Custom templates

We're very excited to announce that custom templates have now been released. This means that every page on your site can be customized just the way you like it. In fact, it's so powerful that you can completely rewrite your site into whatever you like, it doesn't even have to be about crowdfunding! The custom templates are based on Liquid, a template language created by Shopify, which is fast, easy and secure.

On top of Liquid we've written our own database engine so you can easily access your data and display them on your site.

How it works

The source code for all your site's templates, including the campaign pages, badges, contribution pages, payment pages, scripts, styles, layouts and more can now be customized. When you create a site, just go to the Design tab to start editing using our online editor. The Liquid language has support for variables, if-else statements, for-loops and anything else you'd expect from a modern template language.

Here's the site source code.

The Liquid language has lots of built in filters, and we've added many more on top. It's easy to transform strings, numbers and dates. Each data model has its own "drop", which has methods you can use for convenience. We've created all the tools you need, now it's up to you to use them. There is support for parameters, request data, notifications and security options as well.

The database model complements the existing API, and can be used for advanced data queries. You can fetch records with sorting, scopes, limits, pagination, counting and much more. Check out the documentation on custom templates to learn more.

Emails are also Liquid

We've updated all emails to support Liquid as well, so you can take full advantage of the data models included in each email. Want to display all contributions for a campaign, or a list of rewards for a campaign in your emails? No longer a problem.

Upgrading existing sites

All existing sites have already been upgraded to use Liquid, including your pages and emails. It just works.

Other updates in this release

This release also includes a few fixes:

• Added autoconvert option to pages to optionally convert links to embedded videos and HTML
• Reset links for forgot password now works for only 15 minutes
• Pagseguro now has support for delayed bank payments (boleto)
• Title for custom categories on the home page displays correctly
• Refund dialog in Manage Site has a new no-notify checkbox to avoid sending refund emails
• The language select filter (option_list) in Stripe payments now has support for defaults
• Included the campaign name and link in contribution exports
• Custom fields can now be searched in database lookups

Feedback please

As usual, thanks to everyone reporting issues. We've been working on the new features for over a year, let us know what you think. Please don't hesitate to ask if you're wondering about how to use it or how it works. Happy Crowdfunding in 2018!

We've released lots of features and fixes the last months, and here's an update.

Spam protection everywhere

After having problems with spammers attacking one of our user's site, we've now implemented a comprehensive spam protection system. Our load balancers now has thousands of blocks for addresses, words and bots.

In addition to that, every form on your site now has both cross site request forgery tokens and an invisible honeypot captcha. This will block anyone that isn't using the browser directly, and will hopefully eliminate spam completely as well as providing extra layers of security.

Run campaigns without setting a goal

We've added support for running campaigns without a goal. This new mode is perfect for when you want a campaign that just receives contributions and never has to finish. In this mode the campaigns have neither progress bars nor percentages. Set the campaign minimum goal to 0 (zero) to start using it. This mode can only be used with keep it all and voting campaigns, not with all or nothing.

Read our new blog post

Check out our new blog post about why you should choose CrowdfundHQ. There are a lot of things that you never have to worry about as a site owner with us.

Why you should use CrowdfundHQ to build your crowdfunding website

New features and important fixes

This release has many new features and fixes, here's the rundown:

• Support for Facebook videos for your campaigns
• Added Facebook App ID to layout meta tags for better compatibility
• Updated Facebook API version to 2.8
• New Facebook scrape button for updating campaign shares in campaign details
• Added additional fields for voting campaigns
• All language translations have been updated professionally
• New tutorial on adding an image slider, see our docs page
• Updated tutorial on embedding badges and category
• All URLs now support trailing slashes
• The private URL is no longer visible unless the campaign has been approved
• Added Mailchimp format for email exports
• Added votes to export
• Site mode option has been moved to users and is now called campaigner mode
• New autovisible option for campaigns when campaigner mode is "select"
• Added load more and pagination everywhere on the site to support huge campaigns
• Design editor updated with new version of Codemirror and improved layout
• Etag browser caching for most used templates to speed up page load times
• Redirecting to the previous page instead of the home page when logging out
• Doubled storage for the Personal and Professional tiers
• Updated campaign badge javascript version to be identical to the HTML version
• New feature to set default rewards and commitments for all new campaigns

Just send us an email and ask if there's anything you're wondering about in regards to the new features. Lastly, a lot of work has gone into renaming database fields, adding limits, caching and server upgrades to prepare for some huge updates coming soon. Watch out for that. Enjoy!

