Online donations: Encourage your audience to give back this holiday season

Online donations: Encourage your audience to give back this holiday season

Hello fellow form builders,

The holiday season isn't just about shopping and festivities. There's a special zeal to give back to the community as a gesture of gratitude. While donation boxes are still around, many businesses are focused on their online presence. That means you can use online donations and reach a larger audience for more donations. In this post, we'll show you how to design online donation forms and increase the collection amount for your cause. 

Designing an effective donation form

A successful donation form is one that your donation goal. That may be shopping for underprivileged kids during the holidays, or throwing a Christmas party at a retirement home so the seniors don't feel lonely while they're away from their family. To collect more, you need to have an effective form in a place where people notice it. 

Keep it simple

Choose a simplistic design for your donation form, with your cause clearly stated on your form or the page where you host it. If you have a brick and mortar store, you can place the QR code for your form around your store with a call to action to root for your cause and donate. Clear, crisp design and the minimum amount of fields will make the whole experience delightful for your customers.

Put your thank you(s) in place

Set up automated tax receipts and thank you notes for your audience. This can keep them updated about their donations and does away with any hassle that they may face while filing their taxes. Email notification or SMS updates can also help you to give your donors a special note of thanks, along with a receipt for their donation. 

Place online payment option

Configure an online payment field so that your respondents can pay on the go as they fill their form. As more people move to cashless and contactless transactions, having an online payment gateway configured is a huge plus. You can also suggest a donation amount by prefilling the payment field. This can increase your average donation amount, compared to leaving the field empty for donors to choose the amount. 

Sharing your donation forms

People are much more likely to give in public than in private. Having said that, the placement of your donation form plays a major role in how successful your campaign is. If your store gets a lot of foot traffic, you could place a device with the form at check out counters or place the QR code for the form around your store. If you run an online business, you can choose to share your donation form on social media, send it as an email campaign, or even create a donation page and embed your form there. 

Donations are an important part of the holiday season. People love to give as much as they receive. With simple tweaks to the way you collect, you can help your cause even more. This holiday, create stunning online forms and move one step closer to fulfilling your cause. 


If you have any questions or feedback to share, feel free to comment below or drop us an email at support@zohoforms.com

      • Sticky Posts

      • 5 ways to adapt social distancing this holiday season using online forms

        Hello fellow form builders,  Social distancing measures are being woven into the fabric of daily business practices, ending many forms of direct-contact business. To adapt to this, businesses might want to change their business practices, adding necessary
      • Online donations: Encourage your audience to give back this holiday season

        Hello fellow form builders, The holiday season isn't just about shopping and festivities. There's a special zeal to give back to the community as a gesture of gratitude. While donation boxes are still around, many businesses are focused on their online
      • Getting your forms ready for the holidays

        Hello fellow form builders! With the holidays coming up, we've all started to get the hang of the new normal as people get ready for all the festivity around. This year is different from others in the past, which means businesses are trying out new ways
      • 5 Ways to pull off holiday events like a pro using online forms

        Hello fellow form builders, This is the fifth post of the five-part series on "Getting ready for the holiday season with Zoho Forms." This series aims to help you make the best of your forms and grow your business this season. Holiday events are suppose to be fun, and so is hosting them. So if you are overwhelmed and it seems like your event organizing is all over the place, then something has gone wrong. Yet, sweat not - we've got you!   The entire event planning process can be made easy by automating
      • 5 ways to improve your holiday fundraising with online forms

        Hello fellow form builders,  This is part four of our five-part series on "Getting ready for the holiday season with Zoho Forms." This series aims to help you make the best of your forms and grow your business this season. Asking for money isn't easy, yet it's a crucial step for any fundraising group or organization. During this holiday season, make collecting donations fun and more effective with our list of the top five ways to improve your overall fundraising process. Let's dive in. 1. Create

        • Recent Topics

        • Jobs at multiple locations

          Hi A lot of times we have same job open at multiple locations. So I would like an option where we can create a job and choose multiple locations. Currently we have to create individual jobs for each location. If we can create one job and mention multiple
        • Exciting Updates to the Kiosk Studio Feature in Zoho CRM!

