Last updated: 07-05-2024

FAQs for Non-profits

General

What is Visufund?

Visufund is an online interactive visual fundraising platform. When a supporter makes a donation or leaves a message on a Visufund page, they can reveal something on a picture, eg. adding a star to the sky or lighting a virtual candle.

Visufund is a private limited company registered in England and Wales (company registration number 10141346). Our registered office is at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, England, N1 7GU.

Who is eligible to join and raise funds?

If you officially represent a registered charity or non-profit organisation in one of our supported countries, you can create a Non-profit account and fundraise through Visufund. We currently support Non-profit registrations from the following countries.

Australia - AU$ (AUD)
Canada - CA$ (CAD)
Ireland - € (EUR)
New Zealand - NZ$ (NZD)
United Kingdom - £ (GBP)
United States - $ (USD)

If you do not represent a registered charitable organisation in one of these countries, you are welcome to create a Supporter account instead. Supporter accounts allow you to raise money for any of our Non-profit members or publish message boards without a donation facility.

How much does it cost?

It's free to join and publish unlimited fundraising pages using our extensive library of free templates, with no mandatory subscriptions. On our free plan, we simply deduct a small fee of 3.9% from donations. Payment processing fees also apply on donations, as determined by the charity's own Stripe account. We also offer optional membership plans and products, giving additional benefits such as Premium settings and lower platform fees.

How long does it take to get started?

Literally a matter of minutes! For Non-profit accounts, the onboarding process should take less than 10 minutes. The fastest we've seen was one charity who signed up, published a page, and received their first donation in under 15 minutes! It's even faster for Supporter accounts.

Can we create a page using our own design/artwork?

Yes. Some of our templates allow you to upload your own artwork and images into the page design. If you want to incorporate your own images into a page, look for any of these symbols in the Template library:

What data will we receive?

Please note that data is only available on Non-profit accounts. Donor data is available through Visufund via downloadable CSV reports. You can configure your own marketing consent opt-ins and add custom questions to the checkout form, if required.

Do you provide any analytics on pages?

Yes. On your Dashboard, you'll see real-time data about how many people are currently viewing your page, plus a graph summarising page views vs donations over a set period of time.

We also collect UTM tracking and referral data for analysis too. This allows you to see which referral links have generated the most views and donations.

Can we add offline donations to a page?

Yes, if you have received donations via another channel (eg cash or cheque), you can add up to 10 offline donations and messages to a page on our free plan. With Premium, you can add as many as you like!

Can we change the web address or display the page on our website?

Yes. Before publishing your page, you can customise the web address in Page Settings. If you would prefer to promote your page using an alternative web address, you will need to set up a redirect link from your preferred address to your Visufund page.

You can also embed your page on your own website and display a live preview of it, by inserting a specially crafted HTML iframe element on your website.

What happens if we run out of objects on our page?

There is no limit to the number of donations or messages you can receive. By default, your page will automatically expand onto a second page when there are no objects left on your first page, ensuring you never run out of available objects. With Premium, you can access additional controls to adjust the auto-expand properties of your page, if required.

Is it possible to edit a donation message?

Yes. After making a donation, donors will receive an email with a link to view and/or edit their message. Depending on the page, this link may also be used to change the colour of their object, or add/remove photos attached to their message.

Page owners can also moderate and edit individual messages in the Messages section of Page Settings.

Finance

How do we pay for membership plans and/or products?

We request payment by credit/debit card. If you choose to purchase any plans or products, you will always receive an invoice by email for your financial records.

How are donations processed?

In order to accept donations on Visufund, charities and non-profit organisations are required to connect a Stripe account to the platform. Donations are paid directly into your Stripe account and are not held by Visufund at any time.

Stripe is a PCI Level 1 payment service provider trusted by millions of businesses worldwide, which allows payments to be made via debit/credit card or digital wallets (eg. Apple Pay).

If you don't already have a Stripe account, you can create one from our website - this only takes a few minutes and does not cost anything to set up.

Our charity doesn't have a Stripe account. Can we use Worldpay or PayPal instead?

No, Stripe is the only payment processor that we currently support. Stripe allows us to send donations directly to your account whilst handling all the administration, via their innovative product called Stripe Connect. This automation helps us to keep our prices as low as possible, and ultimately will help you to raise more money.

How often will we receive payouts?

When donations are made, they are paid directly into your Stripe account. Stripe automatically deducts their payment processing fee and our platform fee (if applicable) from donations, and transfers the net value to your bank on a daily basis. You can change the frequency of payouts from your Stripe account, if required.

How can we reconcile payments?

Each payout is made as a single transfer of the total sum of payments received since your previous payout. Stripe's payout reconciliation report provides details of each transaction included, and this report also contains the Visufund transaction ID in the description.

Does Visufund collect Gift Aid? (UK only)

Visufund does not claim Gift Aid on your behalf, although we collect valid Gift Aid declarations from donors and provide you with all the details you need to process a Gift Aid claim in-house via your usual method. If required, you can download a Gift Aid Schedule report directly from Visufund using HMRC's approved format for easy submission.

