We’ve been scouring the GiveMN pages and are excited about how nonprofits and individual fundraisers are tweaking their GiveMN page to make it look its best. Here’s a brief checklist for sprucing up your page to make sure it represents you and your organization well.

• Optimize photos: 540×360 pixels at 72 dpi. (NOTE: Obey copyright laws! Any photos you use to represent your organization, project, fundraiser or cause must be owned by you OR you must have express permission to use the photo. Fair Use does not apply on GiveMN.org.) Use your photo or video to identify people and how your organization has helped them.

• Videos from YouTube can be a great way to enhance your GiveMN page and tell a story with emotional impact. To add a YouTube video, simply click on the link or URL on the YouTube video page and paste it into the GiveMN page creation form when creating or editing your page.

•   Use the “customizable options” section to add “suggested donations”. This is a great way to highlight how far a given dollar increment will go toward helping achieve a goal or help an individual.

• Use the “customizable options” section to designate a campaign goal and time period. This will result in your page having a “thermostat” style fundraising metric, a fun way for visitors to your page to see the progress toward your goal.

Example page

Use the text portion of your page to provide concise, useful information about your organization or cause. Provide a synopsis of your organization. Share information about your current funding needs and challenges. Answer the following questions (and yes, using bullet points is helpful for readers/skimmers on the web):

• What does your organization do?
• How does it do it?
• Who does it affect?
• How successful has it been?
• What's the latest news?

And remember, no ticket sales on GiveMN.org. Specificially, the donor of any online donation will not receive, nor be promised to receive, any valuable goods or services as a result of such donation.

Lastly, be sure to keep your profile fresh by updating your picture, video, or news regularly. We recommend doing this at least every 3 months, if not monthly. And, don’t be afraid to contact the staff at GiveMN directly if you have any questions for us! Good luck!