Updated pricing

We have optimized our infrastructure and are now able to offer our services at much more competitive prices. As of today, for only $199 per month you get unlimited campaigns and much more storage, which is a 60% reduction from before. Existing accounts are automatically upgraded.

The Professional upgrade remains at $99, but you now get 36 active campaigns instead of just 25. The Personal plan is unchanged. Enjoy the extra power!

Have a look at our new pricing options here. Cost is no longer an issue with CrowdfundHQ.

Bitcoin payments accepted

You can now pay with Bitcoin instead of using Paypal subscriptions when upgrading your site. Bitcoin payments are up front and non-recurring, but you can pay for up to 6 months in advance and will receive notifications before your credit runs out.

Click the "Pay with Bitcoin" link when you upgrade your site to get started.

New Open Source projects

We've started a few open source projects extracted from our internal code base. A brand new asset packer serves your assets lightning fast. The source code is found here. File uploads has been improved and the code has been extracted into a library here.

All of our code can be used separately from CrowdfundHQ, and we hope developers will contribute with issues and fixes. Take a look and let us know what you think!

Site assets on Github

Site assets are now available in our CrowdfundHQ Github repository! You can use this when you're working on your site to see which styles, scripts and images are available on your site. We're moving more code soon, and plan to fully integrate with git version handling. Stay tuned!

New features page

We've made a new features page explaining more about what you can do with CrowdfundHQ and what we offer.

Free SSL setup

SSL setup is now free ( previously $49 ) for all paid sites! Here's how to set it up.

Other fixes

• Votes can now have custom form fields
• User avatar is updated when changing domain name
• Paypal pre-approved payments fixed a date issue
• Campaigners can no longer edit the goal or delete campaigns if they are active
• Fixed an issue where duplicate users would be created
• We've updated the documentation on setting up Facebook login to reflect their latest changes
• All campaign images are now downloaded and re-uploaded to the CDN for better reliability
• Youtube video thumbnails are now without black bars if possible
• Lots of minor tweaks and updates, keep the feedback coming!

Make sure to check out Susana's new blog post on the flat business model and please leave a comment if you like it! We'd love to hear your ideas.

Next up is the final API version and full customization, which we hope to release very soon. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too for more frequent updates.

Onward!

It's time for another update, here are the features we've released the last few weeks:

Froala text editor

You can now use the Froala wysiwyg editor on your site. This is a beautiful commercial editor that comes with many new features, and is now the default for new sites. We've created a howto here for existing sites if you want to upgrade. The option is found in Manage Site > Configuration > Settings > General > Text Editor.

Campaign reports with new formats

The reports in Manage Site > Campaign details have now been updated and made available to your users. While logged in as a campaign owner on your site, click on your campaign and go to "Stats". From there click on the "View report" button. You can choose JSON, PDF or CSV formats for your campaign reports as well as the default HTML.

Full screen editing and search

Developing with CrowdfundHQ just became a lot more fun. We've added full screen editing and a file search for keyboard navigation. First go to Manage Site > Design, then click the full screen icon or Ctrl/Cmd + Enter to open the editor in full screen.

Click the looking glass icon or press the keyboard short cut Ctrl/Cmd + E to bring up a file switcher for your pages, emails, scripts and styles. Type as you narrow down with the fuzzy matcher and use the arrow keys and enter to navigate. Press Esc to close the dialog.

Also remember that you can save your edits with Ctrl/Cmd + S.

Embed menu

The campaign embed dialog has been added to Manage Site > Campaigns > Campaign details, just click the drop-down and then the "Embed" link.

Private campaigns

The embed dialog has a new Private URL field in Manage Site. The new key parameter lets you view a campaign which would normally not be visible, and can be used for sharing draft campaigns or campaigns that normally require login.

Contact form extra fields

You can now add extra form fields to the contact form found at /contact on your site. Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Fields to set it up.