          Hello Everyone, We are here again with a series of new enhancements to Kiosk Studio, designed to elevate your experience and bring even greater efficiency to your business processes. These updates build upon our ongoing commitment to making Kiosk a powerful
        • Hide Contact Number for Field Users & Agents

          Is it possible to hide the contact number in both the Service Appointment and Work Order modules for field users and agents? The agents are using the Zoho FSM mobile app, and we want to restrict them from viewing the contact number.
        • Auto-sync field of lookup value

          This feature has been requested many times in the discussion Field of Lookup Announcement and this post aims to track it separately. At the moment the value of a 'field of lookup' is a snapshot but once the parent lookup field is updated the values diverge.
        • Introducing Dark Mode / Light Mode : A New Look For Your CRM

          Hello Users, We are excited to announce a highly anticipated feature - the launch of Day, Night and Auto Mode implementation in Zoho CRM's NextGen user interface! This feature is designed to provide a visually appealing and comfortable experience for
        • Zoho Flow Credits

          Hi , I would like to ask the reason why every time I added plus credit but few days later I will return back to default? (as below I add credit to 3000 but today It change back to 1000) Most important is, when the credit fully used, not any reminder to
        • Form Submission Emails

          Is there a current delay with submission emails being sent? We've had 10-20 forms completed today but only a handful of emails.
        • How to update Multi File upload field

          Assume that i have a multi file upload field,how can i update the same field again?
        • What is the simplest way to import PST to Yahoo Mail?

          The simplest way to import PST file into Yahoo Mail is to use a third-party tool that supports direct PST-to-Yahoo migration. Software like Aryson PST Converter lets you upload emails, contacts, attachments, and folders from a PST file straight into your
        • Subform edits don't appear in parent record timeline?

          Is it possible to have subform edits (like add row/delete row) appear in the Timeline for parent records? A user can edit a record, only edit the subform, and it doesn't appear in the timeline. Is there a workaround or way that we can show when a user
        • 【Zoho CRM for Everyone】設定画面のアップデート

          ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中から、Zoho CRM for Everyone の設定画面のアップデート情報をご紹介します。 目次 設定ホーム画面の追加 設定画面での検索結果の表示形式の変更 設定画面でのよく使用する機能の表示 設定メニューの展開/折りたたみ状態の保持 1. 設定ホーム画面の追加 ホーム画面の設定項目は、直感的に分類できるように"カテゴリごと"で分けられています。 このような一元化された表示により、各ツールが1つの画面に集約され、必要な機能をより簡単に見つけられるようになりました。
        • What's New - November 2025 | Zoho Backstage

          A new month, a new set of updates. With a mix of new features and thoughtful improvements, you get smoother workflows and better control across registrations, exhibitors, and communications. Let's take a look at what's new and enhanced in Zoho Backstage
        • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

          Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards
        • Unify Overlapping Functionalities Across Zoho Products

          Hi Zoho One Team, We would like to raise a concern about the current overlap of core functionalities across various Zoho applications. While Zoho offers a rich suite of tools, many applications include similar or identical features—such as shift management,
        • Zoho Checkout - Duplicate Customer record created for each payment received

          Hi All. We are using Zoho Checkout to capture online payments for a club membership form (in Zoho Forms). We've noticed that each new payment seems to create a new customer record, regardless of whether the customer already exists in the Zoho Finance
        • Zoho DataPrep switching Date Format

          When using a pipeline that is importing Zoho Analytics data into Zoho DataPrep, the month and day of date fields are switched for some columns. For example, a Zoho Analytics record of "Nov. 8, 2025" will appear in Zoho DataPrep as "2025/08/11" in "yyyy/MM/dd"
        • Zoho public comments are confusing and unnecessary

          Hi, we use zoho desk and have issues with public comments. We started using them because the "Reply" option just seemed very clumsy because of the following reasons: - the top "Reply" button starts what seems to be a regular email, showing the entire
        • Templates for Zoho Desk - Knowledge Base

          We are looking at migrating our Knowledge base into Zoho Desk. Is there a way of creating templates for article in Knowledge base. We want to be able to set templates for certain types of content. Is this possible
        • Import KB template OR Export template for zoho desk?

          Greetings. Can you tell me if there is a way to get an EXPORT of my KB articles? OR is there a template you supply for importing KB articles into my zoho desk? I am looking for a method of understanding what fields can be imported, and what their possible
        • Sub Folders

          It would be great if there could be sub-folders in reports. We have a ton of individual reports and folders that would be easier to navigate this way 
        • Create New Tasks Layout in CRM

          I am able to do this in Leads, Contacts, Meetings, Calls - every other module, but cannot create a new layout in tasks. I have the appropriate access but it's simply not appearing as an option. Only "Standard" option shows. Please help!
        • Auto-Invite Users to Portals in Zoho CRM based on Conditions

          Hello Everyone, You can now automate portal invitations in Zoho CRM with the new Auto-Invite users feature in Portal management. No more manually enabling portal access one by one. With this enhancement, you can automatically send invites for users to
        • What KPIs Do You Use to Measure Your Support Team’s Performance in Zoho Desk?

