Changelog

Follow up on the latest improvements and updates.

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Tables are now more flexible
CleanShot 2024-02-28 at 20
We've made several updates to make our primary Transactions, Campaigns, Contacts, Recurring Plans, and Ticket tables to improve their ease of use for your organization.
Simplified table views 🏞️
Tables with filters now feature a consolidated table view, combining filters, search, and table column actions for your convenience.
Column reordering 🔄
You asked, and we listened. You can now effortlessly rearrange table columns by dragging and dropping them into your preferred sequence.
Frozen columns 🧊
Keep important data in view with frozen columns on the left, separated by a subtle gray border. Drag-and-drop frozen columns easily within their zone.
Customize visibility 👁️
Tailor your table to your needs. Toggle column visibility effortlessly to focus on the data that matters most.
Improved filter controls 🚀
We've reimagined filter controls, emphasizing portability and consistency for a smoother experience.
Fresh sorting icons 🎨
Sorting gets an upgrade with new iconography.
Household import support
Contact imports now include support for household data. Manage your contacts more comprehensively by importing and organizing household-related information.
You can now import the following household-related fields:
  • Household Name
  • Household Envelope Name
  • Is Household Primary Contact
    (Yes/No response)
Default merge fields in Engage
image
We've launched the ability to set default fallback values for merge fields in Engage messages to help maintain context when you might be missing values in your contact profiles.
To update your account defaults, select
Engage
>
Settings
>
Merge Fields
>
Add new default
.
As with current merge fields, these new defaults will apply to Email, SMS, and Letter messages sent through Engage.
Support for two-factor authentication (2FA)
You now have more options for securing your Givebutter account with Two-Factor authentication. Select your Profile icon in the top right of your Givebutter account to enable 2FA. Then, select
Enable 2FA
and follow the prompts.
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Transaction exports now include households, company names, and more
We've added a few new fields to the Transaction export to help track more information about your supporters.
Add Fields:
  • Household Name
  • Household ID
  • Company Name
  • Last four (4) digits
  • Expiration date
  • Card type
To access these, select
Transaction
>
Actions
>
Export
.
Process more recurring transactions with fewer errors
What changed:
Givebutter now leverages Stripe’s Card Account Updater. This allows us to automatically retrieve the latest card information on file when processing a transaction.
The result:
Reduce the number of failed recurring transactions from expired cards, saving you time and helping your organization raise more.
Improved WordPress widget flexibility
We've added support for horizontal alignment (left, center, right) on widgets that are created through the WordPress plugin.
Improved address formatting in Engage letters
Engage Letters now have labeling improvements that follow USPS guidance
  • Address lines 1 and 2 are on the same line
  • All characters are printed in uppercase
Expanded custom field dropdowns
Custom field dropdowns (single and multi-select) now have a limit of 25 (previously 15).
This change applies to contact, transaction, and per-ticket custom fields.
Identify your file exports more easily
We've updated the export file name structure so that it is more human-readable. It will follow the following format: export_type-date-randomstring. An example of this would be:
Contacts-2024-01-05-234234.csv
Ticket improvements
Pika UI mockup (4)
We've launched the ability to create per-ticket custom fields so that donors see specific fields depending on the ticket they purchase.
When you're creating a ticket, you'll see a
Custom Fields
section where you can add the following types of fields:
  • Text
  • Number
  • Checkbox
  • Option (multi-select or single-select)
You'll also have the option to add a description, require attendees to respond, or indicate if a field should be shown for all tickets.
You can learn more about how to set up per ticket custom fields in this help center article.
You can view custom field responses on our new ticket sidebar.
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This new sidebar includes the following features:
  • Ability to view ticket details, information about the event, and administer the ticket (update the status, reassign, revoke, or resend)
  • Ability to see purchase details, including the associated transaction, and if a promo code was used
  • Ability to edit per ticket custom field responses
  • Ability to see any related tickets that were purchased in the same transaction
Matching Donations
Pika UI Mockup
You can now add a match to your page or event campaign on Givebutter. Matches are a great way to boost your campaign. 84% of donors report being more likely to give if their donation is matched, and over 30% say they would increase their contribution.