Changes in email setup

If you are using your own domain name and haven't added the email DNS entries yet, emails will stop working. This is due to a security update on the mail servers, and will also improve the deliverability of emails. Go to Manage Site > Dashboard > Domains to find your email entries. Here are the docs.

Other fixes:

• Wepay has been updated to the newest version. Log into Wepay and upgrade the API version for your account, and then go to Manage Site and edit your payment gateway configuration for Wepay, select the 2016 version from the drop down.
• Wepay now has support for Canadian dollars and British pounds, also works for the old version.
• Campaign updates now have a Publish and a Retract button, and the form is in a dialog so your users can be more comfortable when writing updates.
• The campaign goal can no longer be changed for campaigners even if the campaigns are set to always be editable.
• The campaign short URLs are now even shorter, we've removed the /c in front.
• Caching and speed internally has been improved to serve your campaigns faster than ever.

Enjoy!

Summer has been great, and here's what we've released so far:

Voting campaigns

We've added a new campaign strategy called "voting". Voting campaigns receive votes to reach their goal instead of receiving money. Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Preferences > Campaigns > Campaign Strategy to set it up.

New themes

We've released a new default theme, called Neue, and some variations on that. The new themes are sleek and modern, yet very customizable. Check them out by going to Manage Site > Configuration > Appearance > Themes.

New appearance options

It's now really easy to select which tabs you want to show on the campaign page. Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Appearance > Layout > Campaign Tabs Visible to choose.

There's also a new option there to display updates at the top of the about field for your campaigns. Simply insert the number of updates you want to show.

API in private beta

The JSON API has been released again as a private beta. The API will let you fetch and update the data for your site via HTTP. We've already gathered lots of feedback, and the final version is right around the corner. Send us an email if you want to help us test it!

The documentation for the API is here: https://crowdfundhq.com/docs/api

User Approval and two-step signup

Now you can approve your users with the click of a button. With this new option enabled, when a user signs up, the user will receive the new User Signup Approval email. Click on the Approve button in user details to approve the user. The user will receive the User Approved email, and can log in, start creating campaigns and contribute.

Enable it in Manage Site > Configuration > Preferences > Users > User Approval.

The Approval extra fields option lets you redirect your user to a separate page with extra fields needed for approval. In this case the user will receive the new User Approval Fields email. This can serve as a two-step signup process.

Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Fields to add your approval fields.

Delete, restore, destroy

Campaigns and users can now be deleted, restored and destroyed. "Destroy" will completely remove any trace of that campaign or user, and cannot be undone. Once a campaign or a user has been deleted, it can be restored back to normal state or be destroyed.

More features

• PDF version available from Report from Campaign Details, just click the PDF link.
• New option for adding Billing fields to Stripe payments for extra verification.
• Updated Pagseguro payments with new IPN functionality.
• Upgraded servers with security fixes for SSL.
• Added HTTP API for sitemap, rss and more to documentation.

More feedback please

We've also fixed tons of smaller issues and bugs based on your feedback. To create the best possible service for our users, please don't hesitate letting us know if there is anything at all.

We have lots more features already in development, so watch out for that this fall.

Thanks for using CrowdfundHQ!

We've worked hard on the internals the last months, but also squeezed in a few new features, making this the most solid release ever.

Committals are now called "Pledges"

We had to separate contributions and commitments, so now "committals", making commitments, are called Pledges. We've updated some of the translations. If you need to edit the translations, go to Manage Site > Configuration > Settings > Language > Edit Translations and search for "pledge" to find the new translations.

There is a new tab for pledges on your campaign and as well as a new section on the user profile. Users can now write comments when they make a pledge.

Building your site for scale

We've added "pagination" and "Load More" buttons everywhere in your crowdfunding site so it still looks good when you have a lot of data on your site. The campaigns, contributions and pledges on the user profile now has "Show all" buttons with list dialogs.

Stripe recurring payments

We've added support for recurring payments for the Stripe payment gateway. Now your users can set up a monthly subscription for their contributions.

To try it out, go to Manage Site > Configuration > Payments > Gateways > Edit > Stripe > Recurring Contributions and check Enable. Check Optional if you want the contributor to choose in the Stripe payment form.

