How to use Paperform to support your nonprofit work

Nonprofit organisations make our world a better place. From housing the homeless to supporting the arts, they reflect the best aspects of humanity: empathy, creativity, and teamwork.

Like most things worth doing, running a nonprofit is no easy task. It takes more than a dream and a strong work ethic to bring your mission to life. There are donations to gather, events to organise, business structures to review, and entire teams to manage.

Whether you’re starting out in the NPO world or managing a vast organisation, Paperform can help. And we’re not just saying that because we love seeing our tool used for good (though we absolutely do).

Over 580 nonprofit organisations across the globe use Paperform to manage their NPO processes every day. They must be on to something.

8 ways to use Paperform to support your nonprofit work

Paperform is a highly versatile digital suite of tools. From collecting payments to organising events, our platform can help you do it with ease.

1. Create a landing page for your cause

If you’re developing a new NPO, it can be difficult to get the word out about your cause. Creating a dedicated landing page or one-page website can help you gain awareness and connect with new clients.

Instead of learning (and paying for) a separate site builder, you can use Paperform to create a one-page website. Paperform has all the advanced features you need. Add contact pages, detailed information about your organisation, or even touched-up photos.

Designing your one-page website is easy. Click anywhere to add one of our 25+ field types, page breaks, logos or text, and drag and drop sections as you see fit. You can even add GIFs, videos, and royalty-free images, all without leaving the editor.

Once you’ve designed your page, you boost your impact by sharing it with your email list or on social media. And there’s no need to worry about mobile optimisation. Paperform automatically optimises your creations so they look great on any device. Effortless style, with less… well… effort.

2. Add a contact form

Any business needs a streamlined way for clients to contact them. An NPO is no different. With Paperform, creating a branded, intelligent contact form is as easy as writing a Word document.

Start with one of our designer-made contact form templates or create your own from scratch. You can customise every element of your form, from the font of the first question to the look of the final submit button.

You can embed your form into a pre-existing website, share it via direct link, or host it as a standalone page for free. With a well-made contact form, you stay available to potential donors, volunteers, and business partners at all times. Pair that with an automatic email that confirms when you've received the message, and you’ve got yourself a contact system that runs itself.

“I still remember when I saw Paperform and what Paperform could do. It helped us solve a couple of problems that we were having on our website with identifying and retaining people in different categories, like donors or people wanting to connect with our shoes.  Paperform helps us handle all the things that need to happen behind the scenes.

Before, when everything was just in my town and at my coffee shop, I could handle that on my own. But once we started growing, we needed partners like Paperform. Truly, you guys have been great and you've made a big difference.”
—Kenton Lee, Because International

→ 🥾 Read Kenton Lee’s story about how he developed Because International and The Shoe That Grows

3. Organise your volunteers

Many nonprofits run at least partially on volunteer power. But as NPO leaders know, finding great volunteers is no easy task. Paperform can help you streamline the entire process, from finding the right candidates to training them up for their first day.

Why not start with a volunteer application form? In addition to basic intake form fields, consider including a few questions to get to know your candidates. You could ask about their experience volunteering, or how they connect to your cause. This will help you filter through your applicants. Weed out the high school students trying to fulfil their required hours, and find volunteers who truly match your mission.

Embed your volunteer application form on your website, share it on social media, or send it to interested candidates via direct link. Looking for a way to organise your applicants? Connect your form with Google Sheets, so you and your team can review them on your own time.

Once you’ve found your volunteers, Paperform can help them get ready to work in no time. Create a dynamic, self-grading quiz to test their knowledge about procedures and expectations.

To make it even more effective, add conditional logic to make your quiz respond in real-time. You can even include custom success pages that redirect respondents to certain websites based on their quiz scores.

With Paperform, you can be sure your tools are working at least as hard as your team. And with our 24/7 live chat support team, we’re here to help if you hit any roadblocks along the way. Just click that blue chat icon to see for yourself. One of our dedicated customer support specialists will be with you in seconds.

4. Accept payments

As much as we wish NPOs could run on goodwill and hard work alone, everybody needs cash to keep the lights on. Rather than fumbling with another tool, you can use Paperform to collect donations and process payments.

Paperform integrates with all your favourite payment portals, including Paypal, Braintree, Stripe, and Square. Creating a stand-alone or embedded donation page is a breeze. Just select any form, add a dedicated payment field, and connect your payment accounts. That’s it.

