Are you wondering why your donation website is not delivering the results as expected? Before you read the remainder of this article, take a look at your website and do an unbiased evaluation.
Think like an outsider; is it persuasive enough?
In other words, does it encourage you to donate? Be honest. If it doesn’t, you probably have missed some important tips. With that said, let’s take a look at the top things you shouldn’t miss when creating a donation website.
1. Make sure that it has an easy to use, web-based donation function
A convincing call to action is a must-have for your website if you’re seeking donations. Basically, the website needs to convince and direct visitors to donate. With that said, there are some important elements to have in order to make your website an effective tool to increase donations.
- Have an action-driven headline to convince your visitors to donate.
- If you’re building a single donation landing page, there is no need to have a navigation bar. So, your visitors will focus on the donation button and form.
- Ensure that you have a short and sweet copy to encourage donors. It should elaborate on the way the donations are used and how they impact the cause.
- Include the mission of your organization in a prominent way. This should be strong enough to explain why your organization exists.
- Be sure to brand your organization through the donation page. You should know that plenty of non-profits fail to achieve their targets just because of poor branding.
- Include images (or even videos) and stories about the individuals you have helped already. Potential donors become more convinced when they see such stories.
- Point out where their donation goes and it is an exceptionally important element to consider.
- Make sure that you add a personal message to donor from the President of the organization. This will increase the credibility and add a sense of a trustworthy relationship.
- Directly ask for donations to accomplish your goal. However, you should not ask for massive donations.
Be sure to design your donation landing page to complement the rest of the website. This will create a credible, trustworthy appearance with proper branding.
2. Collect your donor’s information using a donation form
As a successful non-profit, you may already know the importance of maintaining a database of donor information, such as a CRM. You can use the data to encourage repeat donations and maintain a strong relationship. However, many non-profits lack proper donation forms. So, be sure to go through your non-profit’s website thoroughly and assess how good your donation form is. A great donation form must contain the following;
- First name and last name
- Email address
- Physical address
- Contact numbers
Also, it must be;
- Short and straightforward
- Mobile optimized
- Branded accordingly
- Minimal distractions
- Persuasive CTA button
- Option for recurring donation
- Donation amounts that are suggested
3. Make it shareable
It’s always wise to make your donation page shareable. That will help expand the cause of your organization. When the donors have a strong feeling about the fundraiser and where the money is going, they are more likely to spread the word about you. You should make your website shareable across as many social channels as you can. There are plenty of channels to consider today including Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
If you can make your non-profit website shareable across all those platforms, you can achieve a wider reach. The wider the reach, the greater the audience is. And if your page is compelling, this will lead to more donations.
Mentioned below are some methods to encourage your donors to share your donation page.
- Make your donation page a tweetable one. This means that it has a prewritten tweet so visitors can easily tweet it with just a single click. As a result, their followers will get to know about your page.
- Be sure to add very impressive, eye-catching images or infographics to your donation page. Also, it should contain links to the respective donation landing page so it can be shared on Instagram.
- You can ask individuals to share the page through social media like Facebook. All you need is to design your page with an attractive design, valuable content, and a share button. If the page has valuable and interesting content, people are more likely to share it.
4. Donate button is mandatory
There are many organizations that maintain non-profit websites which are not optimized for the purpose of accepting donations.
Donations will be lost if your contribution CTA button is hidden. Whether the visitors have the intention of reading news or hearing about upcoming activities, a visible donate button will still attract their attention.
Organizations frequently place CTAs at the top part, the menu, or both. So, we encourage creating both to make finding your contribution page as simple as possible.
5. Drive organic traffic
Professional marketers follow the 80/20 rule: create content for 20% of the time and promote it for 80%. Because the internet is so cluttered, you should spend a lot of time advertising yours to stand out!
So can your contribution page. Promote it when you post it, especially during peak natural giving months.
Boost your contribution page’s end-of-year giving with these tips:
- Plan seasonal campaigns and start them well in advance.
- Assess the previous year-end giving campaign and identify room for improvement.
- Create KPIs and goals to guide resourcing.
- Review existing resources such as budget, time, people, etc.
- Know who your audience is and how to reach them.
- Create a timeline and stick to that.
- Create a schedule for social and email promotions.
Regardless of the season, be sure to include the promotion in your fundraising strategy. Here are three simple strategies to advertise your contribution website:
Publish regularly
Write blogs about your cause, solicit funds, and link to the donation website during these months. Your blog visitors may learn more about the campaign and then find new ways to donate!
Schedule your emails
Prepare contribution emails and program them to go out automatically throughout certain months. There are tools that can do this for you. Remember to segment your audience for personalization!
Schedule social media posts
You should also schedule your social media posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter specifically during the giving months.
So, keep those important points in mind when creating your donation website to achieve success.
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