New Configuration menu

Setting up your site is now easier than ever. All the options are now arranged in sections making easier to get an overview. The new menus are found in Manage Site > Configuration as before.

Updated docs and new tutorials

The documentation has been updated to match the new configuration menus, and we've added two introduction videos on our new Youtube channel. Please send us suggestions on what else to cover, and we'll make more.

Blog update

Your blog, found at /blog on your site, now has image upload built in and supports tags. Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Sharing > Blog to enable your blog if you haven't already. Blogging can really help draw users to your site, and is a very powerful marketing tool.

Some URLs have changed!

In the name of progress we had to change some of the URLs for contact and users. If you have custom code using the old URLs, please let us know and we'll fix it for you.

Campaigns, users and groups no longer automatically updates the URL when you change the name. There is now a checkbox for optionally changing the URL when you save in Manage Site. On your site, the users and groups only update their URLs when created, and campaigns only when still not approved.

We've rewritten the link generator and now we have support for International Domain Names (IDN), meaning that if you use script languages like Chinese, Arabic or Sanskrit, the URL will be translated into a valid URL no matter what.

Fixes and cleanup

Today's update includes the following fixes:

• New sortable contributions list for logged in users. Log in on your site, click on one of your campaigns, and click on "Contributions" to try it out.
• Fixed an issue where large HTML files didn't display properly in Manage Site > Design editor.
• Fixed /robots.txt file and automatic /sitemap.xml ping for Google and Bing.
• Your site now works completely if the user has disabled Javascript.
• Correct escaping of all user input data for enhanced security.
• Complete internal clean-up. Literally every view has been updated and optimized.

Thanks for all your feedback making this release possible. As always, please let us know if you find any issues. Enjoy!

We've been working non-stop to deliver these new features, and we're super-excited about this release. So what's new?

Advanced editor for the back-end

We've updated our editor with a much more advanced code editor. It's based on CodeMirror, and it's really beautiful.

Here are some of the main features:

• Syntax highlighting for CSS, HTML, Markdown and Javascript.
• Auto-expanding editor field.
• "Safe" editing trying to prevent you from leaving the page if you have unsaved changes.
• Save the document with the CMD + S or CTRL + S keyboard short cuts.

Developing on CrowdfundHQ just became amazingly enjoyable. Go to Manage Site > Design to try it out.

Account sharing

Now you no longer have to share passwords for your CrowdfundHQ account.

Go to your site dashboard and click the Permissions link to share your sites with friends, co-workers or developers.

Add CrowdfundHQ account emails into the permission boxes. Using CrowdfundHQ in this way protects your account settings, and prevents developers from deleting your account or site while working on it.

Development servers

We've changed how we view paid subscriptions, and we're happy to announce that from now on, you can create as many sites as you want as long as you have a paid subscription. All sites created are fully featured and meant to be used for testing and development of existing and new sites.

You will not be able to accept live payments unless you upgrade first, but everything else is working. We hope that makes it easier to develop on the platform! Developers without paid accounts will be able to work on your site without paying. Just share the site from the Permissions as explained above.

New uploaders for your site

The old uploader was a little outdated, so we updated all uploads on your site with a simpler and more modern approach. It's more out of the way, but is now easier to use. It even has a progress counter, support for multiple files and drag'n drop. Go upload something. It's fun!

All-new groups

The groups now sport these features:

• They are joinable, so the users can join and leave groups on their own.
• They are editable, so the users can add, edit and delete groups.
• Users can now invite people to their group from the group page. 10 users at a time is max. Doesn't have to be registered users, so this is a great way for your users to get their friends to join. There is a customizable Group Invite email as well.
• The total amount contributed for all campaigns is displayed on the group page.
• Each campaign can now optionally belong to a group, and is selected from the create campaign form.
• Groups are now created on behalf of users from Manage Site.

Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Options > Group Options to set up your site if you want to try it out.

Email layout, yeah!

You can now create your own HTML layout for your emails. This means it's super-easy to add your colors and branding to all of your emails. Combine that with a great signature to make maximum impact.

New HTML parser!

The new HTML parser makes sure your code always converts into valid HTML. The embedder options have been updated as well and now support converting links from dailymotion, flickr, github gist, google maps, instagram, liveleak, metacafe, soundcloud, ted, twitter, vimeo, worldstar, and youtube in your Markdown and HTML.

