A nonprofit organization’s website is one of its most valuable assets. Not only is it one of the first places a potential donor will look to learn more about the mission and outcomes, it’s also home to the donation page where visitors can make a gift online.

But if your website isn’t optimized for online giving, your organization could be missing out on donations. These tips will help ensure that your online donation process makes it easy for visitors to complete their transaction.

• Keep it simple. Limit your donation form to as few questions as possible. The most essential fields are name and email address. You can send a thank you note via email and give the donor the option to fill out the rest of their profile at their leisure.
• Offer giving amount options. With your standard online donor form, you can suggest common amounts such as $25, $50 or $100, as well as a custom gift amount. If you’re segmenting your audience, you may want to build custom donor forms with different giving amount options.
• Make it mobile-friendly. Some donors will make their online gifts from a mobile device or tablet. Your donation page should be responsive so that it looks good and functions correctly on those screens.
• Text-to-Give. There are a variety of mobile fundraising tools that use text messages to collect donations via mobile devices. That’s a particularly effective strategy for use on social media channels and broadcast promotions on radio or television.

Most nonprofit websites don’t have the technical infrastructure to handle electronic payments directly, but your donor management system may have a built-in payment processor that you can integrate into your website. Other third-party platforms like PayPal, Stripe or Square offer plugins and buttons that also make implementation easy.

The MadAveCollective team can help you evaluate your current setup, plan and implement changes, and discover new ways to collect donations online. Give us a call or send us an email today.