When it comes to raising money through your race or fundraising event, every donation matters. Many organizations use RunSignup for registration but send donors to an external site for donations. It seems simple enough — but it’s a missed opportunity.
RunSignup’s built-in fundraising and donation tools are designed to maximize giving, streamline operations, and enhance participant engagement — all while keeping your donors where they already are: your event page.
Here’s why using RunSignup’s integrated donation and fundraising features is better than linking externally.
A Seamless Donor Experience That Drives More Giving
When a participant is registering for your race, that’s the perfect time to ask for a donation — not after they’ve left your site.
Participants can register and donate all in one transaction. Donations can be shown in two ways during the registration path: donation step and donation checkbox.
RunSignup’s donation tools are built directly into the registration path, allowing your participants to add a donation during registration and checkout with their registration and donation in one transaction. Directors can build out the donation page that shows during the donation step in registration and/or add a donation checkout add-on to provide a simple donation selection before they complete their transaction. Events that enable this checkout donation feature see more donations compared to those that don’t.
Data and Reporting — All in One Place
Linking to an external donation site can make your data messy. You might have registration numbers in one system, donations in another, and fundraisers in a third. That means extra work, inconsistent records, and missed insights.
“We look to past events to plan for future years and we also pull a lot of different reports.
For instance, the fundraiser report so we can see who has achieved fundraising incentives and
who gets what fundraiser swag, and we pull financial reports to see manual donations.
We try to have everything run through GiveSignup as much as possible to keep all that information in one place.”Allie Klein, Red Shoe Shuffle Run and Walk
With RunSignup, everything lives in one dashboard. Payments are deposited together and you can easily track who registered, who donated, how much, and when — and tie those donations directly to registrations, teams, or fundraisers, with our powerful reports.
Built-In Fundraising Tools That Engage Participants
RunSignup’s integrated peer-to-peer fundraising features give your participants and teams the ability to champion your cause. Each fundraiser gets their own customizable page, complete with progress thermometers, social share tools, and fundraising goals.
Stronger Branding and Donor Trust
Donors want to feel confident that their money is going where it should. When you redirect them to a third-party website, the change in look and URL can cause hesitation or confusion.
With RunSignup, you maintain your branding from start to finish. You can customize your event and donation pages, add your logo, and even use your own domain or subdomain.
For people who attend multiple events, we want it to be as easy as possible, and
we want them to recognize the platform rather than giving them multiple platforms with new accounts for
different things. With GiveSignup | RunSignup, we could it was easy for our supporters.Mytet Gumin, Ballard Food Bank
Efficiency and Cost Savings
Managing multiple systems can drain both time and resources. With RunSignup, you don’t have to juggle different platforms for registration, donations, and fundraising — it’s all built into one, for free.
“Our move over to GiveSignup | RunSignup, on the one end was nice because it was more
specialized to our [athletic] event. But digging into it, there was a lot of customization, and we weren’t
locked in [financially with the free products]. What was evident during all of the pivoting
is that GiveSignup | RunSignup would give us the flexibility we needed. The system allows you to get set up [quickly] and
ready to roll. Plus, it gave us the room to get creative — like being able to pivot easily
with registration transfers and doing it on a dime with global changes.”Patti Wang-Cross, HEBSV for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley
That means:
- Fewer accounts to manage
- Fewer fees and integrations
- Less manual data entry or reconciliation
RunSignup has a flat 4% processing fee for donations, with the option to absorb the fee, pass it on, or ask donors to cover it. Creating a streamlined process for you and a better experience for your donors.
Proven Results: Data That Speaks Volumes
Real-world data from RunSignup events shows the impact of using built-in donation tools:
- 327% more donations when the checkbox donation is enabled at checkout.
- Fundraising events on RunSignup raise an average of 630% more than those without peer-to-peer features.
When registration and donations are connected, donors are more likely to give — and give more.
Utilizing peer-to-peer fundraising helped them far exceed their first year goal.
“Our first year we had a goal of $50k and we reached that before event day and
ended up more than doubling it, raising around $114k.”Kimberly Kuman, Dysphonia International Walk for Talk
Best Practices for Success
To get the most out of RunSignup’s donation features:
- Enable donation prompts during registration and checkout.
- Add meaningful donation levels (“Feed a family,” “Support a veteran,” etc.).
- Turn on team and individual fundraising to encourage peer-to-peer support.
- Use donation thermometers and leaderboards to celebrate progress.
- Keep your branding consistent across registration and donation pages.
- Offer donors the option to cover processing fees.
These small steps can make a major difference in participation and giving.
Ready to boost your event’s fundraising? Log into your dashboard today and explore the RunSignup Fundraising & Donation tools.