Guest Post by Jacob Spencer, Customer Success/Account Manager of Donately
Your nonprofit’s donation form is the foundation of your online fundraising strategy. This is the page where supporters submit their contribution to your mission, so it’s important that the donation form provides a smooth experience. If you don’t have a well-designed donation page, you may lose out on key support.
Functionality isn’t the only aspect of an effective donation page. You also need to make decisions about the page’s images, typography, and overall messaging. This means your donation page should reflect your branding and make it easy for supporters to understand how their gift will make a difference. For best results, every element of the page should work together to engage donors at this critical moment.
Your branding should be consistent across all of your online pages to present a unified message, from your event registration forms to your digital fundraising opportunities. Use these five essential tips to make your donation page unique to your organization and drive fundraising:
- Add impactful images.
- Explain the impact of specific gifts.
- Customize your font and color scheme.
- Feature your nonprofit’s logo.
- Center your mission.
Your nonprofit’s brand should be a reflection of your mission, determining how your audience sees your organization, especially online. When supporters come across your content across different online platforms, they need to recognize your brand to trust that it’s really your nonprofit. These tips will help you increase virtual brand visibility and reaffirm the value of your organization to supporters at the moment they decide to donate.
1. Add impactful images.
Every page on your website should visually illustrate your message, and that includes your donation page. Think about what donors want to see when they’re about to donate—the impact. Remind them what their donation will support by adding an image that shows your nonprofit in action or one of individuals your nonprofit has directly helped. For example, if you’re an animal welfare organization, you can add an image of the dogs that your nonprofit saved and rehomed.
When choosing images for your donation page, keep these best practices in mind:
- Avoid using images that are too graphic. Overly graphic images can overwhelm your audience and lead to empathy burnout. Instead of focusing on the issue itself in your donation page imagery, focus on the positive impact your organization (and the donor) will make by giving.
- Add alt text to increase accessibility. In case a viewer can’t see your images for any reason, alt text provides them with a short description of what they would’ve seen. For each image you use, include a line of alt text so that no supporter misses out. This also ensures that those using screen readers won’t miss out on the imagery on your page.
- Optimize images for mobile. Growing social media outreach means that more and more supporters donate directly from their phones. Donately’s list of online donation software best practices explains how much of a difference mobile-responsive donation pages can make to donors. Double check that the donation platform you use offers mobile responsive technology to make your page more accessible for your audience.
If you have multiple campaign-specific donation forms, use different images that reflect the respective campaign for each page. Tailor images to the goals of each fundraising campaign for maximum donor engagement.
2. Explain the impact of specific gifts.
When donors are deciding on how much to donate, it can be helpful to give concrete examples of the impact different amounts can make. For example, you could list the number of meals one $50 donation would provide to families in need. These explanations help supporters connect their donation with the tangible impact the gift will make.
Concrete explanations can be especially helpful during special campaigns like Giving Tuesday, when donors may want to make a larger contribution than usual. Pair each example with a suggested giving amount on your donation page to ease the giving process while providing a compelling reason to donate.
You can also use explanations to emphasize the greater impact of recurring gifts. Include an option on your donation page to turn a one time donation into a monthly gift, and provide an example of how much of an impact those gifts would make after six months or a year.
3. Customize your font and color scheme.
Effective online fundraising tools provide plenty of customization options for donation pages. Take advantage of this opportunity by using fonts and colors that supporters already associate with your organization’s brand.
Consistent branding is the number one best practice for nonprofit websites, so it’s important that your donation page’s typography and color scheme match the rest of your website. If you’re still developing your brand guide for your website, consider the following tips:
- Choose a font that is clear, legible, and straightforward.
- Make sure the font aligns with your brand’s tone and messaging.
- Use colors that go well together and are visually appealing.
To ensure consistency across all of your communications, document your brand guidelines for your organization. Include a list of fonts and color hex codes, then use the guide whenever creating new material to present a cohesive picture of your nonprofit.
4. Feature your nonprofit’s logo.
Your logo is the most recognizable aspect of your organization’s brand, so it should naturally have a place on your donation page. If your logo isn’t present on your donation form, supporters might have concerns about the legitimacy of the page and hesitate to input their payment information.
Your logo acts as an official stamp of your organization, so it should represent your mission well. If you’re rebranding or creating a logo for the first time, keep it simple and creative. Take inspiration from other nonprofit logos that work well—this list of 100 best nonprofit logos from Kwala includes a wide variety of different design approaches to consider.
No matter what creative approach you decide to take to create your logo, it should align with your nonprofit’s mission and goals. Supporters should be able to easily understand the reasoning behind your logo choice and immediately connect the image with your cause.
5. Center your mission.
Your organization’s mission should be at the center of every aspect of your brand. Your logo, typography, colors, and images should all work together to drive your message home to supporters.
Donation pages are a crucial place to communicate effectively to inspire donors, and the best way to do this is to make sure that your mission remains at the heart of the page. Include a few sentences to remind donors exactly who their donations will help, or pair suggested donation amounts with tangible impacts. For example, if a $20 gift provides three animals with new blankets, add that information to your donation page.
This extends to thank you messages, as well. Remind your supporters before, during, and after they make a donation of the tangible impact their gift will make.
These tips will help you create a donation page that supporters trust, allowing you to build stronger relationships with your donors. Once you’ve made necessary branding changes, remember to use fundraising metrics to evaluate the page’s effectiveness and guide any future decisions. Intentional, branded donation pages will help you boost donor engagement, retention, and overall donations.
About the Author
I strive to make every step of our customer journey as enjoyable as possible. My goal is to turn everyone that trusts Donately into a raving fan! Raising funds can be daunting, but we know that with the right tools, it can and should be easy.
Throughout my career, I’ve been able to help sales and success teams tackle new markets, grow and expand.
Leading with empathy, listening to actually solve problems, and remembering that we are all human are the key elements to growing any business in a meaningful way.
When I’m not working you can find me spending time with my wife, 2 boys and our Border Collie, Abbie. Family>Everything.
