8 Frequent Donation Web page Errors (and Easy Options!)

Donors respect the comfort of creating on-line contributions, and this development reveals no indicators of slowing down. In response to the Blackbaud Institute, on-line giving noticed a rise of 8% in 2022 and 12% in 2023. To take part extra totally in on-line giving, your web site is your most vital asset. And your web site’s most necessary asset is your donation kind. It’s necessary to maintain your web site up to date to draw important site visitors and to characteristic your donation varieties prominently on the primary web page.

Appears straightforward sufficient, proper? In actuality, quite a lot of potential issues can stand between your group and a thriving on-line giving program. Let’s discover the eight most typical errors made on donation pages and easy options to repair them.

1. Hidden donation varieties
2. Requiring donors to provide an excessive amount of info
3. Cluttering your donation web page
4. Not highlighting your safety coverage
5. Your donation web page shouldn’t be cell pleasant
6. Not providing totally different giving ranges and recurring present choices
7. Paying for bank card charges
8. Failing to say thanks

Mistake 1: Hidden donation varieties

Make it straightforward for individuals to provide. Clearly show a donate button on all related pages of your web site, together with the house web page. Keep away from hiding your donation kind underneath menus or on much less seen pages. This might scale back the variety of donations you obtain. If individuals should seek for a option to donate, you’re vulnerable to dropping their present. Your donation web page must be prominently featured in your web site, and you need to drive site visitors to it via varied promotional alternatives. Easy options:

• Embody donation hyperlinks in your e mail campaigns. Whereas not each e mail must be a direct request for donations, some ought to embrace hyperlinks to your donation kind to make giving straightforward.
• Leverage social media. Many supporters are lively on a number of social media platforms. In your subsequent social media marketing campaign, embrace hyperlinks to your donation kind the place acceptable. Moreover, place the hyperlink in your bio on social media profiles.
• Make sure the donation course of is obstacle-free. Even essentially the most engaged supporters will turn out to be pissed off if they can not simply discover your “Donate Now” button.

Mistake 2: Requiring donors to provide an excessive amount of info

You might not at all times know what particularly drives a brand new prospect to your donation web page, however one thing has piqued their curiosity. It may very well be a peer-to-peer effort the place the prospect is aware of little about your mission. When your donation kind is prominently displayed and simply accessible, you shouldn’t lose that present. Nevertheless, if the prospect should create a profile along with your group to make a one-time donation, likelihood is excessive that the donor received’t full the donation. Amassing first-time donor info is necessary, however asking for an excessive amount of might deter the donor from giving. Easy options:

• Select a greater donation kind. Your kind ought to suit your marketing campaign kind. As an illustration, Blackbaud Donation Kinds provide two kinds, Optimized and Customary Kinds. For a Giving Tuesday marketing campaign, the place fast donations are essential, the Optimized Type permits donors to provide with out making a profile. For a capital marketing campaign the place info retention is essential, the Customary Donation Type collects extra donor info when accepting the present. Matching the donation kind to the marketing campaign kind makes giving simpler in your focused donor pool.
• Restrict the required fields. It has been confirmed that including only one further subject reduces the variety of accomplished donation varieties, and including two or extra extra fields can drastically drop your donation depend. Subsequently, select your fields properly and solely ask for what you really want to course of the present.

Mistake 3: Cluttering your donation web page

Your donation web page ought to focus solely on facilitating donations. Whereas your web site serves as a platform for sharing success tales, movies, occasions, and updates in your mission, the sort of content material shouldn’t be in your donation web page. When supporters go to your donation web page, they’re there to donate. Keep away from distracting them. Once you add an excessive amount of content material to your donation web page, you’re lowering the chance of them finishing the donation. Easy options:

• Restrict the textual content. Hold the copy to a couple sentences.
• Spotlight a single hero picture. Your kind ought to have just one photograph. Make it a compelling one and place it on the high of the shape.
• Tidy up the margins. Take away sidebar navigation and menus from the shape so donors deal with submitting the present.

