Do you know that on-line giving elevated by 9% throughout the nonprofit sector in 2021—and continues to develop for organizations huge and small? On-line giving and engagement have grow to be a cornerstone of the fundraising world, making it important for nonprofit organizations to supply a seamless on-line giving course of.
So, to assist your group enhance the net donor expertise, maximize on-line giving, and higher have interaction together with your donors, we’ll stroll by a couple of important steps to good the net donation course of. From data-based fundraising outreach to investing in the proper fee instruments, we’ll cowl the next methods:
- Focus in your donation kind’s design.
- Optimize giving for all units.
- Use a safe, accessible fee processor.
- Leverage post-gift outreach.
Able to enhance the best way you settle for on-line donations and promote a streamlined giving expertise to your donors? Let’s soar in.
Focus in your donation kind’s design.
When donors click on into your on-line donation web page, they need to be greeted with an easy-to-read, simple, and aesthetically-pleasing kind. In any case, in case your donation kind is just too complicated or poorly designed, it will probably mirror poorly in your group—or worse—drive donors away and result in kind abandonment.
These donation kind methods will enable you to to maintain donors on the web page till they full their items:
- Eradicate pointless questions and fields. When you embody too many fields in your donation kind, the method might grow to be tedious sufficient for some donors to say “I’ll get again to it later” and in the end neglect about their items. As a substitute, follow the necessities, similar to fundamental contact and fee info.
- Use constant branding. Colours, textual content, pictures, and different design and branding components ought to stay constant throughout your complete web site—particularly in your donation web page. This isn’t solely a mark of professionalism, nevertheless it additionally alerts to your donors that they’re in the proper place and their info will likely be protected.
- Embed your kind into your web site. By embedding your donation kind straight into your web site, you possibly can maintain donors from being redirected to a third-party web site to finish their items. This small however important step could make donors really feel extra comfy, protect the design of your kind, and streamline the donation course of.
As with the remainder of your nonprofit’s web site, the proper design and accessibility components can have a big effect on how donors navigate your pages and—most significantly—whether or not or not they resolve to stay round and proceed partaking with you.
Optimize giving for all units.
With the rise of smartphones, you possibly can not count on your whole donors to entry your donation web page on their desktops. In reality, in keeping with 360MatchPro’s fundraising statistics, cell customers made up roughly 33% of on-line donation transactions final yr.
With this in thoughts, you’ll want to organize for the numerous portion of customers who will likely be utilizing cell and handheld units to click on into your platform and try to finish the nonprofit fee course of.
To advertise an inclusive giving expertise for donors on totally different units, you possibly can:
- Use giant buttons and textual content which can be readable throughout units
- Incorporate a sticky navigation menu
- Make the most of a vertical structure
- Put money into donation kind instruments with mobile-friendly templates
To make completely certain that the giving expertise is optimized for a number of units, you possibly can attempt to entry your donation kind utilizing a smartphone and leverage instruments like Google’s mobile-friendliness take a look at.
Use a safe, accessible fee processor.
Your fee processor is the behind-the-scenes software program that ensures donor knowledge and funds are being facilitated safely and conveniently. This makes it a crucial part of the donation course of that must be as safe and dependable as attainable.
Specifically, take note of these key options to make sure that you’re utilizing efficient fee processing instruments to your group:
- PCI safety compliance. As mentioned within the iATS Funds information to PCI compliance, PCI compliance is “a guidelines of guidelines and necessities created by the key bank card corporations to make sure that retailers are securely dealing with buyer info.” It’s the closest factor to a golden seal of safety {that a} fee processor can obtain, and it signifies that your fee instruments might be trusted to defend donor knowledge.
- Anti-fraud instruments. As mission-based organizations that depend on folks’s goodwill and belief to boost funds, nonprofits are uniquely susceptible to the reputational backlash that comes with hacks and fraud scandals. To forestall fraud, go for fee and donation instruments which have devoted anti-fraud measures, similar to CVV2 verification and encryption.
- A number of fee choices. Some donors want to offer with their bank cards, some go for ACH, and others will likely be attempting to facilitate funds from the opposite facet of the world. To accommodate your whole donors and develop your giving potential, be certain that your fee processor accepts varied fee strategies, similar to credit score, ACH, and worldwide processing.
Poor safety, restricted fee choices, and different hiccups can flip donors away from submitting on-line items. These options will assist uphold donors’ belief in your group and pave the best way for a cushty giving expertise.
Leverage post-gift outreach.
The web donation expertise doesn’t finish when donors have submitted their items. Removed from it—the best way that your group communicates with donors after the actual fact can decide whether or not or not they resolve to offer once more and keep linked together with your group.
An built-in fee processor is usually a huge assist on this regard, correctly capable of combine straight together with your CRM and arrange fee and get in touch with info. These particulars ought to then be used to create more practical post-gift outreach by:
- Enhancing future fundraising appeals with donors’ names and giving measurement
- Leveraging donors’ names and giving historical past to personalize thank-you messages and acknowledgments
- Alerting donors to further giving alternatives, similar to selling matching items applications primarily based on donors who used their work emails to submit items
Whereas it’s straightforward to concentrate on donors as they’re within the strategy of navigating your web site and donation web page, taking steps to additional steward donors within the aftermath of their items pays again in dividends.
Now that you simply’ve explored key suggestions, methods, and instruments to advertise a extra constructive on-line donation expertise, it’s best to have all the pieces you’ll want to get began with bettering on-line fundraising to your group. Begin the method by implementing these finest practices and staying knowledgeable about donation and fee software program within the nonprofit area.
In regards to the writer: Peggah Azarvash
Peggah, a gross sales account government at iATS Funds, is a passionate Gross sales Government with 10 years’ expertise offering fee resolution help and steering to nonprofits.