Other links are auto-linked, and links inside HTML tags are skipped.

And that's not all

• Categories are now all sortable. This means you can decide the exact order of your site discover links.
• New emails for manual contribution and contribution refund. Please go to Manage Site > Design > Emails to check that they are a go.
• Nicer pagination for users, campaigns and group, now also displaying on top of search results for easier navigation.
• Percentage for Additional Costs now possible.
• New documentation for Facebook login. We've moved some features around, Content is now in Manage Site > Configuration > Language > Edit Translations and Ads are in Manage Site > Configuration > Sharing.
• Added compressor for image uploads so you don't have to worry if the images are too big. Max resolution is 3200 pixels and 20 MB files.
• Use any email address for receiving test emails.
• Options for how many commitments and rewards you want your users to have.
• Refactored emails, uploads, link generation and exports.
• Fixed image stretching issues. This can be customized with CSS to you liking.
• Fixed login issue for iOS devices using Private Browsing.
• Fixed a few issues with https social sharing buttons.
• Lots of bug fixes thanks to you guys! Thanks for all the feedback, keep it up please!

Enjoy!

Blog ready!

It's time for another update and this time we're excited to announce the release of your site's blog! Blogging is a great way of keeping your users in the know, spread knowledge and get more clicks from organic search and social media.

To try it out, go to Manage Site > Configuration > Sharing > Blog Admin. You can select who can write blog posts, and also which editor you want to use. Click the green question mark next to each option for details. Once enabled, the blog will be available at /blog on your site. Please try it out and let us know what you think.

Fixed contribution amount product mode now possible

We've added the ability for your campaigns to run with fixed contribution amounts. This is great if you are funding products, meaning that you can actually use CrowdfundHQ as a web shop!

Try it out by going to Manage Site > Payments > Fixed contribution. Check "User decide" to let the campaigner choose the amount.

Additional costs module

To make it possible to ship products or charge extra for administration fees, we've added an "Additional costs" module. The user will see a select box with options on the contribution page if enabled. Check it out by going to Manage Site > Payments > Additional costs.

Earn money with the new affiliate program for CrowdfundHQ

We've created a module for tracking clicks and account signups, and we'll pay you if you help us get new customers. For every customer that end up paying for a subscription coming from your site, we'll pay you 15% for the first 12 month unless the customer cancels. Sounds too good to be true? Contact us to get started now.

We also plan to include this in the new marketing module we're working on so you can use it on your site, so watch out for that.

New blog post

Check out Susana's latest blog post about website design. Quick read with lots of premium information. Please leave a comment below the post, and share, share, share!

Also included in this update

• The URL of the campaign is added to Twitter share automatically.
• Writing a comment without logging in is now working from the thank you page.
• New checkbox for anonymous comments. The comment will be automatically anonymous from the thank you page if the contribution is anonymous.
• Max and min goal for campaigns. Site wide option only, found in Manage Site > Payments
• Completely new Russian translations. Thanks Andy!
• Moved some options in Manage Site around. Ads are now in Configuration, and contribution amounts are now in Payments.
• New asset packer and server upgrades: All CSS and Javascripts are now compressed and gzipped, with servers now running on the latest versions of NGINX and Passenger Enterprise. Your site should now be serving content a lot faster.
• Lots of small fixes here and there. Thanks for all your help in finding these issues and letting us know.

Mission accomplished!

We have been working on this for months, and we can finally announce that we've added support for 10 new payment solutions and now provide 18 in total!!!

Now you as a site owner can reach more than 6 billion people around the world with quick and easy setup of the payment gateways of your choice.

So, why 18 payment solutions? That's insane!

We believe that by making it easy for people worldwide to contribute to your cause will help the crowdfunding community open up, keep growing and become more powerful than ever.

The choices we made are much based on our user's feedback, and since crowdfunding has no borders, we want to make it possible for people to get funded no matter where they are.