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You can set up a match on your campaign by going to
Tools
>
Matching
. When you enable a match, you'll be able to configure the match, including:
  • Match amount
  • Match ratio -- you can choose from 2x(1:1), 3x(2:1), or 4x(3:1)
  • When the match starts and if it has an end date
  • You'll also be able to create a match name, upload an image, and create a description of the match.
Once your match is configured, you can hit
Save
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When a match is enabled:
  • You'll see a banner at the top of the campaign that includes the match name, description, and ratio.
  • A card for your match below your campaign's progress bar that includes the match ratio, image, name, description, the amount remaining, and when the match ends (if applicable).
  • If a donor has had their donation matched, we'll add a multiplier badge to their donation in the supporter feed.
  • There's also a match callout in the donation flow to encourage donors to maximize their donation with a match.
To learn more about setting up a matching donation, you can reference this help center article.
Recurring ACH Donations
  • Donors can now make recurring donations using ACH, and we no longer have a $100 ACH minimum. Processing fees are 1.9% + 30¢ per transaction, which is 1% lower than credit card transactions.
We've also launched our new goal bar widget and the ability to send Year-End giving summaries in bulk . You can learn more about both features in the linked changelog posts.
Transactions sidebar
We have made several improvements to our transactions sidebar and released a new ticket sidebar. These updates make it easier to view donation details and manage donations.
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  • An overall update to the UI to improve usability
  • Updated how transaction amounts and fees are displayed to provide more clarity
  • Ability to add or edit an in honor of or in memory of dedication
  • Ability to edit custom field responses
Webhooks
Webhooks allow you to deliver notifications to an external web server based on events in Givebutter. This allows you to create advanced workflows with your organization's external services.
Some examples could be:
  • You want to set up a Slack channel that notifies you whenever a donation is made to your organization so that you can quickly thank the donor.
  • You want to email supporters using a third-party service whenever a new contact is created for your organization in Givebutter.
The following events are supported:
  • Campaign created
  • Campaign updated
  • Ticket created
  • Transaction succeeded
  • Contact created
To learn more about setting up a webhook, check out the help center.
Other CRM improvements:
  • Updated the Tags UI on contact pages to make it easier to tag a contact and view tags associated with a contact.
  • Household and relationship tabs on the contact detail page have been combined
  • The reports tab on a contact profile has been renamed
    Summaries
    .
  • You can add an offline transaction directly from a contact profile under the
    Actions
    dropdown.
  • External_id
    and
    external_label
    , and company have been added as columns in the transactions export.
  • When importing transactions, you can now include the company a transaction is associated with.
With the most recent widget update, you can:
  • Add a goal bar to your form widget
  • Embed a standalone goal bar or thermometer on your website.
To customize your goal bar widget, select the campaign you want to manage and then go to
Sharing
>
Widgets
.
Adding a goal bar to your form widget
You add a goal bar to a Form widget by navigating to the configuration screen for the widget you're updating and enabling the
Goal bar
setting and clicking
Publish
.
Pika UI Mockup (12)
Once enabled, you'll see the goal bar appear on your form widget.
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Setting up a standalone goal bar widget
To set up a standalone goal bar widget, navigate to
Sharing
>
Widgets
on the campaign dashboard.
To configure, click the configuration icon. If it's disabled, you'll need to set a goal on the
Details
tab of your campaign.
You can customize the widget to fit the look and feel of your organization's website. Additionally, you can choose between a
progress ba
r or
thermometer
as the goal bar type.
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Pika UI
Once you've configured your widget, hit
Publish
. When you're ready to embed, click
Embed
from the
Widgets
tab and follow the instructions provided.
