This is the fourth post in a blog and webinar series called 101 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits, written and presented by Heather Mansfield. Please sign up for Nonprofit Tech for Good’s email newsletter to be alerted of new posts. Thank you!
Related Webinar: Online Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits
Related Certificate Program: Certificate in Digital Marketing & Fundraising
According to the Blackbaud Charitable Giving Report, online giving now accounts for 12% of a nonprofit’s total revenue (18% for small nonprofits) and those numbers will continue to rise in coming years.
It’s also important to know that 28% of online donations are made on a mobile device. Having a mobile-compatible website is now a standard best practice and that is especially true for your nonprofit’s donation pages.
1) Ensure that your donation page(s) match the branding of your website and are hosted on your website domain.
Sending donors to a third-party payment website, such as PayPal, is problematic because according to Bonterra, one in six online donors will drop out of the donation process if they are sent to a third-party website.
A good example of a donation page is the Coral Reef Alliance. In addition to their logo, color scheme, and an image of a vibrant coral reef, their donation page(s) are hosted on their domain (give.coral.org), but do not include the navigation header of their website so the donor’s sole focus is placed on completing the donation form. According to NextAfter, removing links in the navigation header on donation pages results in a 195% increase in donations.
Accepting PayPal in addition to credit cards is a best practice to accommodate donors that prefer to give through PayPal, but don’t make all donors use PayPal. According to the Global Trends in Giving Report, 10% of donors worldwide prefer to give directly through their bank account and younger donors prefer to give through mobile payment apps, such as Venmo.
To accommodate the preferences of all donors, the Coral Reef Alliance accepts four types of payments – credit cards, bank accounts (ACH), PayPal, and Venmo.
2) Add a monthly giving option to your primary donation page and create an additional donation page where monthly giving is the only option.
Monthly donors give $25 per month – or $300 per year, and accounts for 28% of all online revenue to nonprofits, according to the M+R Benchmarks Report. Thus, securing more monthly donors should be a high priority for your nonprofit.
As a best practice, your primary donation page should include an option for donors to upgrade their one-time donation to monthly, for example, Feeding America. Some nonprofits choose to have monthly giving set as the default on their primary donation page, but doing so can result in accidental monthly giving sign-ups. If you set monthly giving as the default on your primary donation page, provide easy instructions to opt out of monthly giving to not alienate your donors.
That said, to effectively promote your monthly giving campaign in print, in email, and on social media, your nonprofit needs an additional donation page with a unique URL, such as feedingamerica.org/monthlygiving, where monthly giving is the only option. For example, in addition to its primary donation page, Feeding America also has an additional donation page just for monthly giving.
It’s also worth noting the “Donate” button on Feeding America’s website functions as a pop-down that features one-time giving (Give Today), monthly giving (Give Monthly), and tribute giving (Give in Honor). This is a trend seen more often on the websites of large nonprofits.
3) Add a monthly giving pop-up to your one-time donation page(s).
According to the Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, only 16% of nonprofits have a pop-up on their one-time donation page(s) that asks one-time donors to become monthly donors. That’s a missed opportunity because a “Donate Monthly” pop-up can result in a 24% increase in monthly donations. For example, UNICEF prompts one-time $10 donors to help save children’s lives by becoming $10/month donors.
4) Experiment with donation amounts on donation pages.
Surprisingly, there is little data on which set of donation amounts results in the highest increase in online giving. As a best practice, study and mimic large nonprofits similar to yours in mission and programs that have years of experimenting with donation amounts.
For example, the American Cancer Society has $10, $25, $50, $100, $250, and $500 donation amounts listed with $25 set as the default donation amount for one-time donors. NextAfter has found that highlighting the second option is a best practice and that using large rectangular buttons rather than small radio buttons results in a 22.9% increase in donations.
That said, innovation in AI and machine learning has resulted in smart donation amounts featured on donation pages. Today, there are fundraising services that utilize the donor data in your nonprofit’s CRM and then customize donation amounts based on what donors are most like to give. Amazing!
5) Add an optional mobile number field.
According to EZ Texting, 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of being sent while only 24% of emails are being read at all. Nonprofits are missing a big opportunity to stay more connected with their donors by not capturing their mobile phone numbers. You can text donors information about fundraising campaigns, events, urgent call-to-actions, and volunteer opportunities – just to name a few.
