As a non-profit organization (NPO), you live and breathe donations. Without these recurring contributions, you can’t continue making a difference in the world.
But during the time you successfully spread the word and marketed your organization, there was one thing that fell through the cracks.
Your donation page.
And no matter how fantastic your NPO’s concept is or how well your brand ambassadors know their stuff or even how well your message wows people when you talk to them in person, that’s just half the battle.
The other half remains on that one page.
In other words, you need a spot-on donation page to take potential donors from interested to sold.
So how do you get there? Let’s jump right into it.
Get an Unbiased Opinion on Your Donation Page
Improving your donation page doesn’t start with a list. It starts with your page as it stands today.
So find a couple of people who aren’t familiar with your NPO’s website to give you input on what your donation page could improve upon.
A great tool to connect you with unbiased reviewers is UserTesting, which provides you with user experience feedback within two hours. When you set up your account, be sure to ask the reviewers specific questions about their experience on your donation page, such as
The results will show you how well your donation page’s intended message gets across to potential donors, if the page layout or options are confusing and what part of the page is drawing attention that maybe shouldn’t.
No matter the result, unbiased feedback is incredibly valuable to getting a feel as to what is deterring people from donating and provides you with a baseline comparison as you finesse the page.
Compare Your Donation Page to the Competition / Similar NPOs
Now that you have a baseline, find a couple of competitor sites and ask yourself and your third-party reviewers the same questions you did for your own NPO’s donation page.
Set aside the competitor sites where you all had the same positive conclusion. These will be your inspiration donation pages.
Go Through a Page Layout Checklist
The next step to refreshing your donation page is to review your donation page piece by piece to see what’s there and what’s missing.
As you take a look at your site (and your inspiration pages), check if you have the following elements:
On top of those elements, here are a few optional features that leading donation pages include:
Put Together Must-Haves for Your Donation Page
Now that you have a list of all the items that successful donation pages include, it’s time to prioritize which should be on yours. Whether you’re redesigning the page yourself or sending it off to a designer, make sure you put together a list of must-haves and nice-to-haves. That way, your donation page is built with all essential elements in mind.
Keep it Simple
As you go on your way rebuilding your donation page, the best advice anyone can give you is to keep it simple. To help maintain a simple layout, ask yourself the following as you build out your donation page:
And Finally, TEST TEST TEST
Now that your donation page has been rebuilt with all its essential elements, it’s time to test which pictures, headlines and CTAs drive the highest donation rates. A free tool to help you do this is Google Optimize, which allows you to conduct A/B tests to see which elements on your donation page resonates with your audience. Remember, every NPO’s audience is different, so testing will allow you to customize your donation page to your audience.
Let us know in the comments what changes you have made to your donation page to drive more contributions.
Bay Leaf Digital is a marketing agency with a combined experience of more than 30 years working with large brands like Travelocity, Angie’s List, and & Citigroup. We believe there is gold in your analytics data. Bay Leaf Digital analysts geek out on finding insights that will help you grow your monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Our expertise spans web analytics, SEO, PPC/Display, and content marketing that delivers results (and often costs less than a single full-time resource).