Please note that this blog post was originally published on 1/1/2020 and may contain outdated information. For the latest information on what Givebutter offers, please visit Givebutter's feature directory and pricing page.

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Annnnd it's a wrap! Just like that, 2019 has come to a close. Nearly twelve months ago, we promised 10 new features were coming your way. How did we do?

A quick roadmap recap... 🛣

✅ Offline donations 💰 – Add cash & check supporters to any campaign (fee-free!)

✅ Recurring donations 💰🔁 – Accept repeat payments on any campaign

✅ Embeddable widgets 🕹 – Embed any of our campaign forms on your website

✅ Third-party integrations 3️⃣ 🎉 – Integrate Givebutter with 1,000+ other apps

✅ Registration with fundraising 🏃 – Register and start fundraising in one step

✅ Mobile ticket scanning 📲– Scan QR codes right from your phone or tablet

✅ White labeling 🏷 – Replace Givebutter branding with your own

✅ Advanced chapter/multi-team fundraising 🌟 – More powerful than ever

✅ More payment methods 💸 – Accept Apple/Google Pay, Venmo, and PayPal

✅ Better everything 🙌 – Redesigned campaign pages, team fundraising experience, dashboard, and more!

But that's not all!

We pulled off more than a few surprises along the way:

• Text-to-Donate 📳 – Share a phone number + shortcode for rapid text giving
• Automated Donor Invites 🚀 – Send automated emails & reminders to donors
• Promo Codes 🐣 – Offer fully-customizable deals and discount on tickets
• Donation Dedications 💟 – Give in honor/memory of someone
• Scan-to-Give 🌟 – Auto-generate a QR code for supporters to give in seconds
• Advanced Analytics 📈 – Get real-time insights on account-wide activity

Given how ambitious these 2019 product goals were, it's safe to say we're pleased with the results. Yet, there's still one more major feature we managed to squeeze in before the end of the year. And considering that it was the most upvoted request since launching our brand new Community Portal a few months ago, we have a feeling you're going to like it...

Introducing: Custom Fields 📌

What is your t-shirt size? How did you hear about us? Would you like to subscribe to our email list? Check this box if you're excited about custom fields! ☑️

If you've wanted to ask your donors or attendees questions, or have been using other apps and tools to do it, you can now ask them directly on any Givebutter campaign. Custom Fields work seamlessly with all Givebutter products (Collect, Fundraise, and Events) and offer a simple yet powerful set of options for configuration.

Learn more about Custom Fields

⚡️ Custom Fields are fully-compatible with our Zapier integration, making it easier than ever to sync your Givebutter data with other apps such as Mailchimp, Google Sheets, Salesforce, or 1,000+ others.

✏️ Currently supported field types include: Text, Textbox, Dropdown, Checkbox, Radio Button, and Number.

🔦 Other highlights include the ability to require fields, order them to your liking, and use basic HTML in the titles and descriptions for custom styling and links.

Coming soon for Custom Fields

Check out our public roadmap to view, comment, and upvote on new Custom Field features, examples of which include:

🖥 Dashboard support - Ability to add and manage your Custom Fields in the dashboard soon. Please contact us to add them to any campaign in the meantime.

🔍 Custom field filtering - Filter your transactions by Custom Field responses (ex: all supporters with T-Shirt size Large)

🖨 Custom field exports - Include Custom Fields in CSV transaction exports.

Our 2020 Vision 👀

In 2018 we laid a new foundation. In 2019 we built a world-class suite of fundraising products on top of that foundation. And in 2020 it's our goal to share Givebutter with the world in a way we've never done before. Here's how:

💛 Make community-driven product decisions

We've always leaned heavily on user feedback to inform product decisions, but in 2020 we plan to take this to the next level. That's why earlier this year we launched a Community Portal to help centralize new ideas in a public format, build consensus around feature requests, and share our roadmap and changelog for anyone to see. Please check it out, add/upvote/comment on feature requests, and come back regularly! Your feedback truly does make a difference.

‍_Tip: adding/upvoting/commenting on a feature request will automatically subscribe you to weekly email updates on everything new on Givebutter._

💡 Be an opinionated fundraising platform

Inspired by Laravel — a self-described "opinionated PHP framework" (which we use and love!) — Givebutter is adopting the mantra of being an "opinionated fundraising platform." If there is one thing we've learned from years of talking to our users, it's that there is a whole lot of noise but often no clear direction when it comes to raising money online and reaching younger potential donors. That's why it's our vision to not only build the tools to help you change the world, but to help educate and inspire action in the best way we know how.

If you're interested, you can follow @givebutter on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook as well as our CEO Max Friedman on Twitter and LinkedIn — we'll soon be sharing a lot more on the future of fundraising in 2020 and beyond.

🤝 Partner with the best and brightest

In 2019 we made it possible to integrate with 1,000+ third-party web applications (via Zapier), and in the years ahead we plan to form tighter partnerships and integrations with the best among them. Thousands of organizations — from CRMs to digital agencies and everything in between — work with groups and individuals raising money for good causes, and we want to find ways to amplify their efforts. If you or someone you know is interested in partnering with us, please reach out. We'd love to hear from you.

📈 Grow at low costs

Many other companies in the fundraising software space spend a fortune on sales and marketing. Instead, we skip this expense to provide our users with the lowest possible fees available. That is why instead of "growth at all costs," we are adopting a "growth at low costs" mindset. In 2020 we plan to test several new marketing channels, with a big emphasis on the most efficient one we've had to-date: referrals. Know someone that would love Givebutter? Fill out this form, and we'll send you $100 when they raise their first $1,000!

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Closing thoughts 🎇

Thousands of new accounts signed up and collectively processed millions of dollars for good causes on Givebutter in 2019, breaking every record we previously held by at least 3x. And as a result, we were able to grow our team, launch more features than we could have dreamed of, and chart an ambitious course for the year ahead — all thanks to you, the incredible Givebutter community.

So while it may be up for debate whether 2020 is the start of a new decade (which it totally is), one thing is absolutely certain: we're super excited for the road ahead. 🛣