Contribution forms are the building blocks of ActBlue’s platform: They are where grassroots supporters give to their favorite groups and become part of the small-dollar donor movement! Every day, we work to break down barriers to entry in politics and organizing by putting these powerful, simple tools in the hands of fundraisers and small-dollar donors alike. Today we’re introducing a tool that we hope will make this movement more accessible than ever: A Spanish language option for contribution forms! This tool will switch the standard ActBlue-provided text on a form to Spanish in a single click.
In 2019, more than 3 million people gave for the first time on ActBlue. As a nonprofit dedicated to empowering small-dollar donors, we want to make sure our tools are as accessible as possible for the diverse group of people who are making grassroots contributions. The goal of this feature is to create a cohesive giving experience for millions of Spanish speakers that is better than what browser translation can offer. We worked with a translation agency and a panel of Spanish speakers within our organization to develop this tool holistically.
And in light of the current health crisis, it is even more important that all small-dollar donors can give easily and confidently and campaigns and organizations can engage with their grassroots base online. Digital organizing is crucial to enabling constituents and leaders alike to serve their communities and adapt to the rapidly changing circumstances. We hope this tool will help organizers and donors with the hard work ahead.
Fundraisers can use this feature to create a user-friendly and unified form for Spanish-speaking supporters in a few simple steps: After writing your own title and ask in Spanish, just turn on the Spanish language option and publish your changes to finish! This tool is available to both ActBlue admins and grassroots organizers creating their own contribution forms, so anyone can rally their community together.
You can find the new Spanish language option in the form editor, in the “Form customization” tab. When you switch the language to Spanish, the standard ActBlue-provided text on your form will be translated, and you’ll be able to see this change in real time!
ActBlue’s default text on the pop-up recurring message will also be translated. You can find a preview of the translated pop-up in the “Recurring settings” tab of the form editor!
To ensure fundraisers continue to have complete control over the customization of their forms, this tool will not translate any text a user writes on a contribution form or in a pop-up recurring message. And since the Spanish language option is currently limited to the form itself and the recurring pop-up, the ActBlue-provided language donors see on the thanks page after giving and in their email receipts will not be translated at this time.
We’re excited to see groups of all sizes use this new feature to make giving more accessible, especially while online fundraising is more vital than ever before. Full instructions for using the Spanish language option can be found here. If you want to learn more about other contribution form features, check out our support site!
