Online giving is more important than ever for nonprofits. The switch to virtual operations necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a boom in online donations, but online giving was on the rise even beforehand. In fact, Blackbaud’s online giving trends report found a 42% increase in online giving within the last three years.
What does this mean for your nonprofit? It’s increasingly important to find innovative and exciting ways to engage with new donors online. As your online fundraising and marketing hub, your nonprofit website is your greatest tool for engaging supporters digitally.
It’s worth it to review your nonprofit website and make sure it’s optimized to drive donations. This article will walk through strategies and web design practices to improve online giving:
- Provide a seamless online donation process.
- Incorporate call-to-actions throughout your site.
- Ensure your website is accessible.
- Use your website to tell your nonprofit’s story.
Take a look at any of the best nonprofit websites, and you’ll find that they all leverage these strategies in their own unique ways to engage their audiences. These organizations know that the key to better online engagement is meeting supporters where they are and appealing to their needs and interests. Read on to find out how to do this with your website.
1. Provide a seamless online donation process.
If you want to optimize your website to increase online fundraising revenue, the first place you should look to is your online donation page. A well-designed, streamlined donation page is one of the most important elements of your donor’s online journey because it’s what donors use to actually show their support for your mission.
You might think that once visitors land on your online giving page, they are guaranteed to fill out the form entirely. However, just because someone intends to make an online donation doesn’t mean they will follow through. In fact, people often end up abandoning a donation page because the form is too long or overly complicated.
To provide a seamless donation experience, incorporate these tips into your online giving page:
- Embed the donation form into your website for a streamlined process.
- Customize your donation forms to collect only necessary donor data.
- Offer suggested giving amounts to help guide donors’ decisions.
- Minimize the number of required fields.
- Optimize your page for mobile use, with simple navigation and large buttons.
- Provide a secure and integrated payment process.
Above all, your donation page shouldn’t hinder or interrupt the giving experience but instead encourage supporters to complete their donations.
Find a giving platform that allows you to design customized, mobile-responsive donation pages for every type of fundraising campaign. The right tools and page design can make the giving process convenient for both you and your donors.
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Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.
2. Incorporate call-to-actions throughout your site.
Once you’ve optimized your online donation page, you now have to guide website visitors to it. You can do this by incorporating key calls-to-action (CTA) throughout your site.
CTAs can be an image, line of text, or button that prompts users to take action. For example, if you’ve ever received an email from a business prompting you with a new discount code, they probably also include a link or button to their website to encourage you to buy something. Without that CTA, you receive the information about the sale, but not clear directions about how to act on it.
Supporters could just look up your website themselves, but that extra step is often what leads people to forget and move on to something else. With compelling CTAs, you capitalize on moments when supporters are inspired to give and provide them with an easy, immediate way to take action.
Incorporate CTAs throughout high-traffic pages where supporters might feel inclined to give, such as your:
- Mission statement page
- Past fundraising accomplishments roundup
- Homepage
- Current campaign page
- Blog posts
- Testimonials page
Also, ensure your CTAs speak to the interests and motivations of a wide range of audience members. For instance, you might include CTAs that allow visitors to sign up for your monthly giving program. This gives supporters an easy way to take their engagement to the next level and show increased support for your mission.
For those who can only contribute a small amount, you might even use a CTA with a specific fundraising request, such as “Donate $5 Now.” This allows you to offer flexible giving opportunities to appeal to and engage a wider variety of donors.
3. Ensure your website is accessible.
Web accessibility compliance is the process of ensuring that your website’s content and functionality are accessible to all visitors, regardless of their individual circumstances or abilities. Ensuring web accessibility is crucial to creating a positive user experience for all of your supporters.
For baseline accessibility, design your website with all needs and abilities in mind. This means your website needs to comply with laws and regulations such as the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
A fully accessible and compliant nonprofit website will allow you to:
- Foster an inclusive culture, not just on your website but also for your organization as a whole.
- Promote an overall more user-friendly and pleasant browsing experience.
- Minimize website visitor loss due to inaccessibility or user disability.
- Allow all types of devices to access your site.
- Improve search engines’ ability to read and understand your website.
An accessible and compliant website isn’t just good practice. If you want to expand your audience and ensure your mission is reaching as many people as possible, it’s essential (and in many cases, legally required).
If you’re wondering if your nonprofit website is accessible, use these quick tips to improve your site:
- Ensure that non-text content (image, video, audio) has a text alternative.
- Avoid using sensory characteristics like sound and appearance as the only way to convey important information.
- Don’t use flashing elements or bright lights.
- Ensure there is a sufficient color contrast between the background and your text. The recommended ratios are 4.5:1 for small text or 3:1 for large text.
While the above tips are great to follow, your website might also benefit from more in-depth help. Consider partnering with a dedicated website support service for more concrete and actionable next steps!
According to Kanopi’s guide to nonprofit technology consulting, web design professionals can help you develop a more accessible website that complies with all relevant regulations. They can meet you where you are and recommend tips and strategies that are tailored to your overall website design and strategy.
Take a Personalized Tour
Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.
4. Use your website to tell your nonprofit’s story.
Supporters donate to your organization because they’re passionate about your cause. Something about your nonprofit’s story resonates with them enough to give their time and money to support your organization. Telling your nonprofit’s story is a key part of donor engagement, and your website plays a central role in this effort.
By incorporating your nonprofit’s story and journey into website content, supporters will be reminded of why they care about your mission and might be inspired to give.
Getting Attention highlights several web design tips for telling your nonprofit’s story effectively:
- Clear links to your Mission Statement and About Us page in your main menu.
- Use your homepage to highlight past accomplishments.
- Within your online donation form, connect direct impact with each of your suggested giving levels. For instance, an animal shelter might explain that a $50 donation allows them to purchase supplies to house one additional shelter dog, $150 helps house three animals, and so on.
- Use engaging and interactive infographics to depict different aspects of your organization, such as a timeline of your organization’s history or a map of where you work.
- Include compelling testimonials from community members, volunteers, and staff that share each individual’s personal story and connection to your cause.
Your website shouldn’t just be the vehicle that enables you to collect online gifts. It should also be the resource supporters use to become well-versed in your cause. Creating an emotional connection with your website allows you to build stronger, genuine relationships with donors, gaining their support for the long term rather than just a one-time donation.
When your nonprofit website is optimized for driving donations, you can link to it throughout all of your other marketing materials, including social media posts, emails, and even direct mail. This is the beauty of a well-designed, accessible, informative website—it can anchor your outreach efforts and offer supporters a centralized hub for connecting with you and showing their support.
This guest post was contributed by Anne Stefanyk at Kanopi Studios.
As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.
Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddleboarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.
