Adding “Donate Now” buttons or links to your theater’s website or emails that you send out to your community is easy. The person who maintains your theater’s website or handles the email campaigns will know how to set up the buttons or links. All they will need from you is a link–this is where the person should be directed when they click to make a donation.

If you would like donations to be directed to the default donation account code that you specified on the Options page when setting up Audience1st, then you may use a link of the form https://your-theater-name.audience1st.com/donate. This link will take the donor to a page where they can quickly enter their contact information, donation amount, and credit card information. They do not need to have an Audience1st account to donate in this way.

However, Audience1st allows for as many account codes as you like. For example, you could use one account code for general donations and other account codes for specific fundraising drives such as upgrading the theater’s chairs or replacing the roof. See this article for a discussion of account codes and how to create new ones.

On the Account Codes page you will see a listing of all account codes in the system. Find one you’ve created for your special fundraising drive and click on the icon in the “Link” column to the right side of the page. This will provide you with the link to use on a “Donate Now” button or link that will direct the donation into the special account code.

Although your theater can accept donations directly via Venmo or PayPal or other services, there are significant advantages to directing all donations through Audience1st instead. Donations made through Audience1st will appear in donation reports, revenue reports, and patron history. When donations are made through Audience1st, it is easy to, for example, get a list of everyone who donated between $100 and $249 last year. Also, Audience1st tracks for you which donors are still owed an acknowledgement.