Boost Your Business with eCards

Create customizable eCards to impress your audience! Choose a design, add your logo and message, and let your audience share them with their friends.

Spread Love and Raise Funds with eCards

Show your supporters how much you appreciate them with our heartfelt eCards. Our platform allows you to collect donations directly through the eCard, making fundraising easy and effective.

Celebrate Your Employees with eCards

Empower peer-to-peer recognition with customizable eCards that enable employees to appreciate and recognize each other’s hard work. Foster a culture of appreciation.

Thank Your Donors with eCards

Recognize and thank your donors with heartfelt eCards that also streamline the giving process by collecting donations directly through the eCard. Show your gratitude and make a meaningful impact with our convenient solution.

Other Popular Use-Cases :   Customer AcquisitionEvent InvitationsCelebrate HolidaysRecognition eCardsGreeting Card SoftwareCelebrate Team-Member Anniversaries And more

Online tools have changed the way we engage with one another. For instance, we can now send eCards instead of mailing traditional greeting cards. This innovation is great news for nonprofits!

These past few years, charity eCards have emerged as a way to spread love, hope, and solidarity in the digital age. Specifically, organizations can leverage eCards for donor appreciation, supporter outreach, and fundraising.

In this guide, we’ll explore how the timeless act of giving meets the digital landscape, so you can embrace the spirit of digital altruism and make the world a brighter, more compassionate place. From inspiring examples to innovative ways to use eCards, here’s what we’ll cover:

By creating eCards for your nonprofit, you’ll be able to engage your supporters in a new and unique way. Let’s begin by defining what an eCard is and how it works!

Click here to learn how our charity eCards can help you fundraise and grow supporter relationships.
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What Are Charity eCards?

Charity eCards are electronic greeting cards that nonprofit supporters can send to loved ones to celebrate special occasions while supporting a charitable cause. These eCards are typically designed to convey sentiments such as well wishes, congratulations, or holiday greetings.

They also incorporate elements that raise awareness or encourage donations for specific charitable initiatives. Nonprofits often use them as a way to raise funds, thank supporters, spread cause awareness, or invite supporters to events.

Nonprofits use eCards like these to collect donations, say thanks, and boost support.
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Charity eCards are often distributed via email, social media, or text. Nonprofits can either send them to supporters or allow supporters to send them to loved ones. Either way, nonprofit eCards serve as a means to spread goodwill and support various charitable initiatives while leveraging the convenience of digital communication channels.

The Overarching Benefits of Nonprofit eCards

While traditional charity greeting cards are still effective for reaching out to supporters, charity eCards provide many benefits, such as:

There are several reasons nonprofits create eCards, such as low costs and versatile uses.
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  • Convenience: Digital cards forgo mail processing time and the hassle of physical mail delivery. With the click of a button, you can send your charity eCard, and your recipient will get it moments later.
  • Greater reach: Since eCards are virtual, you can send them to supporters all over the world, eliminating geographical barriers.
  • Cheaper cost: Your nonprofit won’t need to worry about printing expenses or buying stamps since everything’s done online!
  • Eco-friendliness: Charity eCards allow your nonprofit to take another step towards becoming paperless.
  • Versatility: As we’ll explore, you can create eCards for any occasion and purpose. Design cause awareness eCards, sell cards to supporters, or show appreciation with a thoughtful thank-you card.
  • Customization: eCards are extremely customizable, so you can alter them to fit your nonprofit’s branding. You can even add videos instead of images, helping to engage your audience further. If you offer them to supporters, those individuals can add a custom message to each eCard they send.
  • Interactiveness. Depending on your nonprofit eCard website, you can include interactive elements that simulate the feeling of opening a physical greeting card. For example, some will let recipients click on an image of an envelope to reveal their card. Others allow you to add animations to the card!

Essentially, charity eCards help you forge stronger connections with supporters. Sending a creative, thoughtful eCard will show supporters that you value them and want them to have a positive experience with your nonprofit. Meanwhile, enabling supporters to send eCards gives them a tangible reward for their support and enables them to share their passion for your cause.

