We use an online database system called Kintera Sphere (owned by Blackbaud) to help manage the fundraising process. For more help with our system, contact us.

Your Personal Page | Emailing Solicitations | Inputting Checks | Keeping Track of Donors

When you registered, you were asked to choose a user name and password. This is how you can access your Kintera Headquarters on our system. If you have forgotten you password, email jessica@friendsofarava.org and she’ll send it to you.

To access your Kintera page, “Register/Log In” from the right menu button above. From the Kintera site, use the left menu to navigate to your headquarters.

Your Personal Page

Kintera allows each rider to set up a personal webpage to use for collecting donations online. It’s easy to use, and we highly recommend you familiarize yourself with it.

Under the My Webpage tab, you can customize the page that friends can use to donate online. We have set a default picture and text, but we strongly recommend uploading your own photo or video and editing the caption to explain your commitment to the Israel Ride.

Photos can be tricky to resize so they can be uploaded – ideally they should be 300 pixels wide. If you have trouble uploading a photo, please email it to David Rendsburg.

Emailing Solicitations

Under the Email tab, you can can use Kintera to send out personalized emails to friends and family with a direct link to your fundraising site. Use the small yellow bar under the blue tabs to navigate within the Email system.

Creating an Address Book

Click on the Address Book Import on the yellow bar where you can upload an address book from your personal email system into Kintera. If you use Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Kintera should be able to directly import your contacts. If you use another program, you should be able to export your contacts and then import them into Kintera.

Once you have an address book uploaded, under the Send Email page you can click on the Address Book link to add up to 30 people from your address book into the email system. If you have a first name associated with the email address, it will add that as well, allowing you to customize the greeting of each email.

Saving Email Templates

On the lower half of the Send Email page is the composition section. We have uploaded two templates into the system which you can use as guides for composing your letter. Under the “Template” line, you can choose either a formal or casual template, which will display below. Or, you can compose a letter from scratch. See our tips on composing letters for more help.

Once you have your letter ready to go, you can save it so you can recall it later. To do so, click the “save as” link next to the template drop down option. You can save up to 6 templates, which can be tailored to friends, colleagues, family, etc.

The emails will automatically append a link to your personal fundraising page at the bottom of the letter. Be sure to click on “preview email” to make sure it looks correct.

Once you have your names and addresses loaded and an email template selected, click “send email.”

Email History Log

The Email History Log link on the small yellow bar will show you all past solicitations sent via Kintera. Just like with the address book, you can select previously emailed friends to add them to the email system if you would like to send a follow up notice.

Facebook and Twitter

New features on Kintera allow you to automatically insert a link on your Facebook or Twitter feed directing friends to your fundraising site. In 2010, over 1000 people viewed the Israel Ride fundraising pages from Facebook.

Entering Offline Donations

Donors can also simply write checks made out to “Arava Institute Hazon Israel Bike Ride” or “Israel Ride” and send them to you, the Rider or to the Friends of the Arava Institute office in Boston (address below). Please ensure that your donors write your name in the memo so we know where to direct the funds.

If you receive a check as a donation for your account, you should enter the off-line donation information into your personal webpage, using the forms provided under the Tools tab. Once the donation is entered, you will be credited the amount of the check and the donor’s name will appear in the honor roll on the rider’s webpage. You should then mail the check(s), along with the Donation Submission form to the Friends of Arava office:

Friends of the Arava Institute
@ The Brewery
179 Boylston St.
Building P,  3rd Floor
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

Once the FAI Office has received the checks, pending donations will be confirmed and the checks will be deposited.

Keeping Track of Donors

Under the Reports tab you can view all donations you have received – both online and checks received at the Friends of the Arava. If you would like more detail about the donors (address, phone number) you can use the “Choose Columns” link to add more information to the chart.

Alumni of past Israel or Hazon rides can view reports of donations you received on past rides using the Past Event Donation Statistics link at the top of the page. Take advantage of this tool when contacting these donors again for this years Ride.