Support Team's Top 5 commonly asked questions answered! (by Beth)

1.) What are Firstgivng’s Fees?

Firstgiving subtracts a 7.5% fee from each donation, which includes credit card fees and our transaction fee. We send the donations directly to the non-profit, generally by check. Checks go out mid-way through the month for the previous month’s donations.

2.) How does the Non-Profit Organization (NPO) get money I raise???

Firstgiving sends a check with the previous month's donations to the non-profit during the middle of each month. For example, all donations made in January will go to the non-profit mid-February.

If a non-profit prefers to set up an Electronic Funds Transfer agreement, Firstgiving forwards donations to the non-profit at weekly intervals or an interval determined by Firstgiving and the non-profit.

3.) How do I edit my fundraising page?

You can edit your Personal Fundraising Page, including the “Fundraising Target” and “Amount Raised Offline,” by going to your personal fundraising page and clicking “Your Account” in the upper right corner. Here are step-by-step instructions:
1.Sign-in with your e-mail address and password, and then click “My Fundraising
Pages.”
2.Click “Go” next to the title of the page you wish to edit, under the heading “Manage
This Page.”
3.Under “Design Your Page,” click “Do Some Basic Editing.” This will bring you to
the “Editing Page.”
4.You can edit anything in a highlighted yellow box. You can also upload a new
photo.
5.To finish and save your changes, click “I am happy with my changes.”

4.) I'm having problems uploading an image, what can I do?

Some of our users have reported that they experienced difficulties uploading an image to their pages. This is because the image being uploaded is too large. Make sure the picture you have chosen is no more than 250 x 250 pixels or 800k. Most photo editing programs will allow you to resize an image to your specifications.

If you are still not sure if your image fits the criteria or have issues resizing it, you may contact us at support@firstgiving.com and we will be happy to resize it as needed.

5.) How can I contact my donors?

At Firstgiving, we are very strict about keeping our donors' information private unless they have deliberately allowed themselves to be contacted. Upon donating, each donor can check a box that allows you to access his or her e-mail address.

Donors who have opted to share their e-mail addresses will be listed in your Firstgiving account area. Simply log in, select the "Your Fundraising Pages" tab, and then click the "Go" button next to the name of the page for which you want donor information.

Scroll down the next screen until you see the "View Who Donated" link. Lastly, write a "thank you" e-mail to those generous donors and click "send!"