Pika UI Mockup (7)
In time for tax season, we've added the ability to send year-end giving summaries in bulk to your supporters. You'll now have the option to add in year-end summaries as a mail merge field in Engage or to bulk email your contacts a PDF summary if they've given in the year you select.
Adding year-end summaries as a merge field in the Engage email editor
If you'd like to send a more personalized message, add the year-end summary as a merge field in the Engage email editor.
Pika UI mockup (2)
You'll click on the
Merge Tags
icon >
Year-End Summaries
and then select whether or not you'd like to send a summary for
Last Year
or the
Current Year
.
Once you've added the merge field, you can finalize your message and send it to your chosen segment.
Pro tip:
We recommend only sending Year-End summaries to donors who had at least one transaction in the year you selected. To do this, you can filter by donors who have transactions in the year you'd like to send out a summary on
Step 1
of creating an Engage email.
Pika UI Mockup (3)
Sending out year-end summaries from the contacts page
If you'd like to send out year-end summaries to your donors without a custom message, you can do so on the Contacts page by clicking
Actions
>
EOY Summaries
and then selecting the
Email my contacts
option. You'll need to confirm that you authorize Givebutter to email your contacts giving summaries and that the summary year you selected is correct. Once you're ready to send, click
Email selected year
.
Pika UI mockup (6)
Giving summaries will not be sent to contacts who did not make a gift to your organization in the year you selected.
Adding a message to your year-end giving summary
You can add a message to the PDF summary contacts receive under
Account
>
Settings
>
Year-End Summary
. This can be used to provide any relevant tax information or instructions to your donors.
Pika UI Mockup (5)
To learn more about sending year-end giving summaries, check out our
help center article
on this feature.
🎁 Donation Forms 2.0
Givebutter launched Donation Forms 2.0. The goal of these updates was to optimize the conversion rate, increase the average donation amount, and improve the percentage of donations that are recurring. You can read more about this update here. This form has a 47% conversion rate. Compared to the previous forms, we’ve seen a 10% increase in donors covering fees and a 13% increase in the average gift size.
Donation Forms Butter
We’ve also added a feature that allows you to offer one-time donors to become recurring donors.
Under
Account
>
Settings
>
General,
you can enable
One-time to recurring donation offer
. When enabled, this will give donors who give $250 or less the option to update their donation from one-time to monthly. The suggested amount aims to double the original donation in 12 months. Note that this is only available on
form
campaigns.
Recurring Donations
This update brings several improvements to donation forms:
  • Improved accessibility. Donors can seamlessly navigate the donation process with a screen reader and/or keyboard.
  • Dynamic donation amounts are based on the donation frequency a donor selects.
  • Support for a “Company” field on the checkout screen.
  • UX improvements to reduce the time to checkout
  • Improved donation flow usability on small screens and mobile devices.
🪟 Widgets improvements:
  • A widget_id column has been added to the transactions table, allowing you to see which transactions were made through a widget. This will appear in the transaction sidebar and transaction exports.
  • You can now track UTM parameters for donations made through a widget. These will appear in the transaction sidebar and transaction exports.
  • The donation form is now displayed only after the iframe has loaded.
  • Widgets now consider embed_max_width.
  • We now support the
    align
    attribute. It’s particularly useful for platforms such as GoDaddy.
<givebutter-widget id="xLWmpB" align="left"></givebutter-widget>
<givebutter-widget id="xLWmpB" align="center"></givebutter-widget>
<givebutter-widget id="xLWmpB" align="right"></givebutter-widget>
🗳️ Auctions
You can now add categories to your auction to organize your items better. You can create a category from the
Items
>
Manage Categories
. You can also create a category when creating and editing an item. When creating your item, you can assign it to a category.
When creating a category, you can add a name, select a slug, add a description, and choose whether or not you want the category to be visible on the auction. If it is not visible, the category page is still accessible via a direct link. You can also choose the order for your categories to appear on the auction page.
