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Sending & Evaluating Contribution Forms

ActBlue Team
  • Updated

ActBlue user roles and permissions dictate what users can do on our platform. If the tools or features in this article are unavailable to you, speak to your entity Admin first about updating your permissions. 

In this article:

  1. Using your form to fundraise
  2. Creating refcodes to track where donations come from
  3. Finding out how your form performed

Using your form to fundraise

Once you create and customize your contribution form, you can connect with small-dollar donors and raise money. Contribution forms make it easy for your supporters to donate online. You can share your form across many channels:

  • Emails (where most digital fundraising occurs)
  • Social media
  • A button on your website

Select the "Copy link" button at the top of your form editor to copy and paste your link anywhere you want to fundraise.

 

A Screenshot of the Form Editor. There is a red arrow pointing to the Copy Link tab.

 

You can also find your URL and create refcodes by clicking the “More” button from the form navigation bar at the top of your form and selecting “Promote.”

 

A Screenshot of the Form Editor. The More tab is highlighted and there are four options appearing in the subsequent dropdown menu. The first, Promote, is highlighted with a red rectangle. The other options include Alerts, ActBlue Express Lane, and View All Forms.

 

Next, copy the link generated at the top of the “Promote” pop-up.

 

A Screenshot of the Promote Your Form pop-up that appears after clicking the Promote button in the Form Editor. There is a red arrow pointing to the custom URL generated for the form which reads: secure.actblue.com/donate/steering

Creating refcodes to track where donations come from

A refcode (reference code) is a short word or phrase added to the end of a URL to make it unique and trackable.

We highly recommend using refcodes to collect data on what links your supporters are clicking. For example, you could use the refcode "email" in a link you're sending out via email and the refcode "website" in a link on your website. You can then track refcode data from your Statistics page and see how they compare. Learn more about using refcodes.

You can customize your refcodes in the Promote tab by adjusting these fields: 

  • Refcode: Any word or tag you’d like to attach to your form’s URL
  • Amount: A pre-selected amount for donors who click on this link, such as $10 for donors who typically give this amount.
  • Recurring: Only admins that ActBlue has approved to use pre-set recurring forms will see a “Recurring” field. Type a “1” in this field if you want donors who click this link to land on a form with the unlimited recurring contributions option pre-selected. To specify an amount of monthly recurring contributions, enter the number of months here.

 

A Screenshot of the Promote Your Form pop-up that appears after clicking the Promote button in the Form Editor. There is a custom URL generated for the form with an additional line of refcode text added to it which reads refcode = email underlined with a red line. After the refcode text there is additional text that reads & amount = 5 which indicates the URL is set to automatically suggest a donor set up a recurring contribution with 5 recurrences. This text is underlined with a green line. Underneath this URL there's a section of the pop-up titled Custom URL Builder where you can customize the refcode text. There's a red arrow pointing to the refcode title which is entered as Email. Beneath this, there's a green arrow pointing to the amount of recurrences you want the refcode URL to include. The number entered is 5.

ActBlue policy requires groups using pre-set recurring forms to explicitly ask donors for recurring contributions immediately before the donor clicks the link to give. 

Any pre-set dollar amounts in the recurring links must reflect what is in the ask. Here are some examples:

 

A Screenshot of two Contribution Forms explicitly informing donors that their contribution will recur. The first reads: will you make a $10 monthly contribution to our organization today? The second reads: can you make a $5 monthly contribution today? Contribute $5 a month.

 

Read the full policy and get helpful examples here. If a group doesn't adhere to the policy, ActBlue will remove permission to use pre-set recurring forms. Reach out with questions or to request permission to use the feature.

Finding out how your form performed

After creating and sending out a form, you can check how it performs.
To see a form's performance, either click the “Stats” button when viewing your form or click on the “Contributions” or “Total raised” links in your Contribution Forms tab.

 

A Screenshot of the standard menu on a contribution form. There is a red arrow pointing to the Stats tab.
A Screenshot of the example of the list of forms and basic stats that will appear on the Contribution Forms page of your Dashboard.

 

You’ll find a statistics table on performance, organized by refcodes. Here are the statistics you can see:

  1. Count: Number of contributions made
  2. Visits: Number of people who landed on your form
  3. Conversion Rate: Percent of people who landed on your form who donated (count divided by visits)
  4. Mobile: Percent of contributions made on mobile devices
  5. Total (avg.): Total dollars raised, followed by the average contribution size in parentheses
  6. Recur #: Number of recurring contributions made, followed by the percent of contributions made that are recurring contributions in parentheses
  7. Recur: Total dollars raised from recurring contributions

You can see the above statistics for each refcode, with the last “Total” row at the bottom showing all combined.

 

A Screenshot of the Stats page which shows various example refcodes and how they'll display. The total raised through all these recodes is highlighted with a red rectangle.

 

Some helpful tools:

  • Download your form’s statistics as a report and see a detailed list of all contributions by clicking “Export all contributions” in the top right.

 

A Screenshot of the Stats page. There is a red arrrow pointing to the blue Export All Contributions button.

 

  • Export a report specific to a refcode by clicking the “Export” button next to that refcode.

 

A Screenshot of the Stats page displaying example refcodes and their data. There is a red arrow pointing to the Export button to the right of one of these example refcodes.

The amount of support that the ActBlue Customer Service Team can provide is dependent on the permissions that you have. Check with your entity Admin about your assigned role. 

If you have any questions, please contact our support team using the email address you use to access your ActBlue account. 

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