Here is the list of our new payment solutions:

• Braintree (International)
• Coinbase (Bitcoin)
• Dwolla Adaptive (with refunds)
• GoCardless (UK)
• Mangopay (Europe)
• Mangopay Adaptive
• Pagseguro (Brazil)
• Payfast (South Africa)
• Razorpay (India)
• Stripe Adaptive (Connect)

Learn more about our new payment solutions here

Our mission is to be the best white label crowdfunding platform out there. With your help, we can keep evolving together and see your site become successful with tons of contributions coming in from all over the world.

Please let us know what you think, we love feedback. People matter, results count! Onwards!

Today we're excited to announce a major update that will help you manage your site easier than before.

We've completely redesigned the admin pages. This will make your site more fun and simple to work with, and it serves as a foundation to build on in the future.

The mobile version is more beautiful than ever, and it's now incredibly easy to manage your site while on the go.

Here's a run-down of what we did:

• All new pages. Every single page has been improved with our new look and feel.
• Incredible mobile version. We spent a lot of time making the mobile version easy to use, and it's now just as good as the desktop version, if not better.
• The User and Campaign pages have been revamped, they now look a lot cleaner with rewards and commitments in separate tabs.
• New Layout section under the Design tab to make it easy to manage the content in your site's layout.
• Tons of improvements everywhere. Take your time and explore each page. Click the green question marks to learn about each section.

Log in to https://crowdfundhq.com and try it out. Let us know what you think, we rely on you guys to make the CrowdfundHQ experience even better.

For updates, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, blog and this release channel. Stay tuned for more updates in the near future!

Cheers!

Mobile responsive stylesheet

As some of you may have noticed, we've added an option for making your site mobile responsive. It's not enabled by default since it might not work well for those with huge customizations.

Go to Manage Site > Configuration > General > View Options > uncheck Disable mobile responsive to enable it, then view your site on a smart phone or by shrinking your browser window.

You can change the mobile header by going to Manage Site > Design > Header > Mobile Header.

API beta released

The API gives you access to the database via HTTPS. You can create, update, fetch and delete campaigns, contributions, users and the rest. We are still going to add more resources to make it complete. Send us an email if you want to try it out, and we'll send you an API key.

It's also missing authentication needed for client side libraries, but the goal is to let people create their own sites entirely from scratch using the API.

Here's the API documentation.

Other updates

• Added support for the Dutch language.
• Campaign Update email now also being sent to commitment contributors.
• New Commitment Successful email sent when contributors make a commitment.

New configuration options

• You can now log in as a site user by going to Manage Site > Campaign > Select your campaign > click Log in as. The same if possible from Manage Site > Users > Select your user > Log in as. This will give you complete control over any user account in case you need to change something on behalf of the user.
• A new OPEN button has been added to Campaigns in Manage Site > Campaigns and Campaign details. Clicking the OPEN button in will close contributions for this campaign, but still keep it open. All campaigns will be OPEN by default when you approve a campaign.
• Lots more data when exporting. Since some sites can have a lot of data, export is now delivered via email. There is a new export option for contributions if you go to Manage Site > Campaigns > Export > select Contributions. CSV is recommended for this option, and should be compatible with MS Excel.
• Updated Google Login. Since Google deprecated parts of their API, all account owners should check if their Google Login setup is still functioning. Here's how to set it up: Google Login Setup
• All pages are now either HTML or Markdown, there are radio buttons under the main text area in Manage Site > Pages > Select your page. Markdown is default.
• You can now redirect the root page to another URL on your site or somewhere else on the Internet. This is useful if you only have one campaign, or if you have changed your domain name, but want to keep your search engine rating. The redirects are 301 permanent.
  Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Settings > Redirect URL to set it up.

Other additions

• Optional default image option for campaigns (when image or video is not yet set) in Manage Site > Configuration > General > Campaign Default Image.
• Option for letting users edit their campaign even after the campaign has been submitted in Mange Site > Configuration > General > View Options > Campaigns always editable.
• Empty text fields on top of each form. Go to Mange Site > Design > Content > search for "intro text" to add some text on top of one of the forms in the system.
• Stripe payments now has support for 100+ currencies. Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Payments > Edit > Stripe configuration > Currency and choose your currency and Save to set it up.

New servers and IP address
We've installed new cloud servers and databases, running on the latest software with fast SSD hard drives and much more band-width. That means your sites will be loading a lot faster.

The new IP address for domains is 104.130.196.96, we recommend that people with own domain names switch over for that extra speed.

