5 Proven Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit's Donation Page

This post was contributed by Morweb.

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Your nonprofit organization needs a reliable revenue stream in order to meet its goals. While fundraising in-person is still a healthy option, more and more people are going online to give because of its convenience. Your nonprofit should optimize its giving page so you can collect as many donations as possible!

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An effective donation page should be accessible, straightforward, and embedded directly into your website for convenience. You can even create multiple giving pages specific to your online fundraisers throughout the year. These donation pages should streamline the giving process for your supporters so they’re more likely to give again.

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Not sure where to get started? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! In this article, we’ll walk you through some of our favorite tried-and-true ways to improve any nonprofit donation page:

1. Optimize for mobile users.
2. Use engaging features.
3. Brand it to your nonprofit website.
4. Set suggested donation amounts.
5. Embed a matching gift tool.

When you incorporate these aspects into your own nonprofit donation page, you can create a positive donor experience and set your organization up for digital fundraising success. With a redesigned donation page, your nonprofit website will likely see a boost in engagement. Ready to learn more about each of our suggested best practices? Let’s get started.

1. Optimize for mobile users.

People are spending more and more time on their phones, so why not cater to them to maximize donations? By optimizing your giving page for mobile users, you’ll expand the number of people who can donate. Plus, donating will become a more convenient process, improving user experience.

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To get started, consider the formatting of your page and how it’ll appear on a mobile device. Every element should resize to fit any screen size without excessive scrolling, pinching, and zooming. In other words, it should be just as easy to complete your donation form from a mobile device as it is on a full-size desktop computer.

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Need help getting started? According to Morweb, a top nonprofit website builder can streamline the process by optimizing your donation page for tablet and mobile viewers. This way, you don’t have to worry about developing multiple versions of your website for desktop users, mobile users, and tablet users. You can also use Google Lighthouse to confirm that the mobile web performance is acceptable.

2. Use engaging features.

To boost excitement over your fundraiser and encourage people to donate, you’ll need an engaging donation page. Your page should be both visually appealing and informative to attract more supporters.

Consider adding a few (or all) of these elements to make donating to your cause a positive experience:

• Highlight how donations make a difference. Create a bulleted list that shows how specific donation amounts ($25, $50, $100, etc.) will create an impact. This will pull at your donors’ heartstrings and can compel them to give more. Additionally, this lets donors know exactly what their funds will be used for which helps build trust.
• Use images and videos. Show your nonprofit in action! Humanize your organization with pictures of volunteers or people who have benefitted from your nonprofit’s efforts. This will help people feel more connected to your cause.
• Create a fundraising thermometer. Fundraising thermometers are effective because they appeal to our visual senses, keep track of fundraising goals, show progress to donors, and encourage supporters to give. They are especially useful for your short-term virtual or in-person fundraising campaigns. When there’s a sense of urgency and people see how close your organization is to its goal, they’re more likely to give.

While it’s easy to add a bulleted list and visuals to your donation page, plugging in a fundraising thermometer may require some extra legwork. To add this feature to your donation page, make sure your CMS or online fundraising platform supports thermometers. Otherwise, you may need help from a web developer to create a custom solution.

3. Brand it to match your existing website design.

Supporters want to donate to organizations that are professional and trustworthy. A branded donation page reinforces the user’s connections to your nonprofit and ensures the donor knows exactly where their money is going.

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When your branded donation page is embedded directly within your nonprofit website—rather than hosted on a third-party website—users will naturally feel that your donation page is secure. Redirecting donors to an external form tends to reduce conversions by 10%, so including your donation page directly on your site will keep audiences engaged and motivate them to complete the donation process.

Be sure to include the following elements throughout your donation page (and your overall nonprofit website):

• Your nonprofit logo. Including your logo improves brand visibility and helps your nonprofit develop a stronger relationship with supporters. If you haven’t designed a logo yet, create one that is simple, engaging, and related to your organization’s mission or values.
• Consistent color scheme and font. Use the same colors and fonts as the rest of your website to create a clean donation page design that feels connected to your digital presence.
• Images that show your impact. Include images of your volunteers at work or the positive impact your nonprofit has on the world. These will help donors feel confident that they’re donating to a worthy cause.

Effective nonprofit branding is crucial for building and maintaining a reliable and dependable website. When your donors trust your organization, you can continue to build long-term relationships and secure lasting support.

4. Set suggested donation amounts.

While many donors will visit your donation page to make smaller contributions (rather than major gifts), there are a few strategies to encourage a higher average donation amount. One of our top suggestions is to set suggested donation sizes on your online donation page.

Suggested donation amounts show what you consider to be a reasonable amount to give. These especially work when you map these amounts to programs you will do with the donation (e.g. $500 funds a student for a year). Here are a few best practices to consider:

• Adjust suggested donations based on previous gift sizes. Set your gift sizes based on data collected from previous campaigns and round them to the nearest tenth. For example, let’s say your last online fundraiser brought in a rounded average gift size of $50. For your upcoming campaign, you might set gift sizes at $50, $100, $200, and $500 to encourage increased donations.
• Offer varying incentives at different giving levels. Donation incentives can encourage donors to choose a larger suggested amount. For example, a gift of $25 might earn the donor a branded coffee mug, while a gift of $50 would receive a custom t-shirt. A donor who might have chosen the $25 gift might be inspired to up their donation in order to get the shirt. Note that these gifts require a bit more work on the charity’s side to track, especially if the gift is greater than $75.
• Include an option for donors to set their own donation amount. It’s important that you don’t restrict your donors from having the option to choose their own gift. Include a customizable box to input their preferred gift size. Donors then have the flexibility to go smaller or larger than your suggested gift sizes. However, you should still set a minimum donation amount (e.g. $10), so that most of the money will go towards your organization rather than CC fees.

Suggested donations are a simple yet powerful way to raise more from your donation page. Rather than manually inputting a donation amount, donors can simply click a button, quickening the donation process altogether.

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5. Embed a matching gift tool.

Did you know there’s an easy way to maximize your revenue without asking donors to give more?

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Embedding a matching gift tool into your donation page is a great way to increase your revenue stream. According to Double the Donation’s guide to corporate matching gift programs, a matching gift database and company search tool can help any organization raise more through corporate giving.

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When choosing the right tool for your donation page, be sure to look for the following key features:

• Comprehensiveness: Find a matching gift tool that has data on several companies’ programs to increase the likelihood that your donors will find their own employers in the database.
• Continual updates: Many companies update their corporate giving guidelines each year, so it’s important that you find a matching gift search tool that prioritizes continual updates. This way, you won’t lead donors to inaccurate information about their employers’ current giving programs.
• User-friendliness: Make sure you find a matching gift tool that’s easy for the average user to navigate. They should be able to search their companies’ eligibility to make the donation process convenient.

To easily facilitate the transfer of funds from donors and companies to your nonprofit, you’ll need a top nonprofit payment processor. A nonprofit payment processor protects credit card information from leaking so donors can feel confident when giving. You’ll also have the added benefit of knowing that donations will be smoothly transferred to your nonprofit.

The Gist

An improved donation page can be beneficial to any nonprofit site, from a global nonprofit’s website to a more niche membership website. Use these insights to streamline the donation experience and expand your nonprofit’s reach. Once you have a well-designed donation page, you can share it widely and even promote it during your in-person events, like peer-to-peer fundraisers and auctions, to encourage even more giving. Good luck!

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Guest Author: Murad Bushnaq

Murad Bushnaq is the Founder and CEO of Morweb. Since its inception in 2014, Murad has acted as Creative Director and Chief Technologist to help nonprofits spread their vision online through engaging design, intuitive software and strategic communication.