ImRaising

2013-03-14

Meet ImRaising, the Smart Fundraising Widget

Fundraising should be simple yet smart. The ImRaising widget helps you collect donations, track your progress live and acknowledge your donors.

You can choose the colors of your widget, so when you embed it into your website, it fits perfectly.

The widget displays a title, thermometer and description.

When you click the arrow to the right, the widget displays the number of donations and total raised.

When you click the arrow to the right again, the widget displays the top and latest donor.

When you click the donate button, the widget displays fields for the donation amount, display name and comment. Pay Now re-directs you to PayPal.

ImRaising makes smart fundraising simple, and you can create your own widget for free.

You can see a working ImRaising widget here.
You can create your own ImRaising widget here.
You can learn more about ImRaising and our features here.

Viewers watch your stream, so shouldn’t you put your widgets on it?

The Live Bar is a powerful widget that helps you track your progress and engage your donors.

It displays donation statistics and animates to thank donors. The
Live Bar is built for streamers, so everything updates live.

Before I give you the rundown, you should know three things.

1) ImRaising lets you personalize content, size, colors and fonts. This includes stat titles (i.e. re-name “Top Donor” as “Favorite Person”).

2) The Live Bars in this article display 4 stats, but ImRaising lets you display as few or as many as you’d like. There are 12 stats in total.

3) Adding a Live Bar to your stream is as simple as a screen capture. You can add it to your site with a copy and paste.

Alright, here’s the rundown:

Total Raised
A live updating total of donations

Local Time
An incredibly accurate clock

Time Played
A live updating total of time played

Top Donor
A live updating spot for the top donor
This encourages large donations.

Animation
An optional animation that thanks donors
ImRaising lets you customize the entire message. Donation amounts and display names are optional.

Goals Met
A live updating total of met goals

% to Goal
A live updating percentage that shows your progress toward your goal

Next Goal
A live updating donation amount needed to reach your goal
If your goal is flexible, hitting your goal will unlock another.

Latest Donor
A live updating spot for the latest donor
This encourages frequent donations.

$ to Custom Amount
A live updating donation amount needed to meet a custom amount
It could signify raffles, giveaways or another hour of streaming. This encourages constant donations.

Custom Amounts Met
A live updating total of met custom amounts
This is perfect for charity. Raising donations to feed impoverished villages? Re-name “$ to Custom Amount” as
”$ to Feed a Village”, and then re-name “Custom Amounts Met” as “Villages Fed”.

The Live Bar helps you engage your donors, but more importantly, you never need to refresh the page, so you can focus on your game.

With a Live Bar, viewers will instantly know when you’re fundraising. Simply screen capture the Live Bar, create a contribute button, and watch as viewers compete for your Top Donor spot.

You can see a working Live Bar here.
You can create your own Live Bar here.
You can learn more about ImRaising and our features here.

2013-02-27

Fair Pricing: Free Doesn’t Mean Good

When you donate to a private interest, ImRaising applies a 2.9% + 6¢ fee. Donors have the option to cover this fee.

Understandably, this fee has concerned some of you. ChipIn was the standard, and that standard happened to be free.

But free doesn’t mean good. You get what you pay for.

ChipIn was unstable.
You shouldn’t have to worry about downtime. ImRaising is hosted on Amazon Web Services, which is used by Reddit, Netflix and Pinterest.

ChipIn offered no customization.
Your widgets should reflect you. ImRaising lets you personalize content, colors, fonts, pictures, sizes and sounds.

ChipIn updated slowly.
You shouldn’t have to refresh the page. ImRaising updates live, so you see donations and support instantly.

ChipIn didn’t support mobile devices.
Your widgets should work anywhere. ImRaising runs on your mobile device and in your browser.

ChipIn offered no incentives.
You should engage and recognize your donors. ImRaising thanks donors, arranges them by donation level and displays their comments.

ChipIn offered no analytics.
When it comes to donations, you should know the who, what, where, when, why and how. ImRaising helps you track your progress and understand your donors.

ChipIn was unreliable and unfriendly, so why would we clone a service like that?

ImRaising seamlessly integrates streaming and fundraising. We’re stable, flexible and mobile, and if we didn’t apply a fee for private interests, we would end up like ChipIn.

Additionally, we promised to apply zero fees to donations for non-profits, and we’re committed to keeping that promise. In just two weeks, ImRaising widgets have helped raise over $46,000 for Child’s Play Charity. If we didn’t apply a fee for private interests, we couldn’t continue our support.

ImRaising is a brand new service with brand new features, the likes of which the Internet has never seen.

All we ask is that you give us a chance.

2013-02-22

ImRaising Supporting Minecraft Marathon

This Friday at 12 pm PST (-8 GMT), the second annual Minecraft Marathon benefiting Child’s Play Charity goes live. If you’re not familiar with Child’s Play, they’re a registered charity that contributes toys, books and games to hospitalized kids worldwide.

Minecraft Marathon will feature raffles, auctions and guest appearances from CaptainSparklez, Guude, SkyDoesMinecraft and more. The event is coordinated by Marc Watson, the Customer Support Manager of Mojang.

Child’s Play provides a wonderful service, and the charity holds a very dear place in our hearts, so when we heard that Marc needed contribution widgets, we delivered.

This weekend, Minecraft Marathon will use ImRaising widgets to raise contributions for the kids. We won’t apply any fees, so contributions will go directly to the charity.

We promised to apply zero fees to contributions for non-profits, and we’re committed to keeping that promise.

For more information about Minecraft Marathon, visit their site: minecraftmarathon.org