Hi friends 👋🏻

I'm helping out a couple of really small, budget-constrained nonprofit orgs this month with a big challenge. Moving data collection online. Specifically, registration data for important in-person events. I have a go-to tool I like to use here, and this week I want to share in case this is something that could help your organization!

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The problem: Paper forms

Organizations that rely on paper forms often have one or more of these characteristics in common. The organization ...

• Was around before everyone had a supercomputer in their pockets (and perhaps even before every org had a website)
• Does almost everything in person, making filling and sharing physical forms easier
• Is used to working with an audience that is more comfortable with physical forms than online forms

However, the isolation of the Covid pandemic, coupled with the forward march of time and technology means these organizations are increasingly interested in at least offering an online form option, instead of printing a form, filling it out, and mailing it back with a check.

I'm working with a couple of small, low-budget organizations currently to provide an online registration option for their annual convention or fundraising events.

In both cases, past registrations to be completed in-person, or by printing a PDF form, filling it, and mailing it in with a check. The desire for an online option was driven by a few factors:

• Not everyone has easy access to a printer
• Time saved on data entry from paper forms to spreadsheets
• Increasing audience comfort with online forms
• Decreasing use of checks

Both organizations have websites, but in neither case does the website come with a built-in form builder that was capable of handling customized data collection and payment handling each org wanted to put together to match their events' needs.

For example, one event needs to collect registration fees, meal reservations, and optional donations all in one form submission.

Another needs to collect ticket payments, auction item bids, raffle ticket purchases, and donations.

The solution (that I like): Jotform

When the project doesn't allow for substantial updates the organization's website, I use a third-party online form platform called Jotform to build a customized form that can be embedded into any website.

It's a truly great product. The form builder is super powerful and customizable, and you can sign up for the paid monthly plan just for the period of time that you need the form active, and then downgrade to the free plan for the rest of the year when you're not collecting submissions, which is perfect for these annual events.

There's a huge array of field types that you can customize and combine to collect almost any information you could need.

And for payments, you can plug in to an existing PayPal, Square, or Stripe account. This is great for smaller organizations that aren't equipped to deal with the security considerations of accepting payments on a form hosted on their own website.

Here's an example form for an annual convention gathering. And yes, I know ... it's not the prettiest form ever, but it gets the job done!

After the form is submitted, automated emails go to the user, and to the event team. And all the submission information is added to a Google Sheet. The same Google Sheet that a volunteer used to spend time manually populating from paper form submissions.

Of course if your organization has a more sophisticated website built on WordPress, you can use a WordPress-native plugin like Gravity Forms to achieve similar results.

Until next time ✨

— Ed Harris (your digital strategy guide)

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