Growth Credits are marketing credits earned through optional donor tips provided through Feathr Fundraising Donation Forms. Growth Credits convert directly into advertising budget. Credits can be redeemed for Feathr advertising credits, platform and services costs, creating a self-sustaining cycle where fundraising generates the marketing budget to reach more supporters. To learn more about how Feathr Fundraising generally, check out this article.
Why Growth Credits?
Feathr Fundraising supplies Growth Credits instead of currency, because currency would have to be reported as revenue and would factor into your organization's overhead ratio, limiting how much you can spend on marketing. Using a Growth Credit system bypasses that, allowing you full access to the tips you've earned to spend on growth.
How Growth Credits work
When donors complete a transaction through your Feathr donation form, they see an optional tip that supports your organization's marketing efforts. Tips are separate from the donation amount and completely optional.
Conversion happens immediately upon successful payment processing, with no deductions or fees applied.
Redeeming Growth Credits
As Fundraising is still in early access phase, growth credits must be redeemed manually through Feathr's Customer Success team. Read this article for instructions on how to redeem Growth Credits.
Allocating Credits to Projects
During Fundraising setup, you select a Project where earned Growth Credits will be deposited. This determines which marketing initiatives receive the earned credits.
We strongly recommend you create one Project that is dedicated to, and used solely as a "wallet" for your Growth credits, and name it something like "Fundraising Growth Credits." That provides you the most flexibility for redeeming your Growth Credits.
You can move credits between Projects at any time, allowing you to:
- Reallocate marketing budget as priorities change
- Shift credits to support specific campaigns
- Adjust allocations seasonally or based on organizational needs
To adjust allocation, go to your Fundraising dashboard and access tip allocation or Project settings.
Using Growth Credits
Growth Credits work like any other Feathr media budget and can be used for media spend on any ad campaign run in Feathr.
Growth Credits never expire and have complete flexibility—use them whenever you're ready for any advertising purpose on Feathr.
Tracking your Earned Credits
Your Fundraising dashboard displays:
- Tips earned per form showing marketing credits generated by each donation form
- Total tips across all forms displaying cumulative credit earnings
- Per-form performance helping you identify which fundraising initiatives generate the most marketing support
This visibility lets you measure both fundraising revenue and the secondary benefit of earned marketing budget.
Best practices for Maximizing Growth Credits
- Explain the impact clearly. Donors are more likely to add tips when they understand how tips convert to marketing budget that helps you reach more supporters.
- Track tip participation rates across different forms to identify which messaging or placement generates the most tips.
- Use earned credits strategically on high-ROI campaigns that drive more donations, creating a compounding effect.
- Celebrate the model with your board and stakeholders as an innovative approach to nonprofit marketing funding.