Creative Ways to Use Charity eCards

Charity eCards offer remarkable versatility, seamlessly adapting to various occasions and purposes. With their customizable designs and ability to convey heartfelt sentiments while simultaneously raising awareness or funds for charitable causes, charity eCards serve as dynamic tools for fostering connections, spreading joy, and making a positive impact.

Whether you want to create a new revenue stream or strengthen donor communications, there are several ways charity eCards can further your cause. Let’s explore some common use cases!

Fundraise For Your Nonprofit

Research shows that donors appreciate having multiple ways to give. The average one-time donation is nearly 1.5x more when nonprofits offer ACH, PayPal, and digital wallet payments. Donation eCards allow you to add one more fundraising channel into the mix.

Donors will feel good about giving to your cause and get a lasting memento in return. They can share their passion for your mission by sending a card to friends and family, explaining that the proceeds went to your mission.

Fundraising Letters’ guide to selling charity eCards shares three ways digital cards can be sold, all of which are available through eCardWidget:

  • Through integrated donation forms: With our nonprofit eCard platform, you can integrate eCards into the online donation experience. Then, donors can select their preferred eCard, choose a donation amount, fill out their payment details, and enter their loved ones’ contact information.
  • Post-donation: Embed our widget into your donation confirmation page. When donors give, the widget will appear with your cards. While you can certainly promote the reward before people donate, it can also be a fun surprise if they don’t expect donation eCards. To see this approach in action, check out Maryland Food Bank’s eCard campaign. After making a gift, donors can choose to send a donation eCard through email, Facebook, or Twitter.
  • As fundraising products: If your nonprofit sells fundraising products, you’re in luck! Our widget works with popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify. You can set a price and sell different designs alongside your nonprofit’s merchandise.

Our eCard platform enables you to use any of these donation flows, giving you the power to choose the best way to grow your fundraising. You can even enable tribute donations, so people can give on behalf of their friends and family.

For example, a supporter may request that their peers donate to your nonprofit in lieu of giving a birthday gift to them. You can give this supporter’s peers the option of sending them a charity eCard to prove that a gift was made and wish them a happy birthday.

One Tail’s Donation eCards

Create fundraising eCards like these from One Tail at a Time's Christmas campaign.
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Based in Chicago, One Tail at a Time rescues and rehomes animals. The nonprofit provides veterinary care, behavioral rehabilitation, and foster homes for rescued animals while they await adoption into loving permanent homes.

They launched Christmas eCards as a way to raise funds around the holidays. In exchange for a $25 donation, donors could spread holiday cheer with a festive card that featured pictures of One Tail’s rescue animals. Donors could choose from nine packages to support a particular program One Tail offers. Some of the packages included:

  • The Gift of a Fresh Start which helped provide high-quality veterinary care to in-need pets
  • The Gift of Community Care which included food, medical care, pet ID tags, microchips, and more
  • The Gift of Critter Care which provided medical care, food, enrichment, and loving foster homes to rabbits, guinea pigs, and chinchillas

Since the nonprofit enabled tribute donations, donors could give a unique Christmas gift to their loved ones. Take notes from their approach, because they also used suggested donation amounts to inspire larger donation amounts.

Show Appreciation for Supporters

Normally, you would send an email or a text expressing your gratitude to a donor. Why not send a donor thank-you eCard instead? Making your donors feel valued will result in long-lasting and meaningful donor relationships. Just be sure to customize the message with specific details about their gift, such as the gift amount or project they gave to.

This strategy extends to your volunteers, too. After each event, thank volunteers for lending their time by sending an eCard that specifically calls out the impact of their work.

Beyond recognizing supporters for their contributions, your team can reach out on important days like birthdays, holidays, and the anniversary of their first donation. This lets them know you’re thinking about them and appreciate them as individuals.

