Setting up an individual fundraiser page to join the 13 members at Grand Forks Christmas Decorators for The Salvation Army is fairly intuitive. If you need a guide at any point here are step-by-step directions for starting your own on-line virtual kettle fundraiser associated with your outdoor Christmas Decorations. (Of course, I would gladly help walk you thru the process of setting up a virtual kettle if you need it, just give me a call at 701-746-4663.)

I will be matching the first $500 donated!

Step 1. Go directly to https://give.salvationarmyusa.org/gfchristmas and in the left upper left hand area of that particular web page click on "Join  team".

Step 2. You now should be on a page that asks you to “Start fundraising” by either “LOG IN” or “CREATE AN ACCOUNT”. (Note the four safety considerations they require to create a password. Also, check out the Terms and Privacy Policy you want to review that.) If you are new to helping or donating to The Salvation Army then click the option “CREATE AN ACCOUNT” to start the setup for your own fundraiser under Grand Forks Christmas Decorators!

Step 3. It asks you to “Create an account” with your email address and a password to start a page and get back into your account later. After you have put in your email address and a password please click on “NEXT”.

Step 4. On the next page it asks you to “Complete your profile” with your first and last name. After you do so click on the box that says “SIGN UP”.

Step 5. You are now on the “Create your page” where you need to respond about the details of your fundraiser. There are six important things to do here (I would recommend to leave the top box that says “I’m fundraising to honor someone else” blank at this time): 

A) The first thing you see is “Set your fundraising goal”. You may change the $500 fundraising goal to whatever you want but I suspect that most people will leave that. (There is no obligation to pay for not reaching a goal but the site needs a dollar amount.) 

B) You need to fill in the “Fundraising end date” which is January 7, 2023 – the first full day after Epiphany. When you hover over and click on the calendar box a monthly calendar pops up. Look for an arrow in the upper right corner. Click on the little arrow which moves the calendar to January, 2023. Hover over the January 9 and click on it. 

C) It now asks you for “Your Page’s headline”. You could leave this or, simply say something about helping to raising some money for The Salvation Army.

D) It next asks you to state what city and state “I’m fundraising for”. When you click on this box a drop-down menu

pops up and you need to scroll down to Grand Forks, ND and click on it.

E) Lastly, you are asked to “Set your Fundraising Page’s short URL”. This says it is optional but I HIGHLY recommend

you simply put only the house letters in the box AND nothing else. The program used by the Salvation Army 

automatically assigns a unique set of six number to your on-line fundraiser page to identify you for tracking 

purposes. By putting your house number in there it will help associate your home on the master list of 

decorated homes at www.grandforkshomes.net/christmas with your virtual kettle for donations. 

Once you start reaching out to people to donate to your fundraiser page in emails, texts, on Facebook and other 

communications you will be asking people to click your special URL to donate. I think potential donors will have more 

confidence to click on a URL with your house number on the URL rather than six numbers. 

F) Click the “NEXT” tab at the bottom of the page.

Step 10. You will now arrive on your personal fundraising page within the Grand Forks Christmas Decorators Team page! If you want here is where you can “Choose your photo” associated with your fundraising page. You don’t have to do anything but I would suggest taking a picture of your home with the decorations in their full glory! Click the “Continue” button. 

On the next page under “Member Questions” please fill in some details about yourself and when you are done click “Finish”.

There other things you can do on your personal fundraising page. For instance, you can add a Fundraiser Nickname if you want in a word or two. If you do this consider something that identifies the theme or feeling you may want to convey with your Christmas decorations.

Now start sharing the news of your fundraising effort to family, friends, neighbors and coworkers. Spread the word that they can also find lots of joyous Christmas decorated homes to tour at www.grandforkshomes.net/christmas!

Again, if you have questions about this process, please feel free to reach out to me.

Thank you and good luck with your fundraising effort.

Merry Christmas!

Jerry Waletzko

Crary Real Estate

4551 S Washington St, Suite G

Grand Forks, ND 58201

Cell: 701-746-4663

jerry@grandforkshomes.net

You may also reach out to:

Major AmyJo Ferguson

Salvation Army

1600 University Avenue

Grand Forks, ND 58203

amyjo.ferguson@usc.salvationarmy.org

Cell: 314-606-2283

Office: 701-775-2597

or

Major Paul Ferguson

Salvation Army

1600 University Avenue

Grand Forks, ND 58203

paul.ferguson@usc.salvationarmy.org

Cell: 314-401-8164

Office: 701-775-2597

Remember you can also help by volunteering to ring the bell at a local kettle by signing up at www.registertoring.com .