



Take a look at your website.

Would it encourage you to donate?

If the answer is no, your potential donors probably feel the same way.

I’ve seen some organizations slap a link to their PayPal account on their website and consider the job done, but it’s often those same organizations who come to us wondering why they’re not seeing a boost in donations.

While a PayPal link is a start, there’s a lot more that needs to be done to your website in order to start seeing significant increases to your donations online.

Think of your website as your personal assistant. Once set up properly to receive donations, it makes it easy for someone to donate online and it cuts out the administrative work of processing their donation for you.

Here’s what a successful donation website should do:

Ask your website visitors to donate

Make potential donors feel comfortable donating by providing them the information they want

Process your donations instantly into your payment account (like PayPal)

Send automated tax receipts to donors

Collect donor info straight into your database

Create summaries of your donations and tell you how far you are to your goal

Make it easy to keep in touch with your donors through scheduled emails

The best part is that with just six steps, anyone can setup their website to collect and optimize donations.

I've also included a few examples of great donation websites to inspire you as you get started.

And if you're building a full membership management website, we've got a free instructional webinar coming up that will teach you three website changes that will start attracting new members right away: Turn Your Website Into a Membership Growth Engine.

Here Are the 6 Steps to Create a Donation Website:





Read More: 12 Donation Website Templates + Examples to Inspire You

Step 1: Create a Donation Page

A donation page is a one-page sales pitch that includes all the information someone needs to make a decision to donate to your organization.

This is the page to which you direct someone after you’ve asked them to make a donation to your organization.

Before creating your page, it’s good to know that our brains are hardwired to make us feel good when donating, so anything that you do to increase that feeling can increase your donations.

Besides talking about benefits, here are the six major things that successful donation pages include:

Your organization’s mission: This lets potential donors know why you exist and why they should give to your organization. In fact, this information is the most important thing potential donors want to know before donating. Your organization’s branding: A study of 45,000 nonprofits found that branded donation pages received 700% more donations than generic ones. This is because branded donation pages appear more trustworthy. A story about someone your organization helped with an image of that person: Studies have proven that people are more generous when they can identify with the story and image one a single person versus a group of people. A breakdown of where a donation goes: This is the second most important detail donors want to know when deciding whether to donate.

A personal message from your President or someone on the Board: This is a top tip by donation page expert, Abby Jarvis from Qgiv. Ask for a donation and make your goal attainable: All too often I’ve seen donation pages forget to specifically ask for a donation in the copy, and as pointed out in The Science of Generosity, the number one reason people donate is because they were asked to. However, when you ask for a donation, make sure to avoid “fundcrushing” — the use of large or abstract numbers to motivate donors to give. An example of this would be: “donate $10 to end world poverty”. Fundraising expert Larry Johnson says that doing this is actually an incentive not to give, because people don’t feel like their donation will make a difference. To avoid this, present goals that are attainable and ask for reasonable donations that can make a difference. A better example is: “donate $10 to help us send $1000 of books to schools in developing nations.”

When you create your donation page, try to keep the layout similar to the rest of the pages on your website. If you need some help with the layout, skip down to the bottom of this blog for some great examples!

Step 2: Create a Donation Form to Collect Your Donor’s Information

When I was a kid, I collected donations for my soccer team the old-fashioned way: door to door. It took me a whole afternoon to do one block and I had to put in the same effort every year.

If I could go back in time, I’ll tell my younger self to collect my neighbours’ contact information along with their donation. That way, the next year I could just email everyone a link to my PayPal account and collected their donations in minutes.

This is what the most successful nonprofits do. They keep their donor information in a database and reach out regularly to ask for repeat donations (just like I should have done). Not only does this increase donations, because around 32% of new donors donate again, but it allows them to spend more time finding new donors.

