Case Study: How FormPay helped rally a community to double its fundraising goal for horses in need

From a fundraising idea to finding FormPay to help

My teenage son Walt had been volunteering every Sunday at the Pregnant Mare Rescue Sanctuary in Watsonville, California, and he began to notice that they desperately needed more funding for everything from food and waste removal to medical and dental care. After speaking with the manager, he decided he wanted to do something to rally the community to help.

Inspired by a family friend, his fundraising idea was to sell cookie dough for the holiday season and  use the proceeds as a donation to the sanctuary, but we weren’t sure how to go about it on the technical side of things like accepting orders and receiving payments. 

At first, he planned to use Google Forms, but he had several issues with it. For one thing, the form didn’t look that great, and people would have had to calculate the totals of what they were buying themselves and use something like PayPal or Venmo to manually send us the money afterwards. We were worried that people would be turned off by how inconvenient it was, and end up not wanting to donate at all. And past experience trying to collect money from people manually also made us want an easier one-step ordering and payment process!

How FormPay made it easy for people to support us

Then we found out about FormPay, which thankfully solved all of our worries. FormPay let Walt sell the cookie dough, collect donations, manage pickup and delivery options, and collect credit card payments automatically. The process became so much smoother for both Walt and the supporters. 

I don’t think he would have gotten as many sales without the convenience that FormPay offered. Having all the transaction options right there on the page made it a lot more convenient and official-looking, and easy for people to figure out. Even Walt’s slightly technophobic grandmother managed to easily make a purchase and donation without having to ask any questions. Additionally, it was very easy to get in touch with FormPay for support. 

Another wonderful feature was the combination of options to buy cookie dough or donate. Not a lot of people who didn’t know us personally were willing to just donate, but many of them bought cookie dough, and with the option to do both, many of them ended up donating a little bit of money too. 

Having all the transaction options right there on the page made it a lot more convenient and official-looking, and easy for people to figure out. Even Walt’s slightly technophobic grandmother managed to easily make a purchase and donation without having to ask any questions. 

A fundraising success story

In the end, Walt raised over $2000, exceeding our initial hopes of $1000. Many people in our community offered support and well wishes, even people we weren’t particularly close to. Kids at Walt’s school were supportive of his efforts and impressed with the look of the site as well. 

And most importantly, the Pregnant Mare Rescue Sanctuary was incredibly moved and grateful for the community outpouring, saying that they could use the funds for pressing matters right away like buying more hay and grains and paying their lease. After all, that was Walt’s goal all along, and it was great glad to see his hard work pay off. 

Advice on using FormPay for fundraising

FormPay may look like it’s mainly targeted for small businesses or professionals, but from its versatility, it can really be used for anything. Whatever you’re fundraising for, and whether you’re selling something or just accepting donations, FormPay can make it easier for both you and your supporters to navigate the process. So if you have a cause you want to support, give it a try — more people may care than you think, as we found out. 

“FormPay may look like it’s mainly targeted for small businesses or professionals, but from its versatility, it can really be used for anything.”