On your auction page, we will highlight each category, and supporters can select
View all
to see all items associated with a category. Supporters can also filter by category and see what category an item is associated with when viewing that item.
Pika UI Mockup (1)
Other improvements:
  • Auction images will now be copied over when duplicating an item.
  • Auction and auction item start/end dates can now be set in 15-minute increments.
  • Auctions and auction items can be extended if they do not sell at the end of the auction. Bidders will receive an SMS notification if an item they bid on is extended.
  • You can now search for winning bids by bidder name on the winning bids table.
📓 CRM:
We’ve introduced a new offline transaction form to Givebutter. You can add an offline transaction by going to
Transactions
>
+ New transaction
. A new transaction form will open, and you can fill out the transaction details for the offline transaction you’re creating.
Pika UI mockup (2)
This form brings several updates to offline donations, including:
  • The ability to attribute a donation to an existing contact or new contact
  • The ability to choose from a cash or check donation and choose the donation date. When you select check, you can add the deposit date and check number.
  • You can indicate whether or not you want to send a receipt to a donor. By default, this option is disabled.
When creating an offline donation, you’ll still have the ability to:
  • Select a campaign and attribute a donation to a member, team, or fund.
  • Enter a message on behalf of a donor or add a dedication in honor or memory of someone.
  • Indicate whether or not you want to display the name or amount publicly.
  • Fill out any custom fields that are on the campaign.
The transactions sidebar has also seen several updates that improve the UI and add additional functionality.
  • If you’ve enabled the
    One-time to recurring donation offer
    feature on your donation form, you can see donations made as a result.
  • The company field has been added to the transaction sidebar.
  • Dates and times in this sidebar (and the transactions table) now show in the account timezone.
  • You can resend a receipt to any email address.
Other improvements:
  • Account editors will no longer see the
    Cancel
    option on recurring plans. Previously, they would see it but could not cancel the plan.
  • You can now indicate that a contact is not subscribed to emails by passing in a value that indicates “off” -- “off,” “no,” “0”, or “false” when importing contacts.
📧 Engage:
Engage emails now support buttons. Once you’re in the Engage email editor, you can add a button by:
  1. Create a link and add text in the
    Text to Display
    field.
  2. Next, navigate to the paragraph styles dropdown and select
    Call-to-action
    . This style can only be applied to existing links.
  3. Once applied, you’ll see the CTA style on your chosen link. The button color and text color can be updated using the color picker options in the WYSIWYG editor.
Pika UI mockup
🛠️ General Improvements:
We have updated the search in Givebutter by removing the global search and adding a search above each table, making the search contextual to the table you’re looking at.
We added several capabilities to our API Keys. In
Account
>
Integrations
>
API
, you can now:
  • Generate more than one key
  • Give keys a nickname
  • Delete a key
  • See when a key was last used
Pika UI mockup (3)
Widget improvements
Our team combed through hundreds of websites on different platforms and worked to expand compatibility with Widgets. We're proud to announce that we are now the only fundraising platform to offer native popup donation buttons on Wix, GoDaddy, Wordpress, Weebly, and many other website builders.
In addition, we've made the following improvements and bug fixes:
  • A Wordpress plugin is now available for download here, making it easier to integrate Widgets with Wordpress.
  • Widget buttons can now be attached to an existing button on a website
  • Widgets buttons now ensure custom CSS on your site won't interfere with font sizes or colors of your widget
  • Buttons now support a border radius from 0px to 30px
  • Resolved sizing issues with widgets that caused scroll on mobile or oversized widgets on mobile
Advanced merge fields in Engage
We've added support for new merge fields in Engage, available for both email & text. First, you can now use any of your contact custom fields directly in your messages. Second, we've added some handy donation related fields, including:
  • Last donation amount
  • Last donation date
  • Largest donation amount
  • Largest donation date
  • Total donations this year
  • Total donations last year
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Other enhancements and bug fixes
  • In the contact annual giving report, we will now indicate transactions that have been refunded.