To collect a donor’s information instantly, link your online donation form to your contact database. If you need help doing this, there are many inexpensive software providers that specialize in this area, Wild Apricot is just one option. When you create your donation form, make sure you these fields are mandatory, so you ensure you collect this information:

First name

Last name

Email

Address

Phone number

Here’s an example of a great donation form from the North Center Neighborhood Association that collects the right info. Notice that they also include a CAPTCHA at the bottom of the form. "Nonprofits tend to get targeted by fraudsters testing card numbers, because they have a simple form which can be easily submitted to automatically," says John Cooper, of The Friendly Developer. "Either using tools like a CAPTCHA, or a hosted page like PayPal helps to prevent this."

When launching your next donation campaign, go into your database and email, call, or send your past donors a letter to increase your donations.









Step 3: Set up Automated Tax Receipts and Thank You Messages

This step is about both increasing donations and more about saving you time.

One of the biggest complaints about managing a nonprofit I hear is how much time administrative tasks can take. My advice is always to automate things using software.

In the same light, there are programs you can use, like Wild Apricot that can send out an automated tax receipt and thank you message the instant someone donates through your website.

Plus, if you can show new donors that you care about their donation and appreciate their contribution, they'll be more likely to donate again!

Read More: How to Write a Donation Letter



Step 4: Make Your Donation Page Shareable

Last fall, I climbed the CN Tower to raise money for the United Way. While training, I shared updates of my progress on Facebook with a link to my donation page. To my surprise, I ended up raising $270 on top of the donations I had collected in person just from people following me on Facebook.

If you make your donation page shareable, more people will hear about your campaign and more people will donate.

Here are two easy ways to encourage social media sharing of your donation page:

Add a “tweetable” to your donation page. A tweetable is a pre-written tweet that someone can click on and share with their Twitter Followers.

Ask people to share your page on Facebook. JustGiving increased shares of their donation page by 28% just by asking people to share it and including a share button.

Read More: How to Get Donations: 18 Ways the Pros Are Doing It

Step 5: Add a Donation Button to Your Website

A month back, I was talking with a friend who signed up to participate in a walk for cancer research. I agreed to donate, but as we kept talking the subject changed many times.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot about donating and only remembered a week later.

This same situation happens when people come onto your website and it’s not easy to locate the donation page. They might start reading your news, or browse your upcoming events, and before they know it, it’s slipped their mind and you’ve missed out on a donation.

This is why it’s important to have a “Donate” button that’s easy to find on every page on your website.

Most organizations choose to have it at the top, in their menu, or both, like the example below.

To make it as easy as possible to find your donation page, my recommendation is to do both.

It’s important that this donate button and the menu item both link to your donation page as described in step one. That’s because your donation page is your best pitch on why someone should make a donation and by how much.

I just want to mention again that to avoid fraudsters using your donation form to test fake credit cards, make sure you use challenge-response authentication like a CAPTCHA.

Read More: The 22 Features Every Top Nonprofit Website Has





Step 6: Drive Traffic to Your Donation Page

Here’s a marketing tip used by the pros. It’s called the 80/20 rule: spend 20% of your time creating content and 80% of your time promoting it. That’s because there’s so much clutter on the internet, you need to spend a significant amount of time promoting yours to help it stand out.

This rule can be applied to your donation page too. After you publish it, make sure you promote it.

One thing that can make it easier to get more traffic to your donation page is to promote it during months with high natural giving trends.

A study by Network For Good found the following months have the highest natural giving trends:

April and October see natural increases in online donations.

Giving Tuesday sees a spike in donations by 30% versus the rest of the year

One third of all online giving happens during December, with 22% occurring on December 30th and 31st.

To help you take advantage of these trends, here are three ways to promote your donation page that don’t take a lot of effort:

Blog: Publish blog posts during these months with stories about your cause, ask for donations, and include a link to your donation page. Regular readers of your blog can learn more about your campaign and donate while they’re reading. Scheduled Emails: Pre-write emails asking for donations and schedule them to send automatically during these months. There are a number of tools that can set this up for you. If you’re a Wild Apricot customer, you can use our easy email scheduler to do this. Social Media: Use the free version of HootSuite to schedule social media posts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) asking for donations during these months.





