Support Articles

Coming up with you initial list of names for who might help support your individual team members.   ServiceReef would like to suggest you start with a few suggestions and brainstorm individually or as a team to build your list.  You’re not limited to these but they are a great start...

Knowing the Purpose behind Fundraising While at first it certainly seems like fundraising is for the single purpose of raising money, it’s far more.  You are beginning a journey of inviting others along with you in this experience and allowing them to participate by means of giving financially, encouraging you along the way, and praying for you.  From the beginning, we have to see fundraising as an invitation for others to journey with us, not simply using people as a means to raise financial support.   Asking the Right Questions This all starts by asking the right questions and placing yourself in the position of the person you are asking support.  The more you can respect the heart and dignity of the other person, the greater your success in inviting them into your journey. How is this respectful to the person I’m asking for support? How would l like to be treated if I were receiving this request? How can I invite others into this experience with me?   It’s a Matter of Stewardship It’s important to remember as well that all finances are simply on loan and we are given the opportunity to steward them well.  You are taking on the role of stewardship by taking in fundraising and using it for this opportunity.  Your supporters are also being stewards of their resources by giving them to you for this program.  But in the end, you are both stewarding your time, talent, and resources.  All of us are called to steward what we have well and here we see the common journey that you share with your supporters.  Just remember you are inviting them to steward what they have been given for something in your life.  

Here you can view all the donations and payments made to your organizations from participants and donors.  This is your master log for all donations and payments.  You can click on a payment to access the Stripe account reference page for additional management. 

Here you can view all of your payments to ServiceReef for services provided.  You can easily click on the invoice # to access the record through your Stripe account.   See also all Stripe tutorials and knowledge base.

You can manage donations and payments for your opportunities in two major places.  The first is in each participant’s management page.  The second is here on the Donations & Payment where you can manage all donations and payments from all participants and all donors.  Here are a few things you can do on this page: View the full amount raised (by all participants) for this opportunity  View item by item donation or payment See donor name, registrant name, transaction type, amount, and date The “Actions” button gives you the option to resend a donation receipt to the donor, if needed. To manage any refunds you will need to sign in through your Stripe account and manage those items through your personal Stripe account.

The user flow for ServiceReef is significant and this truly sets apart the journey of the various users (participants, donors, administrators, etc.). This PDF helps draw a picture for how the process works for all members interacting with one volunteer event.

This is one of our favorite features of ServiceReef because it empowers you and your team to manage an opportunity with ease by delegating responsibility and easily controlling who has admin permissions to various aspects of an opportunity.   NOTE: You do have two levels of ServiceReef admins - the first is at the organization level and the second is here, at an event.  We will unpack event level admins in this posting.   There are two admin options for event management.  You can allow the admin to have ability to edit the opportunity and/or the ability to get notifications.  Here’s what happens: Edit Opportunity - Allows for the admin to change any data related to this specific event. Get Notifications - Allows for the admin to receive notifications of new applications. To add a new admin they must have created a ServiceReef account.  Once they have created a ServiceReef account you can search for their name and then add them.  Make sure to select the admin functions required.  And don’t forget to click save!

Regardless if you’re the financial guru or simply have to wade through managing finances for an opportunity, ServiceReef makes it simple for you.  You have two major places in an event to manage various financial aspects, here on the Financial tab and also on the Application tab.  We will unpack the Financial tab here. Fundraising for Participants Fundraising Required? - Here you note if the participants are required to raise funds for an opportunity.  If you select Yes then you’ll need to enter the full amount they are to raise for their event.  This amount does not include any application fees.  You also can select a date when these funds are due.  If you select No then you will have no other data fields to enter.  An example of an event where you don’t require fund raising might be to serve at a weekend soup kitchen opportunity.   Allow Donations? - Here you select if this opportunity will allow for other people to provide support/fundraising for participants or if the participant is required to pay for the event on their own.  Most missions trips will select Yes and allow for donors to help support a specific participant.   Deposits & Milestones We often want to specific fundraising milestones along the way for our participants.  This helps them set goals and keep on track for where they should be by different points in time.  It also keeps a good accountability for your participants on fundraising.   Examples of milestones might be when the initial deposit is due, date for 50% of funds to be raised by, or date when airfare funds are due. NOTE: These milestones simply help as a means to guide the participant - the system does not relate actual milestones with fundraising to date as there are too many complications to how you might enter/build your milestones.   Donations to Organization Many organizations will allow for general donations to the opportunity - above and beyond donations to each individual participant.   You can select if you will allow general donations and what that donation target amount might be.   This fundraising goal will be posted on your opportunity public page.   Donation Deadline Do you have a date where you will no longer accept donations for this opportunity?  This is where you would set that.  Here’s an example… you have an opportunity for a high school trip to Kenya and you want the opportunity for fundraising to stop two weeks prior to the event send off… this is where you set that.   Why would you set a date for this?  Many organizations set dates for a donation deadline to require the trip participant to fulfill the remaining balance on their own in order to manage participants who may never pay their full amount.  

What are financial milestones? ServiceReef allows you to set certain milestones (or deposits) along the way for your trip participants.  These milestones serve as goal points, with dates, for when certain funds are due to the organization for the event.   Where does a trip participant view these dates / milestones? These dates are viewable on the event page on the financial tab. Do these dates trigger any automated features? No, these are purely guidance dates set by you but there is no system automation connected with their fundrasing.  

How do I set trip costs? There are many variables to setting up a trip, and many just for the financial management of an event.  Thankfully you have a wide range of options for how you will set up your trip.  Let's unpack these more so they are not confusing.   Where do I go to access this screen? Your organization's ServiceReef account / Event management page / Financial  Are there any costs associated with your event? Most events have some cost (either for the participant to pay or to raise funds).  ServiceReef is first asking if there is some cost associated.  If yes, then click the YES option for the first question.  You will then have the option to enter the total cost of the event and the due date for the total amount.   Are you going to allow donations? If you select YES, then ServiceReef will automatically open the button on the trip page and the individual's page for allowing donations.  If you select NO, then ServiceReef will only allow for this individual to make payment for the event.   What about application fees? ServiceReef doees allow for application fees to be added.  We will unpack this in another post.  Two things for now - first, the application cost is not included in the overall trip cost that you enter here, and second, you must enter the value for this amount on the Application page for event set up.     There are more financial features at your disposal within ServiceReef that we will explore in subsequent posts.  

Did you know each team member has their own personal donation page? We all know the challenges of fundraising for a missions trip... the letters, the emails, the follow up, and the thank you notes.  And it's not just the trip participant that has the challenge, we as trip leaders and organization leaders have challenges engaging our trip participants in their fundraising.   Our goal at ServiceReef is to make this as simple as can be for the trip participant and the organization... but also to respect the donors as best possible.  Let's dive into a few features to help make this better for everyone. Personal Donation Page Every participant on your events have their very own personal donation page.  The user can customize their fundraising letter, load a cover photo, link a video, and present their own landing page for fundraising. Team Stories Stories that are shared by each member of the team all show up on the personal donation page.  We've done this in order for the donor to not only see stories shared by this person, but also the other team members.   Donate Button Each personal donation page has a simple and obvious donate button for others to give online to this individual.  Each time a donation is made this person's balance is automatically updated.