Free web service helps small charities fundraise

Bellstrike is a free web design, build and hosting service for charities, that removes the hassle from online fundraising.

In recent months we’ve seen several third party websites raise money for charities based on user’s online behaviour, but according to US company Bellstrike, only 27 percent of not-for-profit organizations collect donations online themselves. Bellstrike offer a free web design, build and hosting service to remove the hassle from online fundraising. Based in North Carolina, Bellstrike was started by Dodd Caldwell, Marshall Klickman and Sean Gaffney, who have worked with non-profits for over eight years. Together they saw that smaller organisations do not generally have the knowledge, budget or resource to set up effective websites that encourage online fundraising. The focus of Bellstrike is on speed and ease, enabling users to choose from a selection of pre-made themes as the base for their site. Users can then choose to incorporate and use a range of other functions and services, such as social network integration, automated receipts sent to donors, blog hosting, and a gift catalog enabling donors to select specific items to donate towards. Bellstrike will even manage SEO on behalf of the charity. There is no cost to set up or host a site, and no contract, however Bellstrike receive six percent of every online donation, and WePay — the company used to process donations — takes 3.5 per cent. Therefore Bellstrike only receive payment if the site performs well, and they cap their fees so charities pay a maximum of USD 80 per month. Due to the restrictions of WePay, Bellstrike is only available to non-profits in the US. The video below explains Bellstrike in more detail: According to Bellstrike, USD 15 billion of the USD 229 billion donated to charities every year in the US is gifted online, and that figure grows over 40 percent annually. Not only that, but donating online is thought to encourage larger and more frequent gifts. Plenty to be inspired by here for small non-profits out there! Spotted by: Zachary Love