Forms guide: Working with Beacon forms

A Beacon form is a simple yet powerful tool that can be used in a variety of ways to get information from any people that you work with, all hosted by Beacon so you don't have to do any programming or contact your webmaster.

The most common uses for the forms are:

• Collecting donations
• Setting up memberships
• Signing up subscribers
• Taking event registrations

It can take less than 10 seconds to set up a default form! (mind: blown) Let's do it...

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link Quick start: Make a form

1. Go to Forms.

2. Click Create form. Give your new form a title, and select which type of form you'd like.

3. Click Create.

That's it! Your form is already live, and you can view it from the View form button in the top right of the page.

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link Step by step guides

You probably want to change a few details from your default form, so we've got step by step guides for setting up each type:

link Setting up a donation form

For example:

• Take single or recurring general donations for your charity
• Make a customised form to display on tablets at an event
• Create a highly targeted donation form as part of a particular campaign

link Setting up a membership form

For example:

• Collect subscriptions or single payments for a variety of membership types
• Set up a sponsorship program
• Create gift memberships to promote as presents at Christmas

link Setting up a signup form

For example:

• Collect new supporters as newsletter subscribers
• Enrol people that would like to volunteer for your charity
• Run a campaign to collect Gift Aid declarations
• Track new client enquiries

link Setting up an event registration form

For example:

• Sell tickets for a special fundraising event
• Register free attendees for a Zoom event
• Let challenge event participants choose their t-shirt size and style

For some more use cases, see our frequently asked questions at the end of the document.

link Features of forms

There are lots of features for forms, so we've created individual documents for each:

• Collecting contact preferences
• Adding sections and fields
• Adding file uploads
• Acknowledgements and notifications
• Using fixed data
• Form completion actions
• Using workflow to trigger on form submit

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link Frequently asked questions

link What else can I use forms for?

Whilst forms are mainly used for the options above, the flexibility of Beacon forms means that many of our customers have developed other uses such as to:

• Register volunteers for an event
• Collect ID details for verification
• Submit CVs or presentations (which are displayed in a Person record)
• Automatically create new tasks to contact fundraisers for a challenge event
• Set up legacy commitments, including assigning executors
• Download training and educational resources
• Set up 'Sponsor an animal' programs where donors can select a specific animal from a list

Have an interesting usage for Beacon forms? Let us know about it!

link Can I embed a form into my website?

Yes. If you'd like a form to run inline on your website rather than as a standalone page, you can embed the form.