One More Step for Perpetual Donation Generation

With a little work up front, your donation website is ready to go. To keep the donations rolling in, make sure you keep asking your donors, members, and sponsors for donations. That’s why the last step is important:

Create a donation page Create a donation form to collect your donor’s information Setup automated tax receipts and thank-you messages Make your donation page shareable Add a donation button to your website Drive traffic to your donation page during giving seasons

That’s because traffic to your donation page may slow down as time passes. To keep traffic up, make sure you have a plan in place to keep writing blog posts, keep sending emails, and keep updating social media.

How Wild Apricot Can Help

Wild Apricot has helped thousands of small and medium-sized nonprofits build websites optimized for donations in a matter of minutes.

That’s because Wild Apricot provides an all-in-one membership management software that comes with professionally designed templates that can be easily built to include:

A donation page

A customizable donation form

A donation goal bar

Integration with a number of online payment processors including PayPal

And once someone fills out your donation form, their information is instantly updated in your membership database, which makes it easy to:

Keep all member records up to date with their donations

Send automated invoices, receipts, and thank-you messages

View donation summaries

Filter contacts and create lists

Email contacts

Your donors can also choose to subscribe for recurring donations, and automatically give every month, quarter, or year.

If you’re looking to create a powerful donation generation website and save time while managing your organization, consider starting a free trial of Wild Apricot.







10 Examples of Donation Website Pages

Ready to start building your donation page?

Here are 10 real donation websites using Wild Apricot, with the pros and cons of each donation page so you can decide how to format yours.

(And if you'd like to see 50 more nonprofit website examples, click here.)

1. America - Israel Chamber of Commerce

Pros:

Their donation page is included in the main menu bar, so it's easy to find

Their donation button is big, bright, and attention-grabbing — there's no way potential donors will miss it!

Cons:

There's no specific indication of the ways the donation will be used

There also aren't any graphics or anything to add visual interest to the page

Pros:

The link to the donate page is a big button in the top right corner of every page. It can't

be missed

The page starts with a statement of why donor support is vital

Cons:

The address field isn't mandatory

The "Method of Payment" field is unnecessary

Pros:

It's a single-step donation page, meaning it's easy to fill out and use

It thanks donors right away, encouraging them to donate

The donation button is in their main menu, so it's easy to find

Cons:

It's not attention-grabbing — including some visuals of the programs a donation supports would help

The “Cancel” button at the bottom is unnecessary

Pros:

Donors are offered options for what types of newsletters they would like to receive

The donate form includes suggested donation amounts

Cons:

Though the donation form includes an option to make a gift in honour of someone, it doesn't look like the organization will notify that person of the donation.

Pros:

The page is well-designed and it's easy to fill out

The mention of a tax cut might encourage donations

Cons:

There are no graphics or anything to grab a new visitor's attention

Pros:

Including the math break-down of salary to donation percentage can encourage a more specific donation

Stating their goal clearly and simply makes it clear what donors' contributions are going to

Cons:

There are no stories about the people these donations have impacted

Including images of their campaigns might also help

Pros:

They include a small gift with every donation, which adds an incentive to donate

Cons:

There's no information on where the donation is going or what it supports

Their site is http, rather than https, meaning that it's listed as "not secure" — potentially scaring away potential donors

Pros:

The entreaty at the top is heartwarming and encourages contributions

Adding a comment section allows donors to feel like their voices are being heard

Cons:

Like the site above, it's listed as "not secure"

There are no stories to show where the donations are going

Pros:

The donation page is included in the main menu bar, making it easily accessible

There are checkboxes allowing donors to choose where their donation goes

The sidebar reminds potential donors about the organization's mission without taking up too much space at the top of the page

Cons:

No use of graphics

There's a sponsorship section at the bottom that doesn't add anything to the page

Pros:

This page features a donor, making donors feel like they have a chance to be featured and appreciated as well

There are pre-selected giving amounts, making it easier for donors to select the amount they want to give

Cons:

There are a lot of different fonts being used, making the page feel a bit chaotic

And that's it for how to create a donation website! Let me know in the comments if you have any other advice.

Read More: 20 Foundation Websites to Get You Inspired