Set up a nonprofit

This guide is for charities, clubs, associations and causes. You end with your supporters and volunteers in Fifi, gifts and grants tracked as opportunities, sign-up forms for volunteers and your newsletter, appeals sent as campaigns, and reports on who gives and who opens. Your workspace calls people Supporters and gifts Opportunities. This guide doesn't cover taking donations online or tax receipts, which Fifi doesn't do.

Is this the right guide?

• Business type: Nonprofit.
• At the end you'll have: supporters imported with donor level and last gift date, an opportunity for each gift or grant you're working on, a volunteer form, a newsletter list, and an appeal ready to send.
• Time: about 25 minutes, not counting your list.
• Plan: Pro covers everything here. During the beta every workspace has every module. See Modules, business types and plans.
• No sample for this type. The IT consultant sample at /try/consulting shows the same pipeline, newsletters and reports.

New to Fifi? Do Your first hour with Fifi first.

Create the workspace

1. On Create your workspace, type your organization's name and click Continue.
2. Under What kind of business is this?, choose Nonprofit.
3. Pick a color scheme and click Create workspace.

What you'll see: Supporters, Companies and Calendar in the menu. Nonprofit starts with Email, Campaigns, Reports and Forms and automations on. The pipeline (Opportunities) is off until you turn it on.

Turn on what you need

Open Settings → Modules. Who can do it: owners and admins.

The pipeline of opportunities isn't on for nonprofits at first, so turn it on if you track major gifts or grants.

Business details

1. Open Settings → Workspace.
2. Click Upload logo. It shows at the top of campaign emails.
3. Under Business address, type your postal address and click Save address. Every campaign needs it in the footer.
4. Pick Colors and click Save colors. Your forms use them.

See Set up your logo, colors and business details.

Your team and hours

1. Open Settings → Members. Under Invite a teammate, type each person's Email, choose a Role and click Invite. Staff who update records can be Members. A development director or office manager is usually an Admin.
2. Each person opens Settings → Profile and chooses their Timezone.

Volunteers who only help at events don't need a Fifi login. Keep them as supporters. See Set up your team.

Supporters, gifts and grants

Add a supporter

1. Click Supporters, then New supporter.
2. Fill in First name, Last name, Email, Phone and Source (Inbound, Referral, Outbound, Event, Import or Other).
3. Click Create supporter.

Track a gift or grant as an opportunity

Every opportunity belongs to a company. For an individual donor, make one company called "Individual donors" and file their gifts under it. For a foundation or a business, use its own company.

1. Click Opportunities, then New opportunity.
2. Type an Opportunity name, for example "Spring appeal: Harbor Foundation".
3. Set Value (USD) to the amount, Stage and Expected close.
4. Choose the Company and add the people under Supporters.
5. Click Create opportunity.

When a gift arrives, mark it Won. That leaves a record of every gift you've received. If a request is turned down, mark it Lost and pick a reason; "Other" takes a short note. See the pipeline guide.

Pipeline and naming

The four stages never change. Here is one way to use them for fundraising:

Name each opportunity "Campaign or program: donor", for example "Annual fund: Okafor family". Pipeline totals are unweighted.

Custom fields worth adding

Open Settings → Custom fields, choose a tab and click Add field. Free allows 5 fields per record type and Pro allows 25.

Update "Last gift date" when you mark a gift Won. See Custom fields and reminders.

Tags to start with

In Settings → Tags, click New tag.

• Donor
• Volunteer
• Board member
• Member
• Event guest
• Newsletter

Forms and automations to start with

A volunteer form and a newsletter form

1. Open Settings → Forms and click New form.
2. Type a Name ("Volunteer with us") and a Page address.
3. Set Phone to optional. Click Add a field for "Areas you'd like to help" (Choice) and "Days you're free".
4. Choose the tag to add (Volunteer), write a Thank-you message, tick Taking submissions and save.
5. Make a second form named "Join our newsletter" with only the required fields and the tag Newsletter.

Automations

In Settings → Automations, click New automation.

Automations create tasks for your team. They never email supporters. See Forms and Automations.

Bring in your customers

1. Export your supporters from your old system as a CSV file. Fifi understands First name, Last name, Email, Phone, Address, Job title, Lead status, Source and your custom fields, such as Donor level and Last gift date.
2. Import foundations and businesses first, as companies, if you track them.
3. Open Supporters and click Import. Under 1. Choose a file, pick the “Contacts” option, choose the file and click Continue.
4. Match the columns, choose Skip it (keep what's in Fifi) for duplicates, click Preview import and import.

Imports don't start automations, and a CSV can't import opportunities. Add the ones you're working on by hand. See Import, export and Trash and Bring in your existing customers.

Email and texting

1. Open Settings → Email and click Connect Gmail on the Gmail card. Outlook shows Coming soon until Fifi's Microsoft connection is set up.
2. Wait for Up to date. Email with your supporters appears on their pages.

Texting isn't on for nonprofits. It's on Business, and shows Coming soon until Fifi's texting service is set up. See Connecting your email.

Invoicing for this business

Invoicing is off. Use it only if you bill for something, such as event sponsorships or program fees: turn it on in Settings → Modules. Invoices aren't donation receipts, and Stripe in Fifi is for paying invoices, not for taking donations. See Choose how you'll invoice.

Your first campaign

Send your first appeal or update to supporters with the Newsletter tag. You need your business address saved and a mailbox connected.

1. Open Marketing and click New campaign.
2. Choose supporters with the Newsletter tag.
3. Write a short story, a clear ask and a link, and send a test.
4. Send.

Every campaign has an unsubscribe link, and Fifi stops emailing anyone who unsubscribes. See Campaigns and Send your first campaign.

Reports and the dashboard

Pin these three from Reports:

• New supporters by source: where supporters come from.
• Campaign results: opens, clicks, replies and unsubscribes.
• Activities by type per week: how much outreach you're doing.

Ask Fifi's first questions are "How many new supporters did we add this month, by source?" and "Reply rate on last month's campaigns". See Know your numbers.

Your first week

• To do: Supporters are imported with donor level and last gift date.
• To do: Opportunities is on, and each gift or grant you're working on is entered.
• To do: The volunteer form is live and tested.
• To do: The newsletter form is on your website.
• To do: Your mailbox is connected.
• To do: A grant has a report-due date with a reminder.
• To do: You marked one gift Won and thanked the donor.
• To do: You sent one campaign to a small list.
• To do: Three reports are pinned.

What Fifi doesn't do for this business yet

• Online donations. Fifi has no donation page. A form collects information, not payments.
• Tax receipts. Fifi doesn't make donation receipts or year-end statements.
• Recurring gifts and pledges. Track each gift as its own opportunity.
• Volunteer hours and scheduling. Use tasks and forms.
• Importing opportunities. A CSV imports supporters and companies, not opportunities.

Troubleshooting and related

Still stuck?

Contact Fifi support with your workspace name, what you clicked and the exact message you saw. The troubleshooting guide covers the common ones.

Related: Campaigns, Forms, Reports.

Next: Send your first campaign, then Know your numbers.