Improving your online donations

 

There’s a battle being waged online by thousands of Australian charities. It’s a desperate fight around the clock for that fast diminishing commodity – donations. With so many charities now offering online payments of some kind, how can your charity website stand out from the crowded pack and more importantly maximise donations?

You will be surprised to learn that it may only take a few simple steps to optimise your charity website donations and improve your donation page conversion rate. 
Some of these issues can be easily improved without any technical actions by a web developer or impact on the digital budget.  

 

Fight the good fight for online donations. See how you can raise more money for your cause this year. #charity #NFP https://t.co/nJHAVWIJVv pic.twitter.com/sphqdxqaWw

— Ezidebit (@Ezidebit) January 19, 2017

Tell your story

One of the simplest ways to improve donations, and one that many charities tend to ignore, is explaining their cause on their donations page. It’s so important to tell your story and give the user a reason to donate.  Assuming that they’re ready to hand over their cash to your charity just because they’re at your website can be a huge mistake. You need to demonstrate the work you do and make one last appeal to convince them that you’re worthy of their donation. 

 

Use images and videos

Nothing can generate emotion like a powerful image or video story. Engaging your audience with images and videos in your emails and on your donation page will also improve click-through rates and achieve higher conversion rates. They can be the simplest and most effective way to tell your story, build emotional attachment, show your need and demonstrate your solution to the issue. In most cases, adding an image or video to your donation page should be a simple exercise for your content editor. 

 

Tell them what they’re buying

Another way to improve the effectiveness of your website is to connect donation dollars to a description of how that money will be used. It’s an extremely simple way to show the donor how their money is going to help with a tangible outcome they can easily understand. 

It’s also something that provides instant gratification to the donor once they have donated. For example, “$50 buys a month’s worth of water”, “$200 buys a new well for the village”. Using these types of dollar handles online is important because there is no one to explain these outcomes to donors like there is through face-to-face or telephone-based appeals. 

 

Show them it’s safe to donate

With cases of cyber attacks and online fraud on the rise, donor data security is an issue online charities take very seriously. However, having good cybersecurity in place isn’t enough. Donors need to be reassured that when they donate they are doing so on a secure and safe platform. 

Simple things such as showing a secure payment logo, having a padlock icon alongside your donate button and displaying a link to your privacy policy provide this reassurance. Simple visual cues that confirm security measures are in place can be the difference between a donation and missing out for many people.  

 

Sign them up

Subscription donations are a great way to convert a single donation into a long-term stream of money for your charity. Give donors the option to sign up for regular donations that are automatically deducted. It will provide greater certainty for your charity. Just be sure to tell them what this type of ongoing donation can buy and show the outcomes. 

By taking a few of these simple steps, your charity website can improve its effectiveness at engaging potential donors and closing the deal. And with more donations flowing in, you can do even more to help your cause.

Ezidebit can help set up subscription donations through our recurring payments solution. To learn how our payment solution can become part of your business strategy, simply call 1300 763 256.