9 Best Practices for Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Landing Page
After your ideal donor has learned about your nonprofit organization. After they’ve seen it several times. After they’ve interacted with it through social media or even your email marketing list.
After all of that, they decide whether or not they want to donate.
And if they do, then there’s one place for them to go.
Your nonprofit’s fundraising landing page. We’re discussing what that is and how you can set it up so it’s more effective than ever!
What is a Nonprofit Fundraising Landing Page?
This is one of the most crucial elements of your nonprofit’s website! Your fundraising landing page is where your potential supporters land right before they make a donation. It’s the page that gives them the last encouragement to take action for your cause.
And it has the form embedded into it so they can make a donation.
But it’s not (always) enough to just have the nonprofit donation page. Your organization needs to use strategy and best practices to make sure it’s an effective online donation page!
Don’t worry! That’s what we’re explaining in this article:
Why Do Donors Leave Nonprofit Fundraising Landing Pages?
A good starting point to creating effective online donation pages is to understand why donors leave them in the first place.
This helps you update or build online donation pages that have higher conversions. You’re removing the elements of a donation page that causes a reader to think, “you know what, now’s not the right time for me to donate.”
Typically, donors exit your donation pages due to one of four areas: confusion, friction, distractions, or fear.
Confusion:
Do they understand the need to donate and where their donations go? If they’re not crystal clear on why they should donate, odds are they won’t. And if you don’t make it easy to understand where their donations go, they may not trust you as a source.
Friction:
Think of the last time you went to the store for just one item, and there was an incredibly long line. Did you wait in it? Or did you put it back and grab it another time? That’s what’s known as friction. In terms of your fundraising landing pages, do your supporters run into errors before they can make the donation? Are they unclear where to go when they land on your page?
Distractions:
Often, we want to showcase all of the information for our supporters to read about! But on your nonprofit donation pages, you want to make sure you don’t distract your readers. Because if they click off of your fundraising landing page, the chances of them going back to it are slim.
Fear:
Nowadays, there are too many scam artists out there who are all too willing to take people’s hard-earned money. People are skeptical of donating to nonprofits or even making purchases from businesses, as they rightfully should be.
Once you have a roadmap from the above, think about how you will tell your story in a compelling way. Bring your donors in by creating a fundraising landing page that connects visually, builds trust, is easy to navigate and has multiple giving options.
9 Best Practices for Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Landing Page:
Best practices in online fundraising include simple, clear donation pages – or fundraising landing pages. To make it simple, create a place where your website visitors can easily find and fill out their information to donate (or register for an event) with little distractions.
1. Keep the Design Cohesive:
Branded logos, colors, typography, and imagery are all must-haves on your fundraising page. They reassure your readers that they’re in the right place.
Plus, using cohesive branding elements makes sure your nonprofit online donation pages are recognizable.
You can use Canva Pro for nonprofits to create an entire branding kit to use for every aspect of your nonprofit – including the donation pages.
2. Put Their Fears at Ease:
Put their fears at ease by showing them your page is secure and you’re a trustworthy organization. You can do this by making sure your website has an updated SSL certificate for your nonprofit website. You can also use well-known nonprofit CRM or payment processing tools that clearly note their security.
3. Use Compelling Content
The human brain makes sense of information by subconsciously turning information into a story. It’s the way humans are wired to take complex information and make it understandable.
But, you can make it easier on your supporters by giving them the story straight away.
Use storytelling methods on your nonprofit online donation pages to tell the story of your organization through copy, imagery, and video. Think about impact stories and success stories to use.
4. Prioritize User Experience
More and more of the world’s population is using smartphones. And according to online fundraising statistics, people are using their phones to make donations now more than ever.
So having a great user experience, no matter what device they’re using, is critical.
Test your site on desktop and mobile devices to ensure visitors can easily navigate the page. Limit the number of clicks and provide adequate contact information in case help is needed.
5. Get Rid of Distractions
While it’s tempting to add links to other pages of your nonprofit’s website, it’s probably best not to. Sure, there are certain exceptions to the best practice. But overall, the idea is to keep them on the page as much as possible. Because if they click off, the chances of them going back to your fundraising landing page are slim.
Eliminate distractions by only having a “donate” button throughout the content. Keep other hyperlinks to other pages to a minimum. And try not to have any buttons on the online donation pages. If you do need to have buttons other than the donate button, try to keep them until after the “donate” portion of the fundraising landing page.
6. Reduce Friction
You want to make your nonprofit’s online donation pages as simple as possible to use. So be sure to test them out! Loop your nonprofit staff and volunteers into the donation process (especially if they already give to the organization). Have them go through the fundraising landing page to see if there are any errors or problems that occur. Then, fix any that arise!
7. Keep Important Copywriting Above the Scroll
When newspapers were the best way to consume content, this phrase used to be a little different. Since newspapers were folded, and readers only saw the headline before they unfolded the newspaper, the phrase was “above the fold.”
Thanks to technology, the same phrase still applies. Except it’s called “above the scroll.” This is the top part of your online donation pages – before anyone takes their first scroll through the page.
And this part of your fundraising landing page is the most important. Why? Because this is the make-or-break section. Potential readers will take a glance at the copywriting above the scroll and decide they either want to stay on the page, or they want to click off of it.
Because our attention spans are getting shorter, and because we’re marketed to constantly, having a top-notch headline is key to grabbing their attention.
8. Give Your Supporters Different Payment Options
Not everyone wants to give in the same way. Some may want to use a credit or debit card. Some might prefer to use an eCheck or even cryptocurrency.
And some people may want to make a one-time donation of $300. While other supporters want to opt into $20 every month.
The point is, you want to give your supporters different options. This makes giving to your nonprofit organization more accessible. And you’ll find that it may boost your overall donations!
9. Ask for the Right Donor Information
When they make their donation, make sure you ask them for the right donor information for your donor database. Whatever you need to keep in touch with them, be sure to get it.
Often, that looks like their name, email address, date of birth, and maybe even their phone number. It’s a great way to show your gratitude by sending a thank you email or text. It’s also a great way to stay in touch so you can nurture your relationship with them. And it’s a great way to reach out to them in the future in case they’re ready to donate to your organization again.
Your nonprofit most likely needs a fundraising landing page to bring in more donations. But it takes a little more effort to set one up correctly to truly see great results from it!
These best practices will help you create an effective online donation page for your organization.
Need a tool that can help you create incredible nonprofit donation pages? We suggest trying out 4aGoodCause.
Plus, we’re proud to say we have a free on-demand training of the platform so you can get an inside look at how to make your first fundraising page!
Watch the FREE On-Demand Training of 4aGoodCause!
Cheers!
– Your friends at NonprofitLibrary
P.S. View the recorded webinar with Ronald Pruitt, President and Founder of 4aGoodCause to learn more about how building an effective landing page can lead to more conversions. His platform is a great way for nonprofits of all sizes to build beautiful, effective fundraising pages without the hassle of website coding. Learn how you can raise more with his tips!