HTTPS everywhere
All assets and third party communication are now HTTPS. Uploads are now on Amazon S3 SSL.

Confirm email on signup
The user has to click a confirmation link to log in. Go to Manage Site > Configuration > "Confirm email on signup" to enable it. There is a separate email for that option found by going to Manage Site > Design > Emails > User Signup Confirmation.

Password updates

• The passwords are now 6 characters minimum.
• Added current password check to change the user password.
• Reset password takes you to a change password popup, and won't log you in unless you change the password.

Email DNS setup
All sites with custom domain names should add email entries to their domain name setup to send emails reliably and without limits. Go to Manage Site > Domains to find your email DNS setup information.

Other changes:

• Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Payments > Max to set the max contribution amount for campaigns.
• Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Settings > Page Separator to choose the separator in your title. The options are pipe ( | ) and dash ( — ).
• Contribute without login now requires name as well as email.

Contribute without logging in
This is the new default for contributions. Users just enter their email address on the contribution page instead.

To enable / disable it, go to Manage Site > Configuration > General > View Options > check / uncheck "Log in to contribute". Users will still be registered even if they are not logged in, and you can find them in your Users list, with the name Anonymous. When they sign up later, the name and password will be updated, and the contributions will be preserved.

Display contribution currency
Contributions are now showing amounts as in the Display currency as setting. Go to Manage Site > Configuration > Payments > check "Display actual currency in contribution list" to display the contribution amount with the actual currency contributed. This setting only applies to multi-currency sites.

All category
We've added an All category, disabled by default. Sometimes it takes a while to get those campaigns going, so we've added an optional category called All, which will display a tab on your site across all of the categories on your site. Go to Manage Site > Categories > uncheck hidden for All to start using it.

Capture All button
A Capture All button is now available. For those of you that use Pre-approved payments, a Capture all button will appear once you've received some contributions, right next to the Refund all button. Go to Manage Site > Campaigns > select your campaign > click "Capture All" to try capturing all of your pre-approved contributions.

The near future
We are working hard to release our API, which will be ready soon. Our payment systems are receiving some love and we plan on releasing Dwolla and Stripe pre-approved payments, as well as full support for Mangopay. More on this later.

Contribution Confirmation
You can now let your contributors see a confirmation screen before going to payments. It is now also possible to add the platform and payment fees to the contribution, which makes sure the campaigns receives all of the money instead of having the fees deducted as is the default.

Go to Manage Site > Configuration General > Contribution Confirmation to set it up. Click "Edit fees..." to edit the fees (default fees are included). You can edit the platform fee from Manage Site > Configuration > Payments as always.

All of the text for the confirmation screen can be changed by going to Manage Site > Design > Content, and can be hidden using CSS.

Checklist
We've added a new checklist for people getting started so they can get an overview of the most important settings and what needs to be done. This first version focuses on the fields most important for search engines. Go to Manage Site > Dashboard > Checklist to see if your site is missing anything.

Campaign contribution amount and hiding
There is now a new setting for making the contribution amount public. Go to Manage Site > Configuration > General > Contribution Amount to enable it. You can let the campaigner choose this themselves by selecting Campaign Creators Decide.

You can hide the contribution list completely by choosing Hide campaign contributions from Manage Site > Configuration > General > View Options. The contributions will also be hidden from the user profile if you select this.

CSS files reference list
We've added the list of all the CSS files we use to the docs. Hopefully the files will make it easier to do custom development. More improvements on this soon.

Search Engine Optimization from our blog
Check out our new article on search engine optimization, it contains lots of important tricks on how to make sure your site receives the amount of users it deserves.

The CrowdfundHQ Team wishes you all happy holidays and a great new year!

Custom form fields
You can now collect extra information from users by adding extra fields to the user signup, campaign create and contribution forms. Go to Manage Site > Forms to try it out. Be aware that adding required fields will trigger error messages if not filled in by the user.

Server upgrades
As we're seeing more and more people using the platform, we are also seeing an increase in traffic and memory usage. Because of that, we've now upgraded all software to their latest versions, and added more servers behind the load balancers to give you a faster and more stable experience. We will soon upgrade to new generation servers with high performance SSD disks and higher bandwidth as well. More on this later.