Does Visufund issue official tax receipts to donors?

When a donation is made, the donor receives an email receipt featuring a link to view/edit their message, a short thank you note from the charity, and basic details about their transaction (eg. donation amount and charity registration number). As Visufund is registered in the UK, these may not be recognised internationally as official tax receipts; we would advise non-profit organisations to issue their own tax receipts, if required. All donor data is shared via Reports, which you may use for this purpose.

IT & Data

Please note, full transaction details and downloadable reports are only available on Non-profit accounts. No contact information is shared on Supporter accounts.

Is Visufund optimised for mobile?

Yes, our research has shown that the majority of visitors and donors view pages on a mobile phone, so Visufund is fully optimised for mobile use. In addition, donations are processed by Stripe, which means we can accept payments via digital wallets such as Apple Pay for improved mobile experience.

Does Visufund comply with the GDPR?

Yes. Visufund is a company based in the United Kingdom and we are required by law to comply with the GDPR. We are fully committed to this.

Read about the steps we have taken to ensure compliance here.

Where can we find a copy of the Visufund Privacy Policy?

You can read our full Privacy Policy here.

Who is responsible for the data captured through Visufund?

Transparency is important to us, so it is stated clearly on the donation form that all data entered onto the form will be shared with the beneficiary. Both Visufund and the non-profit organisation are data controllers. Visufund shares donor data with the non-profit organisation for administrative purposes. We also allow organisations to customise the donation form to capture marketing consent for future use.

Anyone who contributes to a Visufund page is invited to create their own Supporter account on the platform, which permits us to store their contact details and offer a faster checkout experience in future.

What data can we capture through Visufund?

The donation form can be configured to capture name, email address, postal address and telephone number. Non-profits also have the option to add up to 3 additional questions to the form on each page you create, and can download donor data via Reports.

The donation form is streamlined to increase donation conversions; donors are only prompted to provide contact information if they consent to marketing through a specific channel or it is required for some other reason (eg. Gift Aid claim).

We also share the name and email address of anyone who sets up a fundraising page for your charity.

How is the data presented?

Donor data can be viewed in Transactions, or downloaded in Reports as CSV files.

What security measures do you have in place to protect data?

We take data protection very seriously at Visufund to ensure that your data does not end up in the wrong hands. For example:

We only store your data on secure servers in the European Economic Area (EEA)
We ensure our staff are kept up-to-date regarding changes to Data Protection law, and that only authorised individuals can access your data for the purpose of fulfilling their job role
We encourage account-holders to create separate user accounts for individual colleagues and to disable user accounts when no longer required (eg. if an employee leaves the organisation). This is for security reasons and GPPR-audit purposes.
We reserve the right to disable registered user accounts where we detect suspicious activity, to ensure that your data cannot be accessed by any unauthorised person.

Marketing

How much control can we have over how our page looks?

We have a variety of different templates in our library, which you can use to create a page. All templates give you the option to display a logo in the header, change the interface colours and choose a message format. Some templates also give you the option to upload custom images or photos into the design, change the background, or offer a range of colour options on objects.

If you want to incorporate your own images into a page, look for any of these symbols in the Template library:

What branding can we add to a page?

You can add a logo to the header of any page. On fundraising pages, the default logo displayed is the charity's main logo. You can also apply any brand colours to the interface, buttons and messages on pages.

Can supporters share their messages on social media?

Yes. As well as being able to share the page directly, every message also has its own URL. This can be shared easily on social media or by email by clicking the share icon directly on the message.

In Page Settings, you can set an image to be displayed when a page or message is shared, and also customise the default Tweet when your page is shared on X (Twitter), including adding hashtags and handles.

Management & Trustees

Why should we join? What makes Visufund different to other platforms?

Visual fundraising is a great way to bring your appeals to life. Unlike other online fundraising platforms which display donations in a list, Visufund donors can share a photo with a personal message and see the change they've made to a picture. Choosing the location for their light on a tree or adding a star to the sky is a much more interactive and personal way to give, and gives donors a sense of ownership over their gift. As more people give and you get closer to your target, more of the picture is revealed - this creates inspiring shareable content, encouraging more people to visit your page.

Which other charities or non-profit organisations do you work with?

We've worked hundreds of different charities around the world, including hospices and healthcare organisations, children's charities, animal rescues, and campaigning organisations.

You can browse our non-profit partners here.

What information do I need to provide in order to set up our Stripe account?

If your organisation does not already have a Stripe account, it takes just a few minutes to create one at no cost. You can do this from the Stripe website (https://stripe.com) or from your Org Settings in Visufund.

Your Stripe account needs to be activated by someone with significant management responsibility or control over the charity. This should be an authorised executive, senior manager, Director or Trustee.

You will be required to provide some basic information about your organisation to set up the account, including bank details for payouts. In order to verify the account and comply with financial regulations, Stripe requires some personal information about the individual who is setting up the account. If Stripe cannot verify the account (eg. if you do not provide your correct home address), they may be in touch to request further identification before enabling payouts on the account.