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  • You can export transactions for a specific contact from their contact detail page.
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  • Fixed an issue that was causing Images to be sized incorrectly in the Outlook email client
  • Fixed an issue that prevented bidders from registering with an international phone number. We now accept numbers in the E.164 format
  • Added HTML editing to campaign story WYSIWYG editor
  • Fixed an issue that did not allow reuse of a custom field title if it had been deleted or archived
We're thrilled to announce the Early Access Beta program to all Givebutter customers. Customers who opt to join our beta program can preview features before a general release and provide feedback on those features to help make them butter 🧈.
How to join Early Access Beta
CleanShot 2023-08-31 at 13
You can enable Early Access Beta by going to
Account
>
About
>
Organization Profile
. Once enabled, you will get access to any new features that are released in beta. This may include administrative dashboard features, public-facing campaign pages, and the donation flow. You may opt out of the beta at any time. For more information, you can reference our help center article, which will be updated anytime a new feature is added to the beta.
Now in beta: Letters 💌
Create modern fundraising letters that align with your mission and connect with your audience. Using our user-friendly PDF editor, craft a letter with your desired print dimensions, seamlessly upload Canva designs without leaving Givebutter, and visualize what the final product will look like from start to finish.
One you're ready, experience the convenience of automatic PDF generation, complete with personalized merge fields. Plus, we go the extra mile by generating printable labels and envelopes for you.
letters2png
Now in beta: all-new donation form 💛
Donation Forms are getting a HUGE upgrade! We're so excited to announce major updates coming to all Givebutter donation form experiences, starting with our hosted and embedded forms. With 50+ improvements coming, here are just a few of our favorites:
  • The overall design and layout of our forms have been updated to focus on speed and clarity, leading to improved conversion and faster checkout times.
  • A larger logo area at the top of the page lets you show off your logo and brand with more prominence.
  • The goal bar now has an enhanced design and updates in real-time.
  • Dynamically-suggested donation amounts will populate based on the frequency selected by the donor.
  • Donors can now specify if a contribution is on behalf of a company using the new “Company” field on the checkout screen.
  • The billing address input now uses Google autofill for faster check out.
  • A new "Upsell" screen encourages donors to turn their one-time gift into a monthly donation.
Look out for more details about our new donation forms in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can learn more by visiting this help center article.
CleanShot 2023-08-18 at 14
📢 Do you have something you'd love to see changed or added to Givebutter? Visit https://community.givebutter.com to share your thoughts with our team.
We've significantly improved Givebutter Elements, including a rebrand to Widgets.
Our goal for these updates was to:
  • Make installation and setup as easy as possible.
  • Improving widgets onboarding with platform-specific instructions.
  • Ensure full support of widgets on Wix.
  • Improve the widgets library so that it is faster and more reliable.
Getting Started
To get started, navigate to a campaign you have, then select
Sharing
>
Widgets
. You can also access widgets under
Account
>
Integrations
>
Widgets
.
CleanShot 2023-07-27 at 08
From here, you'll want to select from the platform you use to host your site. We have options for the following:
  • WordPress
  • Squarespace
  • Wix
  • Webflow
  • GoDaddy
  • Weebly
If you use another platform, you can select "I use another platform."
When you select another platform, you'll see instructions to install the widgets library on the platform you selected.
CleanShot 2023-07-27 at 08
For additional support, you can reference our guide on widgets. You can also reference our API
Embedding a widget
Once the widgets library is installed, you can embed a widget.
CleanShot 2023-07-27 at 08
You'll see two widgets automatically created for you under the
Campaign
>
Sharing
>
Widgets
. These are ready to embed without any further configuration. You can click
</> Embed
to open a set of instructions that will instruct you on how to embed the widget you selected.
Configuring a widget
You have two options if you'd like to configure a widget or create new widgets.