Youth For Understanding’s Appreciation eCards

Charity eCards like this example from YFU can be used to express appreciation for donors and volunteers.
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Youth For Understanding (YFU) is an international educational nonprofit that promotes intercultural understanding and mutual respect among young people from different countries and cultures. Founded in 1951, YFU facilitates cultural exchange programs that enable students to live with host families, attend school, and immerse themselves in the daily life of another country.

As part of its 70th anniversary, YFU launched an initiative in which participants could reconnect with friends, host families, and others from their experiences. The organization created a series of thank-you eCards branded with its colors and 70th Anniversary campaign logo. Participants could pick their favorite, add a personal message, and choose their preferred sending method.

While unique to the organization, this eCard campaign can help you envision how to use eCards to retain your volunteers and donors.

Spread Cause Awareness

Cause awareness days help nonprofits reach new audiences and start conversations about worthwhile missions. Especially if there’s a cause awareness day associated with your nonprofit, charity eCards are a great way to spread the word. For instance, May is Mental Health Awareness Month, April 22nd is Earth Day, and Animal Rights Awareness Week falls in June.

If not, you can still create cause awareness eCards. Then, encourage supporters to send them for free along with a personal message about how to support your work.

Peace Wind’s Cause Awareness eCards

Spread awareness for your work by creating charity eCards like these from Peace Winds America.
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Founded in 2008, Peace Winds America supports disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts around the world. To spread awareness for their cause, they celebrate World Refugee Day, which also occurs on Father’s Day. Because of this, they created cards that celebrate both.

Supporters could choose a digital card to wish a father figure in their life a happy Father’s Day. To transform this into a dual fundraising and cause awareness campaign, the organization could’ve enabled tribute donations. Then, donors could’ve given in someone’s name as a Father’s Day gift and sent a card letting them know.

Invite People to Events

No matter what type of nonprofit you run, you likely host events. Encourage attendance at your fundraising and awareness events with personalized event invitations.

Your team can either send them to past event attendees or let supporters handle the marketing for you. After all, word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful forms of nonprofit marketing. In fact, 88% of individuals trust recommendations from loved ones over any other type of marketing.

Vineyard Church’s Invitations

Invite supporters to your events with charity eCard invitations like these from Vineyard Church.
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Vineyard Church North Phoenix hosts event invitations on its website using our eCard software. They regularly create new invitations for special services like Easter and Christmas!

Congregants can select a free eCard to invite loved ones to services or special events the church is hosting. By adding a custom note, the sender can make the invitation even more personal to the recipient.

Appreciate Your Nonprofit’s Staff

Your nonprofit’s employees work hard to ensure everything goes smoothly behind the scenes. Commend your hardworking employees by sending them eCards. When workers feel valued, they’re much more likely to stick around and feel excited to show up each day. In fact, highly engaged workplaces tend to retain more employees and see 41% lower absenteeism.

Send eCards to:

  • Recognize work-related achievements, such as completing a significant project or reaching a fundraising goal
  • Celebrate employees’ work anniversaries
  • Say happy birthday or spread holiday cheer
  • Celebrate personal milestones like weddings or new children

While some organizations have managers send eCards to standout employees, others enable all employees to recognize their peers. While your approach is up to you, employee recognition eCards are a powerful way to enhance organizational culture.

Modivcare’s Staff Appreciation eCards

Create charity eCards that celebrate your staff, like this example from Modivcare.
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Modivcare provides quality patient transportation, meal delivery, remote patient monitoring, and personal in-home care to homes across the country. As part of its initiatives, the company prioritizes extending team members the same level of care as its customers.

While Modivcare is a business, nonprofits can emulate its approach to employee retention. The company created a series of eCards branded with its logo and company colors. Some are tied to specific company values while others are more generic, such as birthday and thank-you cards. Employees can send the eCards to commemorate a job well done or just to let their peers know they’re thinking of them on an important day!

How to Create Standout Charity eCards

To offer nonprofit eCards, start by finding an eCard website. While we’ll explore tips for finding the right platform later, just know the one you choose will power your campaigns. From here, design a collection of branded eCards that support your campaign’s purpose.

