3 Steps to Double Online Donations

One of the best parts of working with nonprofits is watching them grow and succeed. We get to work with nonprofits that are discovering that minor changes have a huge impact on the amount of money they raise online. Qgiv clients generally earn more donations (and larger donations, to boot!) than the average nonprofit. Here are a few lessons you can learn from them.

1. Put Donation Information at The Top of Your Form

One of our clients made what seemed to be a very small tweak to their donation form — they set the donation options at the top of the page and placed the payment information fields below. Their small adjustment made a huge difference; they saw an immediate drop in donor turnover. More and more people visited the donation page and finished their gift instead of clicking away — but why?

Placing the donation information at the top of the page cements the donor’s decision to give right away. It makes entering the more tedious payment and billing information a formality instead of a deterrent. Whatever the reason, this is one easy adjustment that will help you double online donations.

2. Make It Inviting

Imagine you’re a donor that’s just finished perusing your website. You’ve seen beautiful photos, read compelling stories, grown passionate about the cause, decided to donate, and…

…got dropped into a cold, sterile-looking donation form. Ugh!

Keeping your donation page as inviting and compelling as your website is an important part of maintaining the excitement that inspires a donor to give. Be sure your site’s branding, photos, navigation items, and style are applied to your donation page; donors will be much more likely to make a gift.

3. Keep It Simple

The secret to raising more money on your donation form is to keep the process as quick and easy as possible. The more complicated, time-consuming, and difficult it is to make a gift, the less likely donors are to complete their gift. That means that nonprofits have to walk a fine line; they have to balance the restriction options and custom fields they want and turning away donors with a long, complex form.

At Qgiv, most of our clients have the best success with a handful of restriction options and as few additional fields as possible. We’ve noticed that donations drop off quickly after donors encounter more than two additional required fields. Less is more — especially on your donation form!