Custom build forms for any purpose, from donation and sponsorship requests, to customer and employee spotlights, to follow-ups with charities on your impact, and more! Responses to your forms can auto-create stories that you can share far and wide with one click, enhancing your brand and reputation as a company that cares!

• Getting Started & Templates
• Editing Forms
• Managing and Publishing Forms
• Needing an Account
• Best Practices

Getting Started & Templates

To create a form, go to your Management area, click on 'Forms / Story Generator'. If you have never created a form before you can choose a template right on the page. You will always be able to click on the 'Create Form' button. 

You can choose to start with a blank slate, choose a Do Some Good template, or choose a form you previously created. Either way, your form will be created as a draft which you can edit and review before you decide to publish it.

We provide you with three commonly used templates that you can customize and edit however you wish: Donation & Sponsorship Request Form, Impact Follow-Up Form, and Spotlight Form. Click here to view each template and learn more about how to use them to boost your company's brand!

Starting with a template helps speed things up for you, and can provide insight into the types of questions to ask. But keep in mind that you aren't restricted to just these types of forms! The power of our Form Builder tool is that you can create a form for ANY business purpose, so we encourage you to dream up other use cases! 

Once you choose template, blank or existing form, you will be asked to provide some basic information.  

• Form Name: Your Form Name is added to the top of your form and is also incorporated into the permanent url you will use to share this form. 
• Form Description: This is shown when you share your Form URL on social media, etc. We recommend you include a brief description of your company and why you support the community, followed by what the form is (e.g., funding/grant application, spotlight form, etc.) and what it’s meant to do (e.g., support kids sport programs, showcase our customers, etc.).

Editing Forms

Once you have added your basic details and created your form, you will be taken tho the form builder to customize it however you like. For a full description on how to get the most out of the custom Form Builder, visit our help article. Don't forget to save your work as you go! 

Managing Forms, Publishing and Editing Details

From the forms tab you can click on the 'Manage'. button next to the form name. You can click the Form Builder buttons at any time to keep working on your form. Your Form Management page is where you can control and edit all of the details, communicate with submitters, publish your form as well as many other actions. 

Form Details

There are many form details that you can view and update should you choose to 'Edit Details'

• Form Name: This is originally set when the form is created but can be changed. Changing the Form Name here will not update the URL used to share the form.
• Public Form Description: This is shown when you share your Form URL on social media, etc. There are also some form fields which can display the form details. 
• Thank-you Message: When a respondent submits a form, they are taken to a standard thank-you page. You can add a custom message that the respondent will see on that page and in an email.  
• Stop accepting submission after: You can select a date and time after which Submissions will no longer be accepted. 
• Message displayed to applicants accessing the form after this deadline: Once a form is closed to new submissions, people may still have access to the form link. If they visit the form, they will see a message that the form is closed. You can customize a message for your applicants. A link to your community support page with links to other programs is a good thing to add here. 
• Form Background Colour: This optional field allows you to set the colour of the area behind your form. The questions are always displayed on a white background but that background has a fixed width. Anything outside that background will be displayed in this colour. You can choose to keep the stock Do Some Good image with your colour or just use a solid colour. In the future we will allow you to upload your own image to blend in but for now you can only change the colour. This same coloured background effect happens on the account/create and login screens if the respondent is not logged in. 

Publishing & Closing

The form management page is the place you go to publish a draft form, or if your program is at an end, you can 'Close Form Submissions' so that no new submissions can be made. You can also set a scheduled time when the form will stop accepting submissions. 

Sharing

Once your form is published, click the "Share This Form" button to see your form URL that you can copy and paste on your website or share via social media, email - however you like!

Once your link is posted and/or shared, you will start to receive Submissions. You'll be notified by email each time a person fills out your form. Learn how to review, process and manage submissions here. 

If you identified any Elements in your form as "Suitable for Story", a story will be auto-created for you that you can easily share on your website, on social media, and on local media sites (where available) with one click!

Messaging

You have the option to send a group Do Some Good message to all respondents, all approved respondents or all denied respondents from the management page. By default, users are configured to receive an email when they receive an in platform message. Each user can however change their communication settings. 

Recent Submissions

View a list of the most recent submissions to this form. 

Recent Activity

The recent activity feed shows information that is of concern to the entire form. That would include changes to the form details, publishing status, new submissions, change of ownership and similar. It would not include information that is particular to a single form submission. Each Submission has its own activity feed as well. 

Form Owner

You do not need to set a form owner, all administrators on your platform have access to view and edit details for all forms and submissions. If however you have a form that you are most responsible for and you want to be notified of all activity related to that form, setting the form owner will do that for you. 

If you are the form owner, you will automatically be set as the owner of each new submission that comes in. Any time an edit is made to the form details or a submission that you own by an administrator other than yourself, you will receive a notification from Do Some Good. 

You can assign a different owner, or remove ownership or leave it unassigned if you wish. Changing the owner on a form does not change the ownership on individual submissions you have already received. 

Archiving

Archiving a form is usually only done when the form was a mistake or if your team is completely done with it. The form is removed from the reporting dashboard and from the form page itself. You can still view the form details if you choose the 'Archived' filter on the form tab. 

Needing an Account to Fill Out a Form

Once applicants click on the link to your application form, they are taken to the Do Some Good login page to either sign into their Do Some Good account or create one.

Applicants must have a Do Some Good account to fill out your application form. This provides a number of benefits:

• Allows for some application fields to auto-fill based on applicant’s login information
• Ensures security and credibility of the completed form, weeding out any spam
• Creates a connection between your business and the applicant
• Makes it easy to communicate with the applicant after the form has been submitted
• Allows you to collect more data for tracking and reporting 
• Allows the Do Some Good platform to nudge and encourage the applicant to be a brand ambassador for your business (e.g. sharing stories, writing testimonials)

The most important reason for requiring an account in information security. After filling out your form, the submitter is given a link to view their submission and its current state of review. Because the form may contain sensitive or private information, the respondent will only be able to view their submission if they are logged into their account. Any verifiable fields that are edited by one of your team will be displayed to the applicant (along with their original entry) in this view.

Best Practices

• When it comes to forms, it's best practice to create and use them in a variety of ways to fully maximize the powerful Form Builder tool and enhance your brand and reputation as a company that cares.
  
  
  • • Consider building an impact follow-up form (or using the template we provide) to ask charities you’ve supported about the impact your funding or sponsorship has had on their organization.
      
      
    • Or a spotlight form to send to your customers, employees, or community partners. Spotlights are a great way to celebrate or recognize the accomplishments of others, which leads to strengthened business relationships.
      
      
    • Click here to view each template and learn how to use them to boost your company's brand!
      
      
    • And keep in mind, the possibilities for creating and using forms are endless! Think of your business needs and how sending out a form, and auto-creating stories with the responses,  will help you meet your goals!
      
      
• It also matters how you get the word out about your form!
  
  
  • • If your company regularly supports the community, consider building a community section or page on your website. You can add a link to your donation and sponsorship request form here. 
    • Here's how Otter Co-op has set up their community webpage. You'll see they've posted some details about their Community Support Fund, including eligibility, program details, and a link to their application form.