Raise offers two different Experience Types to help you connect with supporters in meaningful ways: Donation Forms and Lead Forms. Each Experience is designed for a specific purpose, whether you're building relationships through information gathering or facilitating donations. When creating Forms with either Experience Type, you'll also choose from two Build Types: a Hosted Page that provides a ready-to-use link to share directly with supporters, or an Embedded Form that seamlessly integrates into your organization's existing website. Use this article to understand the different Experience Types and Build Types when creating a new Form.
Experience Types
The first step in creating a new Form is choosing your Experience Type: Donation Form, Lead Form, or Widget.
Donation Forms
Donation Forms allow your organization to raise funds by capturing Gift information and processing monetary donations.
Donation Forms include options to configure Project designations, track Campaigns to understand donor motivation, and create Recurring Gift schedules. You can enable prompts to engage web visitors, accept various payment methods including ACH, credit card, and online wallets like Apple Pay, and much more.
Learn more about creating and customizing Donation Forms here.
Lead Forms
Lead Forms are designed to capture supporter information, preferences, and insights without requesting a donation. Use Lead Forms to collect relationship-building data like email list preferences, volunteer interest surveys, or program feedback. This approach to gathering supporter insights aligns with the listening component of Responsive Fundraising.
To learn more about Lead Pages and Forms, including how to get started customizing them, click here.
Widget
Widgets are embeddable components that are designed to inspire donors to give, engage, and act. There are a variety of types of Widgets depending on your needs, including:
- Call to Action Widgets
- Campaign Tracking Widgets
- Project Widgets
- Social Proof Widgets
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Urgency Widget
Learn more about building Widgets here.
Build Types
After your Experience Type is selected, choose a Build Type for how your new Form will appear. Both Donation and Lead Forms allow you to select either Build Type: Build a Page or Embed on My Website.
Build a Page creates a standalone Donation or Lead page hosted entirely by Raise. This gives you a ready-to-use link (e.g., https://raisedonors.givevirtuous.org/donate/water) you can share in emails, social posts, buttons on your site, or anywhere else you direct supporters. Hosted pages are the easiest option if you want to get a Form live quickly without needing to update your own website.
Embed on My Website creates a Form that appears within a page on your own site. Raise generates a small embed code you can paste into your website builder. This keeps donors on your domain and lets the Form blend into your existing layout and design. Embeds may require a bit more setup depending on your website platform.