You can collect one-time or recurring payments on your donation page. Subscription-style donations are an excellent way to create consistent revenue for your cause and develop long-term relationships with your sponsors.

Want to add a personal touch? With answer piping and automatic emails, you can thank each sponsor by name. Give your donators the special appreciation they deserve— without any extra work.

Here’s the cherry on top. Paperform never takes a cent of your money. We don’t charge any service fees, and we don’t take any commission. That means 100% of your hard-earned cash goes exactly where it’s supposed to: helping you do more good in the world.

5. Schedule Meetings

No nonprofit is an island. There are always clients to meet with, donors to thank, or volunteers to lead. Scheduling all those meetings with a busy calendar is a full-time job of its own.

You guessed it—Paperform can help with that, too. With our dedicated calendar field and supported calendar integrations, scheduling meetings doesn’t have to be such a hassle.

Choose from one of our 46+ booking form templates, connect your preferred calendar app, and let Paperform handle the rest. Your attendees can select from a list of your available times that update in real-time.

And if you integrate with Google Calendar, your meeting will be added to your calendar automatically. You can even create a custom name for the event based on form submissions. That way, you know you’re meeting with your new volunteer James rather than “interviewer #349.” And don't worry—your attendees will get an email confirmation, too.

Bye-bye, double bookings and endless back-and-forth email chains.

6. Plan fundraising events

Fundraising events are a great way to raise money and connect with your community at the same time. But, planning them can feel like more trouble than it's worth. Enter: Paperform. Our tools can help you plan your events, so you can focus on the fun part of fundraising.

Whether you’re hosting a potluck, a picnic, a concert, or a raffle, an event planning form is a perfect place to start. You can use a form to divide your team into planning committees, delegate tasks, or have entertainers sign up to perform at the event.

Want to take your organisation to the next level? Connect your planning form with Asana to automatically create tasks based on your form responses and assign them to your team. With this connection in place, you don’t have to worry about key planning elements falling through the cracks.

When it's finally time for the big day, you can use Paperform to create dynamic RSVP forms to send out to clients and party-goers alike. Import your branding, logos, or promo videos, send them out to your email list, and let the responses roll in.

To make your RSVP form as personalised and efficient as possible, add our easy-to-use conditional logic.  You could even add a custom success page to folks who RSVP “yes” with directions and parking information for the event. Your attendees will thank you later.

7. Automate everyday business processes through integrations

At Paperform, we’re all about simplifying processes to bring workers back to life. That’s why we support over 3,000 direct and Zapier integrations to help make running your organisation a little bit easier.

Looking for a way to automatically store and access customer data? Connect your intake form with a CRM tool like Hubspot to have your client profiles updated automatically. Or, you could integrate your contact form with Slack to notify a team member anytime someone reaches out with a technical question.

Need to manage your donations for tax season? Try out our integration with Quickbooks to keep track of all the money flowing through your NPO. With this connection in place, your head stays above water when it comes to accounting and tax filing.

No need to pick up a calculator or muddle through another spreadsheet. Just connect Quickbooks with your donation page, and let the tools handle the rest.

With so many integrations to choose from, you’re bound to find one that works for you. From managing email lists to posting on social media, our robust integrations library has something to offer any NPO.

8. Gather valuable feedback to improve your business

NPOs, like any business, thrive on client feedback. No matter what kind of charity you run, gathering feedback should be a part of your workflow. A great feedback form will show you what’s working in your business, and help you identify blind spots.

For NPOs in particular, it's essential to have a streamlined, universal way to connect with the demographic you serve.

“Paperform is something we use all the time, especially when we’re gathering information and speaking to the people that we work with. It’s just amazing. For us, it’s great, because quite often we’re doing stuff on a shoestring budget, so it helps professionalise what we do when we’re doing partnerships. It’s just amazing—and it’s beautiful too.”
- Ruth Daniel, In Place of War—Ruth Daniel, In Place of War

→ 🎨Read more about how Ruth Daniel and In Place of War conquer conflict with creativity

Streamline your nonprofit with Paperform

Schedule meetings, gather payments, and organise your team, all from one easy-to-use platform. You grind day and night to make the world a better place. The least we could do is handle some of the busy work, at a fraction of the cost.

Try Paperform for free for 14 days, and see how we can help your nonprofit start running itself.