Require rewards and commitments
We've added new options to require users to create rewards and commitments in order to submit their campaigns. Go Manage Site > Configuration > General > Campaign Rewards / Commitments > check Required to enable.

Upload Thumbnails
The Files section now generates thumbnails of images to make it load faster. The upload limits have been fixed to reflect the tier you are on.

Full Mobile Support
Our website is now fully responsive, and looks great on any device: Your computer, tablet and mobile phone.

HTTPS On Your Website
Run your website over secure HTTPS rather than plain HTTP. https://crowdfundhq.com/additional-services

Animated Video
Create an impressive video presentation of your crowdfunding website or campaign. https://crowdfundhq.com/additional-services

Win Two Free Months
Don't forget your chance to win two free months: https://crowdfundhq.com/get-2-months-free.html

Improved Reporting
Website admins now have additional reporting tools under each campaign.

To see the report, in the admin panel: Campaigns > Choose a campaign > button Report.

E-mail To Campaigner On Contribution
Campaigner now receives an e-mail on each contribution.

To edit e-mail contents, open the admin panel: Design > Emails > Contribution Successful.

Submit Comment After Contribution
Contributors can now submit a comment after a contribution is complete. A feedback form is now displayed on the page confirming the contribution.

Disable/Enable User Messages
You can now enable/disable if your users can send each other messages.

To modify, open the admin panel: Configuration > General > Disable user messages.

Disable/Enable Rewards
You can now enable/disable whether rewards are available on your website or not.

To modify, open the admin panel: Configuration > General > Campaign Rewards.

Improve Your Client's Campaigns
We have published an article in our blog on how you can improve your client's campaigns. CrowdfundHQ customers have permission to re-publish this article - for free - to help their clients improve their campaigns. https://crowdfundhq.com/how-you-succeed-with-crowdfunding.html

Stripe
We now support payments through Stripe. Stripe is available in 17 countries and accepts major international debit or credit cards.

Using Stripe with CrowdfundHQ: http://crowdfundhq.com/docs/payments/stripe-setup
Countries Supported: https://stripe.com/global
Stripe website: https://stripe.com/

Quality Control
You can now improve the quality of your crowdfunding website. We have created a step-by-step quality control guide for you.

Get started: http://crowdfundhq.com/docs/quality-control/introduction

Improved Security
Within the next few days, we will gradually move www.crowdfundhq.com from running on HTTP to running on HTTPS (SSL). If you're not really familiar with these terms, this means that the security of www.crowdfundhq.com is improved.

Please note that this change will not apply to any crowdfunding websites running on our platform. If you are interested in running your crowdfunding website over SSL, we would be happy to hear from you.

Get 2 Months Free
We're giving away two free months! You can choose any subscription type you want, which means the prize is worth almost $1000.

How to win: http://crowdfundhq.com/get-2-months-free.html

Today a new set of features are available for you on CrowdfundHQ. We hope you will make the most of them.

The focus of this update has been improved support for equity crowdfunding. However, these new features will be very useful across a wide range of different crowdfunding websites.

New Payment Method: Manual
With this new payment method, you can process the transaction outside of CrowdfundHQ's system. This enables you to use any payment method you want, such as bank transfer, cheque, cash or whatever else.

You can enable manual payment under the Configuration > Payments.

It works like this:

1. A contributor chooses the payment option "Manual". The campaign is updated with the contribution.


2. An e-mail with payment instructions is sent to the contributor (you can edit the contents of this e-mail in the admin panel).


3. The transaction is handled manually outside of CrowdfundHQ's system.


4. In case of failed payment, you can remove the payment in the admin panel.

Custom Form Fields in Sign-Up/Campaign Forms
You can now add custom form fields when a user signs up and when a user creates a new campaign. This enables you to collect more information about users.

You can configure custom form fields under Configuration > Forms.

Disable Facebook and Google Login
We have added the option of disabling logging in through Facebook and Google.

You can configure this under Configuration > Sharing.

Require Login to View Campaigns
You can now require a visitor to be logged in before they can see the campaigns. They will see the campaign badge, but will not see the rest of the campaign unless they log in.

You can configure this under Configuration > General.