Community Organizations

Fundraising Software for Community Organizations

The spring dinner is April 18. Post the RSVP page with the ticket price, check guests in on a phone at the door, log the checks against the event that night, and export the thank-you list for whoever writes the notes.

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FundraiserMax Events screen with the Create Event button, before any event exists

The Events screen in FundraiserMax. Real product, not a mockup.

How a congregation or club would run the year

Hypothetical scenarios. No customer is described.

Events chair, six weeks before the spring dinner

The hall has a hard capacity, the ticket is one price, and two board members agreed to co-host. Last year the RSVPs lived in three inboxes.

  1. Events > Create Event with the date, capacity, ticket price, and both co-hosts, each with a role and a commitment amount, then copy the public RSVP link.
  2. Communication > Email > New Email, pick the household list as the recipient list, and put the RSVP link in the body.
  3. Events > the event > Attendees once a week to compare RSVPs and guest counts against the capacity.

On screenRSVPs on the event with guest counts, each one email-verified, and the attendee count against the cap.

Treasurer, the night of the dinner

Guests arrive with checks, a co-host brings a few more, and the deposit goes in Monday morning.

  1. Events > the event > Attendees > check guests in from a phone as they arrive.
  2. Financials > Batches > Create Batch for the night, then Add Donation on the batch for each check, with its check number and the dinner selected as the event.
  3. Export the batch to Excel for the deposit slip.
  4. Events > the event > Financials > Generate PDF for the board.

On screenOne batch total that matches Monday's deposit slip, every gift tied to the dinner, and a check-in list that shows who came.

Volunteer coordinator, a cleanup day in June

The day is the second Saturday. The people who came last year need a text the day before, and the ones who never show can be left off.

  1. Contacts > add a volunteer tag under Notes & Tags to anyone who has helped before.
  2. Lists > Create List > Smart List with the rules Tags has tag volunteer AND Events Attended greater than zero.
  3. Communication > SMS > New SMS Campaign, pick that list under Contact Lists, and send on Friday afternoon (SMS needs a provisioned number at $10 a month).
  4. Events > the cleanup day > Attendees > check-in as people arrive.

On screenA list that updates itself as tags and attendance change, Sent and Delivered counts on the campaign row, and a check-in list that becomes next year's starting point.

Administrator, January giving statements

Statements go out by the end of January, and several couples gave separately through the year but want one envelope.

  1. Contacts > put the same household name on both spouses and link them as Spouse under Associates.
  2. Financials > Search Records > search by contact name, set the date range to last year > Export Report, once per giver.
  3. Mark the thank-you sent date on each gift once the letter goes out.

On screenA year of gifts per giver in Excel, the household name on each record telling you which two exports share an envelope, and the Thank You filter in Financials showing what's still unsent.

What a small organization uses

Event Management

A public RSVP page with a ticket price and a capacity cap, email-verified RSVPs with guest counts, co-hosts with a commitment amount, and check-in at the door.

Contact Management

Individuals, organizations, and households on one Contacts list, with spouse and family links under Associates and notes on each record.

FundraiserMax Contacts list with All, Active, Inactive, Archived, and Deceased tabs, a search box, an Export Excel button, and Name, Org, Email, Phone, Location, and Total Donated columns
The Contacts list, where individuals, organizations, and households sit side by side.

Donation Management

Gifts with check numbers, batches, and thank-you and receipt dates; search by contact and date range in Financials for the annual statement.

Email Marketing

Newsletters and event emails from the block designer, 100 marketing sends a month included and $2 per 1,000 after, and SMS once you have a number.

Smart Segmentation

Volunteers, past attendees, and lapsed givers as smart lists that update themselves from tags, events attended, and last gift date.

Rules that shape the work

If your group is a 501(c)(3), two IRS rules come up every year. Your treasurer or accountant decides what applies; here's what the product records.

IRC 170(f)(8): a donor needs a written acknowledgment from the organization for any single gift of $250 or more before claiming the deduction, stating the amount and whether anything was given in return.
In the productEach gift carries thank-you-sent and receipt-sent flags with dates, Financials filters on Thank You Sent, and a search by contact and date range exports the year to Excel for the letter.
Not in the productIt doesn't write or send the acknowledgment. You export, write the letter, and mark the date.
IRC 6115: when a payment over $75 is partly a gift and partly for goods or services (a dinner ticket), the organization states in writing what part is deductible, using a good-faith estimate of what the donor received.
In the productThe ticket price sits on the event, and gifts logged against the event carry the amount, date, and check number.
Not in the productIt won't compute the deductible portion or print the disclosure. The ticket price is one number per event, not a per-ticket value statement.

What isn't here

  • No dues billing, member directory, or facility booking.
  • No online giving page or text-to-give. Log gifts yourself, or import them from WinRed, Anedot, or ActBlue.
  • No automated giving statements or acknowledgments; export the year and write the letter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can guests pay on the RSVP page?

No. The page shows the ticket price and collects an email-verified RSVP with a guest count. Money changes hands at the door or by check, and you log it against the event under Add Donation. If online payments come through WinRed, Anedot, or ActBlue, import them and they land on the same contacts.

How do households work?

A contact can be an individual, an organization, or a household, and two individuals can be linked as spouse, partner, parent, child, or sibling under Associates. Give both spouses the same household name and it shows on each record. Gifts stay on whichever person gave, so a statement is one export per giver from Financials, with the household name telling you which envelope it goes in.

Do we need a phone number?

Only for SMS and the dialer. A provisioned number is $10 a month with no per-message or per-minute charge, and one number covers the account. Email campaigns, drip sequences, events, and everything else work without one.

Can two volunteers share one login?

Each person gets their own seat at $40 a month, or $425 a year, with a role that decides what they see. The events chair gets Events, the treasurer gets Financials, and a volunteer sees the campaigns they're assigned to. Sharing a login also puts every note and call under one name.

What does the trial include?

Seven days, card at checkout, no charge until day 8. During the trial you can import contacts, build smart lists, set up campaigns and events, and log calls. Sending marketing email, buying a number, and running email validation wait until the paid plan starts.

Other organizations

Run the dinner, log the checks, thank everyone.

Post the RSVP page, check guests in at the door, batch the checks that night, and export the statements in January from the same records.$40 per user per month, 7-day free trial, no charge until day 8.

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