          Hi everyone, We hope you’re all doing well. We are trying to improve how we measure the performance and effectiveness of our support department, and we would really appreciate learning from the community. We assume there are several common and widely-used
        • Backorder quantity change

          New Purchase Order × Almost there, but... Quantity of items in this purchase order is greater than the quantity that can be backordered from that sales order. Why can't I change the quantity of a backorder purchase? It looks like a normal order form and I would like to use it as one because I increased the amount and added some items. 
        • How to Associate multiple contacts with deal in Sales Inbox

          Hello, I have many deals that have multiple potential customers associated with a single deal, for example an engineer and a manager. The manager is the Deal's primary contact in CRM and the Engineer is added to the deal in the "Contact Roles" Associated
        • Adding Taxes to paid consultations in Zoho Bookings

          I created a 'paid' consultation under Zoho Booking and integrated it with payment gateways for online/instant payment before a booking is done. How can I add 'taxes' to the price of consultation? I can add taxes to other Zoho apps (liks Books, Checkout,
        • WorkDrive and CRM not in sync

          1/ There is a CRM file upload field with WorkDrive file set as the source: 2/ Then the file is renamed in WorkDrive (outside CRM): 3/ The File in CRM is not synced after the change in WorkDrive; the file name (reference) in CRM record is not updated (here
        • "code": "500","description": "Account not exists", mail api

          I have been through all the steps and have a functioning Oath access_token etc etc... I then GET https://mail.zoho.com/api/organization And get my zoid then GET http://mail.zoho.com/api/organization/<hidden>/accounts and get the account details, which
        • RTL Support for Webforms in Zoho CRM

          Dear Zoho CRM Support Team, We are writing to request an enhancement to the webform builder functionality within Zoho CRM. Currently, to create a webform in a right-to-left (RTL) language, the entire CRM instance must be set to RTL, which can be inconvenient
        • Imported contacts succesful but contacts do not show up in Contacts

          I imported +300 contacts. I can see them in import history. When clicking on a contact in import history I see all the imported contact details for any given contact. So import seems to be successful.   However the imported contacts do not show up in the contacts tab. Not in All contacts, and not in a filtered view where they absolutely should show up. The search function also does not find any imported contact.   Help?
        • Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes

          Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configure
        • Update on V2 API End-of-Life Timeline

          Dear Users, Earlier this year, we shared the launch of the V3 APIs and requested users to migrate from the older V2 APIs by December 2025. We have received valuable feedback from our users and partners regarding their migration timelines. We are happy
        • Rich Text For Notes in Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone, As you know, notes are essential for recording information and ensuring smooth communication across your records. With our latest update, you can now use Rich Text formatting to organize and structure your notes more efficiently. By using
        • Saving sent email campaign as PDF

          I'm looking to add all campaigns sent to an archive folder in sharepoint. Is there anyway to accomplish this in Zoho Flow ? I'm falling at the first hurdle ... can I automatically save a sent campaign as a PDF to a folder location ?
        • Zoho Voice lance BYOC (Bring Your Own Carrier) : intégrez votre opérateur

          Pour accompagner sa croissance, une entreprise a besoin d’une infrastructure téléphonique flexible et évolutive. Les solutions de téléphonie s’adaptent aux exigences du centre de contact, tout en intégrant aisément les opérateurs locaux de votre choix.
        • Digest Novembre - Un résumé de ce qui s'est passé le mois dernier sur Community

          Bonjour chers utilisateurs, Avec l'arrivée du dernier mois de l'année, il est temps de résumer les activités de novembre dans la communauté Zoho France. Ce mois-ci, Zoho Webinar se dote de deux nouvelles intégrations ! La première est avec Zapier : connectez
        • How do I create an update to the Cost Price from landed costs?

          Hi fellow Zoho Inventory battlers, I am new to Zoho inventory and was completely baffled to find that the cost price of products does not update when a new purchase order is received. The cost price is just made up numbers I start with when the product
        • Export Invoices to XML file

          Namaste! ZOHO suite of Apps is awesome and we as Partner, would like to use and implement the app´s from the Financial suite like ZOHO Invoice, but, in Portugal, we can only use certified Invoice Software and for this reason, we need to develop/customize on top of ZOHO Invoice to create an XML file with specific information and after this, go to the government and certified the software. As soon as we have for example, ZOHO CRM integrated with ZOHO Invoice up and running, our business opportunities
        • E-Invoicing in Belgium with Zoho Books

          Starting January 1, 2026, Belgium is introducing mandatory electronic invoices (e-invoicing) for all B2B transactions between VAT-registered businesses. This means that invoices and credits notes must be exchanged in a prescribed digital format. How E-Invoicing
        • Lead Blueprint transition in custom list view

          Hi, Is It possible to insert the Blueprint transition label in a custom Canvas list view? I am using Lead module. I see the status, but it would be great if our users could execute the Blueprint right from the list view without having to enter the detailed
        • Next Page