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No matter the size of your business, it’s valuable to find ways to give back to your community and partner with other small businesses or nonprofit and charity organizations. Supporting a cause is a meaningful way to engage with your customers and employees and show them the positive impact of their ongoing support, whether you engage at specific times of year or all year long.
Your website can be a vital resource for your customers during difficult times or a source of connection around a shared cause or community at any time. Try these ways to create an effective, achievable giveback strategy on your website.
1. Collect donations on your website
Consider asking your customers to contribute to a charitable fundraiser. Whether you’re asking for a donation to support your own mission or asking customers to support a cause that’s meaningful to you and your brand, encouraging customer donations is an effective way to lend a helping hand to your community members.
With Squarespace, you can add a donation block to your website, so donors can make contributions directly on a branded donation page. Customize the text and design of your donation button and offer incremental donation amounts for customers to select. You can also add the option to make a recurring donation if you’re a nonprofit or raising funds long term.
If you want to give users the option to include a note or dedication along with their donation, you can also add a custom form to your donation block.
Have more of a following on social media? Create a link in bio with Bio Sites and add it to your social media profile. On Bio Sites, you can add a link to fundraise for any cause, then point your followers to it in posts and stories.
Read the full guide to asking for donations
2. Organize a volunteer event
Consider activating your community by planning your own giveback event, like a food or clothing drive or local park cleanup. If you’re organizing in-person volunteer opportunities, like shifts at a food bank or a volunteer day at a community garden, use your website and the RSVP function for simple sign-ups. Acuity Scheduling is helpful if you have multiple opportunities to volunteer. Visitors to your site can check dates and times that work best with their schedule and fill out customized intake forms or other required paperwork ahead of their volunteer day.
If you intend to connect your audience with more volunteer opportunities in the future, use Member Sites to create a page of your website just for your volunteers. This will give you a central location to share volunteer dates and times, new charity or fundraising events, and other important information. Building a membership site now can streamline event coordination and communication going forward.
3. Accept in-person donations
If you have a physical location for your business—even just a stand at local markets—you can use the space to collect non-perishable donations for a food pantry or collect much-needed items for other local initiatives.
To incentivize donations, consider offering a special discount code to those who donate items or volunteer their time.
4. Partner with other businesses and organizations
Consider teaming up with other local businesses to maximize the impact of your giving efforts. Whether that means raising more money or reaching more potential volunteers for a shared cause, you can double your impact with a partnership.
Tailor your partnership to the products and services each business offers. For example, you could create a co-branded gift box and donate a portion of the proceeds, launch a series of free community wellness classes, or plan a larger scale community event by calling on both of your audiences to volunteer their time.
Keep your community in the loop
Once you’ve set up your donation block, partnership, or volunteering events, make sure your customers stay up to date on your efforts.
To get the word out about your giving or volunteering opportunities:
Add an Announcement Bar or popup to your homepage so visitors can learn about your fundraiser or event as soon as they land on your website.
Use your social media accounts to share details with your followers.
Write a blog post that speaks to your passion for the cause and how others can support it.
Send email marketing to highlight the fundraiser or volunteer opportunities and include it in your regular communications, especially if you’re targeting a certain number of signups or a specific goal.
During your fundraising and volunteering efforts, use the same methods to update your community on what you accomplished together and encourage others to participate. After wrapping up a campaign or event, send an impact summary so donors and volunteers know where their dollars or time went.
No matter your mode of communication, sharing your efforts may inspire other businesses and community members to follow suit and carry out their own acts of kindness.
This article was updated on March 11, 2025.