Lists if they are synced to Raise.
Each Email List will display in the final Form/Page as a checkbox, allowing site visitors to select as many as they would like.
Custom Fields and Custom Collections
Custom Fields can be synced from Virtuous CRM+ or created directly in Raise to collect unique data from supporters on Forms. When adding a Custom Field to your Form/Page, you have options to:
- Make field required: This field must be completed to submit the Form/Page.
- Make field hidden: This means the field is not visible to supporters and will store data for internal purposes only.
- Make field conditional: This allows you to control when the Custom Field displays on your Form/Page based on certain conditions. For example, a second Custom Field will only display if the first field has a specific value.
As Custom Fields can only have one value, or response, at a time, if the same supporter makes a submission from your Form/Page more than one time per day, only one set of Custom Fields will be added. However, if you need to track multiple responses, Custom Collections also sync from Virtuous CRM+ to be used in Lead Forms/Pages. Custom Collections group related fields together to capture more complex data sets targeting both Individual- and Contact-related data. A Form/Page can be toggled to Show all fields or Select which fields to show within the Collection.
Note: If syncing from CRM+, both Custom Fields and Custom Collections must be set to Enabled, and Collections must also be set to Show on Import in the CRM+ Data Customization settings. Click here to learn more about using Custom Fields and Custom Collections.
Sections and Columns
Now that you've added the Components to collect supporter information, you can organize your Form/Page's layout using Sections and Columns. The Builder includes Sections that can be added and reordered to fit your design needs. Within each Section are Columns, and within each Column, you can add additional Components.
By default, the Lead Form/Page is in a Section with a single Column, but this can be modified.
Within both Sections and Columns, the Design tab allows you to choose a background color, image, position, or use a CSS class to customize the look of your Form/Page.
Confirmation
Beneath the Form within the Builder is the Confirmation step, also added by default. This text (and any other Components that are added to it) will appear on your webpage after a supporter completes their submission.
This is a good opportunity to thank your supporter for signing up, provide more information on how you will use their submission, or direct them to another page on your website.
Select the Confirmation section to configure the Type:
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Redirect to a URL: insert the custom URL and add parameters. This Confirmation Type is helpful if your organization is using third-party click-through tracking.
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Custom Content: add custom javascript to the Confirmation screen. The Available and Restricted Features are listed below.
If using a Text Component, make sure to use appropriate Merge Tags to personalize the confirmation message with the supporter’s information, like first name. We recommend keeping this message brief.
Undo and Redo, Settings, Design, and Preview
As you build your Form/Page, you have several tools available to refine and preview your work.
If at any time, you need to go back to a previous version of your Form/Page, reverse changes using the Undo and Redo buttons in the top right.
Before Publishing your new Lead Form/Page, there are a few small steps to complete during the Build stage. In the top right corner, there are three icons for Settings (gear icon), Design (paint icon), and Preview (eyeball icon) for customization of the overall Form/Page.
- Settings allow you to:
- Update the Form/Page Name, Internal Form/Page Name, and Default Segment. The Default Segment syncs to the Origin Segment field in Virtuous CRM+.
- Select specific email templates that will be sent to supporters who complete the Form. Click here to learn more about email templates in Raise.
- Send a test email to yourself
- Add emails for notification when the form is submitted
- Set a default language and optionally enable automatic language translation (in beta)
- Design defaults to your organization's Design Settings but can be updated to customize colors, fonts, and styling for this specific form.
- Preview opens your current Form/Page in a new tab to view your updates. The preview includes a toggle to flip between Desktop view and Mobile view to see how your Form/Page will appear based on device.
Publish and Embed
The final step to completing your new Lead Form/Page is to Publish it. Click the drop-down arrow and then Save & Publish to publish your Lead Form/Page.
Then, select Next to have Raise generate a URL and QR code (for your Page) or code snippet (for your Form) to copy and paste into your website where you want the Form to appear.
If you build a Page, it's ready to go! If you build a Form and embed, it will be live on your website and ready to collect supporter information. Any changes you make after publishing will need to be re-published but will automatically update on your website—no need to change the URL (for a Page) or re-embed the code (for a Form).
Submissions
Once a supporter submits their information, users can view the Form/Page name and date submitted under the Donor profile Responses tab. The Custom Fields tab will display their Custom Field and Custom Collection responses.
Need More Help?
Need more help building your Raise 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!