  1. From the widgets page, under
    Campaigns
    or
    Account Integrations
    , you can click the gear icon on
    Buttons
    to configure existing widgets.
  2. On the account settings page, you'll have the option to create a new widget.
When configuring a widget, you'll have the following options:
Configuring your widget as a
Button
or a
Form
. A
Button
can be placed anywhere on your website and will open a donation popup when a user clicks it. A
Form
will appear directly on a page.
If you select a
Form
, you can only configure the widget name and the campaign it is for.
When you select a button, you will have the following options:
  • Ability to name a widget.
  • Select which campaign the widget applies to.
  • Select whether a button is static or floating. Static buttons only appear where they are placed on your website. Floating buttons are viewable anywhere a viewer scrolls on the page.
  • Select a background color.
  • Edit the button CTA.
  • Change the thickness of the button's outline and choose an outline color.
  • Adjust the corner radius to make the button more square or rounded.
  • Select the label color, which applies to the button's icon and CTA.
  • Select an icon.
  • Select left or right alignment for the icon.
  • Enable a background shadow.
Once you've configured your widget, you can
Create Widget
and follow the instructions to embed it.
We've made several updates to creating and managing ticket promo codes to make them more flexible to your needs.
These updates include:
  • An update to the promo code UI
  • The ability to set a promo code usage limit
  • The ability to indicate if a promo code is percentage-based or dollar-based
  • The ability to select which ticket types a promo code should apply to
  • The ability to see how many times supporters used a promo code.
  • The ability to see the total discounts applied with a promo code
Setting up a promo code
To set up or manage promo codes, navigate to
Campaigns
>
Event
>
Promo codes
.
CleanShot 2023-07-27 at 09
Here you'll be able to create new promo codes or see any you've already created.
To create a new promo code, select
New promo code
. A drawer will open where you can create a promo code.
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You'll have the option to create the following:
  • Input the name.
  • Selce the type. You can choose
    fixed amount
    , which will discount the purchase by a dollar amount, or
    percentage
    , which will discount the purchase by the percent you choose (ex. 10%).
  • Choose the quantity. By default, the quantity is unlimited. Selecting
    Limit to
    will allow you to input the number of times a promo code can be applied.
  • Apply the promo code to all tickets or specific ticket types.
  • Indicate whether the code is active or not.
General Improvements
  • Auctions can now be published or unpublished. When unpublished, an auction will no longer appear on the campaign page. Note that an auction cannot be unpublished if it has received bids.
  • Require check instructions to enable checks as a payment method.
  • Second chance This allows you to offer an item to the next highest bidder if the original winner did not purchase the item. The second chance bidder will have 72 hours to complete payment once you've offered the item to them.
Auctions
  • The mobile UI for bidder registration and placing a bid was updated to make it more apparent that registered bidders can sign in to place a bid.
  • The winning bids export includes item id, bidder number, and item retail price column.
  • Adjust what auction settings persist when duplicating a campaign with an auction. All auction and item date fields will be cleared, and the auction and items will be set to draft.
  • Truncated text in the auction items table when item names were longer than the column width. Users can hover over an item's name to see it in full.
  • Updated new supporter email admins get for Buy Now purchases.
Raise
  • Improved error messaging when a transaction is submitted and processed but there was an error afterward.
CRM
  • Custom contact fields can now be imported when importing contacts.
  • Added a Contact import template that dynamically shows custom field names as headers in an account's import template.
  • Multi and single-select custom fields can now have up to 50 response choices.
  • Format country in transaction plans import.
  • Added the campaign ID (code) to the transactions export.
  • Launched Household summary charts, which allow you to see a giving summary for all members of a household. You can also filter by "Year to date", "Last year", and "All time".
CleanShot 2023-06-27 at 18
  • View transaction details directly from the contact timeline without being redirected to the transactions page.
  • Contacts can be filtered by custom fields.
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