TL;DR:
- Widgets in Virtuous Raise are embeddable fundraising components you can add anywhere on your website with a simple copy-paste code snippet
- Virtuous Raise launches with 10 widget types across five categories: Call to Action, Campaign Tracking, Project, Social Proof, and Urgency
- Basic mode lets you spin up a working donation form directly inside a widget, no pre-built form required
- Every widget is customizable to match your brand, mobile-responsive, and deployable in minutes
- Widgets are included at no additional cost for all Virtuous Raise customers
You know the moment. A donor lands on your website, reads a story that moves them, and they’re ready to give.
But the donate button is buried. Or worse, it’s three clicks away on a separate form page they’ll never find.
That’s where you lose the gift. Not because the donor didn’t want to give, but because the path from inspiration to action had too much friction.
As a fundraiser, you know that it’s important to meet donors right where they are, on any page, at the exact moment they’re moved to give. But the frustrating part is that to make that happen, you have to fill a ticket with IT, wait on a developer, or build a brand-new form for every campaign.
Introducing widgets for Virtuous Raise.
What Are Widgets?
Widgets are standalone, embeddable components you can place anywhere on your website to drive engagement and increase donations.
Think floating donate buttons. Fundraising thermometers. Donor walls. Countdown timers. Project impact displays.
Each one captures donor intent at the moment it’s highest.
They don’t require a developer. All you have to do is copy a short code snippet, paste it into your site, and you’re live. They layer on top of your existing website without changing your layout or design. And they’re included for all Virtuous Raise customers…no plan upgrades or add-ons needed.
You’ll find widgets in the Experiences tab in Raise, the same place you already create and manage your forms.
10 Widgets Now Available in Virtuous Raise
Now let’s explore the 10 widget types at your fingertips.
Call to Action Widgets
1. Floating Donate Button
Most donate buttons are stuck on a single page. But donors don’t browse a single page. They read your blog, check your about page, explore your programs. By the time they go looking for a way to give, the impulse has cooled.
The Floating Donate Button docks to the side of any webpage and stays visible as visitors scroll, so the option to give follows them wherever they go. Choose from three layout options: circular icon button, standard button, or an expandable edge tab that reveals the full button on hover.
2. Website Banner
Time-sensitive campaigns lose when your website doesn’t reflect the urgency. A matching gift deadline, a disaster response, a Giving Tuesday push. If your site looks the same as it did last month, donors won’t know there’s a reason to act today.
The Website Banner docks to the top of any webpage and immediately signals that something is happening right now. Launch one in minutes, not days, so your messaging keeps pace with your mission.
Campaign Tracking Widgets
3. Progress Bar
Donors who can’t see momentum won’t feel it. When gifts come in and nothing changes on the page, every donor feels like they gave alone. There’s no shared energy, no finish line getting closer, no reason to rally others.
The Progress Bar links to a defined campaign in Raise and visually displays near real-time progress toward your goal as donations come in. Donors see the bar move. Isolated gifts start to feel like a shared effort.
4. Fundraising Thermometer
This functions identically to the Progress Bar but displays progress in a thermometer visual format.
The classic thermometer shows exactly how close you are to your goal, and that clarity inspires donors to push you over the finish line.
Project Widgets
5. Project Impact
“$50” doesn’t mean anything on its own. Without a connection to tangible outcomes, donors hesitate, second-guess themselves, or default to the lowest amount. They want to be generous. They just don’t know what generous looks like for your organization.
Project Impact shows donors the real difference behind specific giving levels. Think: “$15 provides clean drinking water to one person for a year” or “$50 sends a child to school.” When donors can see themselves in the outcome, they commit to an ask amount that feels right instead of playing it safe.
6. Project Card
Great projects buried three or four clicks deep don’t get funded. Donors never see the cause they’d actually connect with because it takes too much digging to find it.
The Project Card puts a project image, description, and integrated donate button side by side, right where donors are already browsing. Your best story and a giving opportunity, together in one place.
Social Proof Widgets
7. Shared Impact
Giving in isolation breeds hesitation. When a donor can’t tell if anyone else is giving right now, “maybe I’ll come back later” wins more often than it should.
Shared Impact changes that with toast notifications that pop up at irregular intervals, showing recent gifts. Something like “Carol gave $25 to the Clean Water project” appears as visitors browse your site. Each widget pulls from the 20 most recent gifts in your Raise database. Each notification includes a donate CTA button. Nothing says this is happening right now quite like seeing gifts from your community roll in.
8. Donor Wall
Donors give generously but may never see themselves reflected in your community. Potential donors don’t see evidence that real people trust you with their money. Both of those are missed opportunities.
The Donor Wall showcases the names of your recent donors, filterable by specific campaign or across all campaigns. You control how many names appear. It’s visible proof that your mission has people behind it.