According to Qgiv, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act specifically forbids businesses from texting consumers without their consent. However, nonprofits have an advantage in that nonprofit organizations don’t need explicit consent. Donors consent to receive text messages from nonprofits simply by providing their mobile phone number.
That said, a best practice is to make providing a phone number optional on donation pages and to inform donors that they will be contacted via text if they provide their mobile number. The Human Rights Campaign is a good example of using a donation page to collect mobile phone numbers.
Our Certificate in Digital Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of website design, email marketing, online fundraising, and social media for nonprofits.
The program requires the completion of three webinars and costs a total of $100 USD. To earn the certificate, you can attend the webinars live or view the recordings – or a combination of both. Learn more & register!
6) Add charity rating badges to your donation page(s).
Seventy-two percent of individuals say that the presence of a charity rating badge increases their likelihood of giving. If your nonprofit does not have charity rating badges on your website, then it’s time to look into getting registered with Charity Navigator, Candid, and GreatNonprofits. All three programs are free to use, accept online donations for your nonprofit, and are nonprofit organizations themselves. A good example of the use of charity badges is the American Kidney Fund on its donation page(s).
Charity Navigator, Candid, and GreatNonprofits are only available to nonprofits based in the United States. If your nonprofit is located outside of the US, then Google “charity ratings [your country name]” to find similar programs.
There is also the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, but it is price prohibitive for most small nonprofits — and Charity Watch which only reviews very large nonprofits and not by request.
7) Provide the option for donors to pay credit card processing fees.
According to Classy, 50% of online donors will opt-in to pay the credit fees for processing their donations. As a best practice, require that donors opt-in to pay the fees (✔ a box), add a fee of 3% or less, and after opt-in, calculate the new donation amount so donors understand the total amount that will be billed. Defenders of Wildlife is a good example to model.
It’s worth noting that 50% of nonprofits offer donors the option to cover processing fees. If your fundraising platform doesn’t offer the ability to add credit card processing fees to your donation pages, then it’s likely time to search for a new platform.
8) Add a tribute giving option to your primary donation page and create an additional donation page where tribute giving is the only option.
According to the Global Trends in Giving Report, 33% of donors worldwide prefer to give tribute gifts (26% for Millennials, 31% for Gen Xers, and 41% for Baby Boomers). Also known as honor and/or memorial gifts, most nonprofits add the option to their primary donation page, such as the American Red Cross.
However, to effectively promote tribute gifts during the holidays or for special occasions in print, in email, and on social media, your nonprofit should also create an additional donation page just for tribute giving with a unique URL, such as redcross.org/tributegiving.
Finally, it’s worth noting that also according to the Global Trends in Giving Report, the most popular tribute gifts with donors are memorial gifts (43%), birthdays (25%), and religious holidays (10%). To learn more about tribute gifts, download How to Launch & Grow a Tribute Giving Program for Your Nonprofit.
9) Create an action-oriented “Thank You for Your Donation” landing page.
A “Thank You for Your Donation” landing page is the page that donors land on after their donation has been processed. It’s an important page because it is one of the few times you have the hyper-focused attention of your donors as they wait for their donation to be confirmed.
Surprisingly, “Thank You for Your Donation” pages are one of the most overlooked pages on a nonprofit’s website. Most look and function like relics from the early 2000s. Follow the lead of the World Wildlife Fund and design your “Thank you for Your Donation” landing page to grow your social media following and to inspire your donors to get more involved.
10) Include a mailing address and phone number on your donation page(s).
Donors that prefer to give offline will likely visit your nonprofit’s website and click the “Donate” button only to become frustrated that your primary donation page does not include information on how to give via mail or over the phone. The Nature Conservancy lists its mailing address and phone number in the right bar of its donation page(s) in a way that does not distract online donors from completing their donation.
Post Updated: March 25, 2023
Our Certificate in Digital Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of website design, email marketing, online fundraising, and social media for nonprofits.
The program requires the completion of three webinars and costs a total of $100 USD. To earn the certificate, you can attend the webinars live or view the recordings – or a combination of both. Learn more & register!