Focus on these aspects when creating your cards:

When designing charity eCards, focus on elements like your image, branding, message, and call to action.
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  • Image: Choose a high-definition image that represents your cause, and consider composition principles such as the rule of thirds to create an aesthetically appealing eCard. Additionally, add interactive aspects like animations. For example, take a look at Teremana’s animated Valentine’s Day cards!
  • Branding: Your nonprofit should already have a cohesive brand identity including its logo, colors, and fonts. Include this branding on your charity eCards so viewers can easily identify your nonprofit created them.
  • Message: You’ll want a short phrase on your eCard. When it comes to writing this phrase, think traditional greeting cards. Be short and sweet, or even include a pun. Commonly, greeting cards have well wishes such as “Happy Birthday” or “Merry Christmas.” Aside from the phrase on the eCard, consider what message you’ll include inside the card. If you’re sending your eCard to a donor, include a heartfelt message thanking them for their support. If you’re creating eCards supporters can send, allow them to write their own message.
  • Call to action: When customizing the pre-populated message for your nonprofit’s eCard, add a call to action. Whether you direct people to read about your work or register for an event, make it clear what their next step should be.

If you’re using your charity eCards for fundraising, remember to enable donations and add suggested donation amounts to inspire higher giving. You might instead sell your cards for a specific amount. Remember, our widget works anywhere, like on your donation page, confirmation page, and Shopify storefront.

At this point, either make your eCards public for supporters to send or make them available internally for employees.

Selecting A Charity eCard Website

Charity eCard platforms streamline the process of creating and selling digital greeting cards. This kind of platform combines user-friendly design tools with eCommerce functionality, so you can design and sell eCards directly from your nonprofit’s website.

As a premier charity eCard website, eCardWidget was designed with nonprofits in mind, so our tools have everything you need to create branded greeting cards, collect donations, spread the word about initiatives, and cultivate donor relationships. Upload your eCards directly to your nonprofit’s website for convenient sending.

This mockup shows how our nonprofit eCards can be published directly to your organization's website.
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Here’s how our eCard software can strengthen your nonprofit’s fundraising and marketing efforts:

  • Leverage customizable templates. Kickstart your designs with one of our dozens of customizable templates tailored to various occasions and causes. Easily select a template. Then, modify it with your message, add your nonprofit’s logo, and choose colors that resonate with your organization’s brand identity.
  • Accept donations or sell your eCards. Easily integrate your charity eCards into your online donation process to let donors pick a custom gift amount. You can even add suggested donation amounts, inspiring them to give more. Alternatively, sell them in your online Shopify store for a fixed price.
  • Easily share charity eCards. Senders can share eCards via email, social media, or text, making the sharing process a breeze for supporters and your team.
  • Schedule your eCards. Once someone customizes their eCard, they can schedule it to be sent automatically on a specified date, such as a birthday or other special occasion.
  • Track senders and recipients. By tracking senders and recipients of charity eCards, you’ll be able to gather data about donors and prospects that you can target with marketing communications.
  • Monitor engagement analytics. Measure your eCards’ impact via metrics such as open rate, so you can revise your eCard strategy as needed.

If you’re more of a visual learner, check out our overview video to see how our charity eCard platform works:

Designing nonprofit eCards that elevate your cause has never been easier! From easy card creation to intuitive scheduling tools, you’ll have everything you need to create and sell outstanding eCards that boost brand awareness and cultivate relationships. Best of all, we make it easy to get started. Schedule a demo, and in the meantime, explore examples of real organizations that created eCards.

Conclusion and additional resources

Charity eCards give you a convenient, memorable way to interact with supporters. From spreading cause awareness to fundraising, make use of the unique advantages they offer by implementing them into your fundraisers, marketing campaigns, and supporter appreciation strategies.

Remember, the right eCard platform will streamline the eCard creation process, so you can easily create designs that capture your cause. Our platform was designed specifically for organizations, so you can easily tap into this unique fundraising and marketing opportunity.

To dive further into the world of nonprofit eCards, check out these educational resources:

Use our charity eCard platform to create and sell memorable digital greeting cards for your cause.
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