Building a fundraising page is very important to your nonprofit organization. I have spotted some nonprofit organizations put a hyperlink that routes to their PayPal account on their site and think the job is accomplished. These organizations often complain and wonder why they don’t see an increase in donations.
There is much more to do on your website to start experiencing significant boosts in your online donations. View your nonprofit website as your personal assistant. Once properly set up to receive donations, it is easier for a donor to donate online and eliminates the administrative work of preparing their donation.
Step 1 – Use fundraising software
The use of online fundraising tools or software will make building your fundraising page even easier. There is much software available that can do a great job for your fundraising page. Fundraising software will provide you with many features and benefits, such as:
- Responsive design
- Fully customizable and professional forms
- Seamless integration with your non-profit organization’s website
- Recurring donation options
- Robust reporting and analysis
- Automated receipts
You don’t need any coding experience before using most of these features on your fundraising page as they are ready-made. Therefore, anyone can optimize and create a donation page.
Creating an account with online fundraising tool providers only takes a few minutes. Most providers require you to sign up to have access to your backend/dashboard where all activities will be carried out. Some require documentation uploaded by you while some do not require documentation to sign up. All you have to do is input your email address, password, and other relevant data. By doing that, you can get a donation page ready as quickly as possible.
Step 2 – Do a structure map of your donations page
You need to have a roadmap upfront before setting up your donation page. This way, you’ll know the specific questions and fields to include and how to sort them most intuitively. Your donation form has to be cohesive and logical, and the only way to make sure it will be is to create a plan before you start building it.
Step 3 – Create a donation form
A form will be needed to collect donations. First, name your form and add a description so that your donors know precisely what the campaign is all about. If needed, you can also change the currency or language of your form.
Step 4 – Add a payment processor
Most software currently supports two payment processors: PayPal and Stripe. Both are highly respected for the security of their data. To optimize your donations, it’s best to register with both Stripe and PayPal so funders can opt for their favorite payment method. It should be noted that only a PayPal business account can be connected to most fundraising software.
Step 5 – Create a donation page
Your donation page is a portrait of your non-profit organization, so it must be both beautiful and functional! Enhancing your page with images, colors and more can brighten the donor’s donation experience. Also, the design of your form will enhance it to be more authoritative and professional, establishing greater trust with your donors.
Step 6 – Add a donation button to your website
Embed a donation button to your web pages. Most charities prefer to have it at the top, donation page in their menu, or all. To do this, go to your preferred software tool’s dashboard and follow the instructions.
Step 7 – Maximize the header of your donation page
Donors should know at a glance that they are on a charitable donation page. The donation form must be emotionally convincing, and the purpose must be concise and clear. Also, include your charity logo at the header so donors can be sure they are engaging with your charity.
Step 8 – Reduce repetitive information
Reducing duplicate information is another way to simplify your form. For example, people often have the same shipping address and billing information. Don’t have your donors fill out the same information multiple times. The easier and shorter it is to complete your donation form, the more likely it is that your donors will send their donations!Â
Step 9 – Have it on one page
One-page donation forms yield a substantially higher success rate than multi-page forms. One-page forms have fewer steps, which results in a simplified online donation process. And as mentioned in this guide, the easier the donation process, the more likely a donor is to complete the process.
Step 10 – Make your donation page mobile-friendly
Most software will automatically build a user-friendly mobile version of your online donation page for you, so you have one less thing to be worried about! However, the best thing to do is to design with mobile in mind.
