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Creating A Fund Raising Web Page That Works

Best Practices: What to include on your page.
Making It Easy To Give: Setting up And Using PayPal
Click Here For Tech Services That We Provide

Your friend needs help.   Here are some facts to keep in mind.

1) People are more inclined to help folks they know.  And folks may recognize your friend from a picture you put on the web site even if they don't recognize the name.

2)  People are suspicious and should be.  If your fund raising page is NOT on a club web site as a special page then who in fact is behind this fund raising effort?   It is more credible if a club does it.   RiderToRider will only link to Club driven and Club-screened riders where relevant facts are also presented as part of the fund raising effort. More about that below.

3) Others are more likely to help if you make it easy by using PayPal BUT give them the option to send a check. Be aware that if money is being sent directly via PayPal -- more about "directly" in a moment -- folks have a right to know WHO is collecting the money and whether it is in fact going to the rider. Proper use of PayPal assures that the money can ONLY go directly to the rider. But you may have to educate folks about PayPal to make sure they understand this benefit. And folks can now use PayPal WITHOUT having to sign up for it themselves...a new innovation put in early in 2004.

4) People are more likely to help if another friend asks them to help. If you think that putting up a web page magically draws traffic to it you are very very wrong. Your club members, each and everyone, need to work their own e-address book and ASK others to help. So you better be right and have the facts about your club member in need as you are going to have to ask a bunch of other folks to contact their friends AND through RiderToRider we will be contacting others on your behalf.

5) Tell the story. Here are two real examples that illustrate the sort of accident story and message that is helpful and told in the rider's own words. Make sure you get across whether the rider was at fault or other circumstances that others will want to know about. What are the extent of the injuries? What are the UNPAID medical bills likely to total? The issue is not the total bill they ran up during treatment but they share not covered by insurance. Do they or do they not have medical insurance to cover ALL of it? If not, what is the approximate amount they need to come up with? What about lost income? meaning, how long are they unable to work [their income being none of our business but the fact that they have no income being the issue]? If they don't get money soon, is there a serious consequence -- like losing the house? If folks have questions and want to e-mail the rider or their family directly, who do they contact by e-mail?

6) Who is vouching for this rider and has made sure that the rider in fact wants to be on the club web site? If the rider is unconscious or not able to make decisions, what family member has agreed to this and provided answers to key questions? Have THEY signed off on the facts you present?

7) If folks help you and your rider...make sure you send them a thank you and acknowledge them...and suggest they register at RiderToRider.com

8) MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS. Your effort may produce a modest amount of money. It is NOT going to produce thousands of dollars unless one person decides to write a very large check...and that has been known to happen. But most folks will contribute small amounts and that's fine. It all helps.

9) We assume to this point that we are talking about riders who can come back and return to some semblance of a normal life. If your rider needs ongoing maintenance for a lifetime and your real goal is to set up a long term "fund" -- you should state that up front. Even more questions need to be answered if that is your goal.

Using PayPal ... click HERE to download a manual that walks you through the entire process.

To the best of our knowledge, RiderToRider was the first to use PayPal to raise money for crashed riders. Late in 2003 we put up a web page for a rider helped by the BMW Motorcycle Owners of Alabama via a passing of the hat during the Rocket City Rally. We then put up a page for the Minnesota BMW club and began through an advisory committee to think about procedures and policies and protocols ... especially since we were also at rallies "registering riders" who wanted to help. That experience of one-on-one interaction with riders at rallies gave us a much better understanding of what folks are looking for before they reach out and help another rider. And we understood the challenge of raising fund over the internet.

PayPal makes it simple for folks to visit your web page and contribute "right now" while they are thinking about it. Here is the essence of what you need to know about PayPal.

1) PayPal works so you can use your credit card to make a purchase from an internet seller offering goods or services via their web site. You sign up to make payments charged to your credit card but most folks are not themselves interested in selling over the internet so they do not go on pr set up their PayPal account so they in turn can ACCEPT credit card payments.

Find out if your rider has an existing PayPal account. If they do, they can simply UPGRADE that account to accept credit card payments from others.

Imagine a merchant or seller who has only one or two items at their site. Your fund raising effort is in effect selling one product -- "A donation to Joe". To buy that product, the "buyer" clicks on a button on your web page. PayPal supplies graphic images such as PayPal Buy Now button or Donation button. Once that button is clicked, the buyer is presented with a screen that allows him to enter his credit card number EVEN IF THE RIDER DOES NOT HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT. If they do have a PayPal account [and if their "cookies" are enabled] several of the fields in the form will be pre-filled in by PayPal to make things quicker for them.

Basically YOU will need to set up a "merchant account" with PayPal so you can accept donations via credit cards. THEN you need to get the PayPal buttons and create an html "script" that goes with it. PayPal can help you to do this.

Step One: Go to www.paypal.com and "sign up" or if the rider has an account, log in and "upgrade". Just follow the instructions for a premier account. You will be asked to pick a business name. It would not hurt to simply use as the name an e-mail address, namely, the actual rider e-mail address used in your description of the accident when you give out the rider's real e-mail address. This helps reinforce that the contribution is going directly to the rider. [Click HERE to see this in action]

Step Two: Go to Merchant tools and get the buttons. This MUST be done by logging in as the new merchant. You MUST have "cookies" enabled. As well, PayPal has a pdf manual which we have downloaded, and you can find it here: PayPal Manual Just click and then save to your computer when prompted.

Step Three: CALL PayPal tech support. They can be reached at
888-221-1161. They will fine tune what you are doing and answer your questions. If that does not work, then send us an e-mail: info@ridertorider.com