9. Donor Leaderboard
Top donors rarely get public recognition for their generosity. Mid-level donors rarely get a reason to stretch. That leaves your most engaged supporters without the acknowledgment that keeps them engaged, and everyone else without the motivation to level up.
The Donor Leaderboard ranks donors by gift amount. Top donors get the recognition they’ve earned. Everyone else gets a reason to climb.
Urgency Widgets
10. Countdown Timer
“I’ll do it later” is the most expensive sentence in fundraising. Without a visible deadline, donors procrastinate. Your year-end campaign quietly expires. Your matching gift window closes. Nobody acts because nothing told them time was running out.
The Countdown Timer puts a simple, visible deadline anywhere on your site. Pair it with a matching gift campaign, a year-end push, or a Giving Tuesday appeal to replace “later” with “now.”
Basic Mode: The Fastest Way to Go Live
Traditionally, setting up a widget with a donation form meant you had to go create the form first, configure all the settings, then come back and connect it to your widget.
Basic mode eliminates that extra step.
For widgets that include donate buttons (Floating Button, Website Banner, Project Impact, Project Card, and Shared Impact), you can configure a working donation form directly inside the widget creation flow using a series of simple toggles:
- Payment gateway selection
- PayPal payment gateway (optional)
- Multi-step vs. single-step form
- Recurring gifts allowed
- Donor covers transaction costs
- Anonymous gifts allowed
- Donor comments allowed
- Tributes allowed
- Phone number, business name, and billing address fields
Toggle your preferences, save and publish, copy the embed code, and you’re live. No navigating away. No building a form from scratch. Just configure, publish, and start converting visitors into donors.
Combine Widgets for Maximum Impact
Each widget works well on its own, but they’re even more effective layered together.
Picture this: A Website Banner announces your matching gift deadline. A Countdown Timer shows time ticking away. A Fundraising Thermometer tracks near real-time progress toward the match threshold. And Shared Impact notifications show gifts rolling in from other supporters.
That combination gives donors urgency, social proof, and a visible finish line all at once.
There’s no limit to how many widgets you can create or how many can be active on a single page. Just keep the user experience in mind. A few well-placed widgets will always outperform a cluttered page.
How to Get Started
Getting up and running takes minutes:
- Navigate to the Experiences tab in Virtuous Raise
- Click to create a new Experience and select Widgets
- Choose your widget type
- Customize colors, layout, and text to match your brand using the Design tab
- Save and publish
- Copy the embed code and paste it into your website
If you can edit your website’s HTML, you can embed widgets.
See Widgets in Action
Every day your website sends donors to a single donation page, you’re losing gifts to friction, distraction, and “I’ll come back later.” Widgets put the ask where the attention already is, on any page, at any moment, with no developers and no extra cost.
If you’re already on Virtuous Raise, head to the Experiences tab and create your first widget.
If you’re not,get started with Raise to see how Widgets and the full Raise platform can turn your website into the fundraising engine your donors are ready for.
FAQs
Can I use multiple widgets on the same page?
Yes. There’s no limit to how many widgets you can create or have active on a single page. Just be mindful of user experience, since too many widgets competing for attention may reduce their effectiveness.
Do I need a developer to add widgets to my website?
No. Embedding a widget requires only copying and pasting a short code snippet into your website. If you can edit your site’s HTML, you can embed widgets.
How often do campaign tracking widgets update?
The Progress Bar and Fundraising Thermometer update in near real-time as donations are received in Virtuous Raise.
What’s the difference between basic mode and selecting an existing form?
Basic mode lets you quickly configure a simple donation form within the widget creation flow using toggles. Selecting an existing form gives you access to any advanced configurations you’ve already set up, including custom fields, specific payment options, or conditional logic.
Will widgets slow down my website?
Widgets are designed to load asynchronously and have minimal impact on page load times. If you’re using several resource-intensive widgets on one page, we recommend testing your implementation.
Do social proof widgets show real-time donations?
Shared Impact widgets display recent donations in a way that simulates a real-time feed, pulling from the 20 most recent gifts in your Raise database. Donor Wall and Donor Leaderboard display recent donors based on your filtering settings.
Can I customize the appearance of widgets to match my brand?
Yes. All widgets include a Design tab where you can customize colors like text, hover states, and icons. Many widgets also offer different layout options. Customization options vary by widget type.
Are widgets included in my current Raise subscription?
Yes. Widgets are included at no additional cost for all Virtuous Raise customers. No plan upgrades or add-ons required.
What if I don’t have projects set up in Raise yet?
Project Impact and Project Card widgets require projects to be configured in Virtuous Raise first. You’ll need to set up your projects before using those widget types.