Mistake 4: Not highlighting your safety coverage

In case you don’t have a safe infrastructure, donors received’t really feel secure sharing their private info via your donation varieties. Easy options:

• Use industry-standard safeguards. Work with an organization that complies with Fee Card Trade Information Safety Requirements (PCI DSS) and Fee Utility Information Safety Requirements (PA-DSS), at a minimal.
• Select built-in fraud prevention. Select an organization that has invested in fraud mitigation instruments.
• Present donors your safety measures. Show compliance info in your donation web page to reassure donors concerning the safety of their transactions.

Mistake 5: Your donation web page shouldn’t be cell pleasant

Most on-line donations are made on cell units, so guarantee your donation varieties are mobile-friendly. At present, 6.84 billion individuals globally personal smartphones, and 50% of Americans spend about 5 to 6 hours on their smartphones every day. In case you rely solely on accepting donations via laptops and desktop computer systems, you’ll miss out on contributions from donors preferring to provide utilizing their smartphones, tablets, and different cell units. Easy options:

• Make your kind readable on a mobile phone. When formatting for cell units, your kind must be uncluttered and user-friendly. Embody solely a quick paragraph explaining your marketing campaign and your brand on the shape.
• Less complicated is best. For the most effective consumer expertise, your mobile-responsive donation web page must be even less complicated than your customary kind. Use giant, easy-to-click buttons and a vertical structure to get rid of the necessity for donors to pinch and zoom.

Mistake 6: Not providing totally different giving ranges and recurring present choices

Analysis reveals that providing totally different giving ranges in your donation varieties can result in larger donation quantities. In case you’re letting donors enter any quantity, they’re more likely to go along with a much less beneficiant present. Easy options:

• Present predetermined giving ranges. Hyperlink these ranges to particular outcomes, serving to donors really feel extra related to your trigger. For instance, a donor would possibly plan to provide $25, but when they be taught {that a} $50 donation achieves a specific consequence, they may resolve to provide extra.
• Encourage recurring giving. Ensure that your kind prompts supporters to decide on between a single present or a recurring donation. This strategy may help convert one-time donors into sustaining donors.
• Provide choices past month-to-month giving. Statistics present that recurring donors usually choose to provide month-to-month, however some select to provide weekly, quarterly, or yearly. By giving donors the choice to show their single present right into a recurring donation on the cadence they like, you possibly can considerably improve the long-term advantages to your mission.

Mistake 7: Paying for bank card charges

The times of your group needing to cowl bank card charges are behind us. It’s now acceptable for donors to cowl the processing charges so that you just obtain 100% of their donation. However not all donors will select to do that. Easy answer:

• Provide charge cowl choices. Choose a donation kind that provides donors the choice to cowl the charge, whereas making certain that in the event that they decide to not, the charge remains to be coated. Blackbaud Donation Kinds characteristic Full Cowl™ and donor cowl. With both selection, you’re ensuring your bank card processing charges are coated, leading to extra income in your mission.

Mistake 8: Failing to say thanks

After a donor contributes, it’s important to take care of ongoing communication and all of it begins with a thanks. In case you don’t have an automated thank-you web page, with a follow-up thank-you e mail, you’re lacking a possibility to nurture your relationships with on-line donors. Easy options:

• Customise your strategy. The dimensions of the donation determines the subsequent step after a web based present is made. Even first-time donors who make a modest present ought to obtain details about upcoming fundraising occasions, engagement alternatives, and progress updates in your mission. Bigger items ought to immediate extra detailed and customized communications. 
• Create a stewardship plan. Having a well-defined stewardship plan is significant for sustaining donor relationships at each giving stage and at each stage of your relationship.

Donation varieties function the entry level for what might typically be a donor’s preliminary contribution. Since first impressions are irreversible and also you need a lifelong relationship along with your supporters, it’s essential that your donation web page feels such as you’re rolling out the welcome mat, thanking your on-line donors for coming and welcoming them to remain for the nice of your mission.