Top tips to help boost online charity donations

TIP #1: Find the barriers

To improve conversion rates, you need to understand how many people you are losing, and when. Look at your charity website analytics. Can you track the numbers that make it to your donate page, and at what point they give up? The more specific you can be, the better. Once you have found the barrier (or barriers) work the numbers upward. What size opportunity is your charity missing? 

Let’s say that every month your charity receives £1,500 in online donations from 100 donors, with an average gift of £15. You know that every month, another 70 start – but do not finish – the online donation process. That’s £12,600 lost every year. Can you afford to leave that gap wide open?

TIP #2: Drive content towards your website

There are lots of ways to do this. As a baseline, you need to make sure your website link is visible on all your social media channels and other digital portals. A good content strategy will then create the opportunity to signpost people to your website, either to donate, read a story or news article, or to find out more information about a specific service, event or opportunity. There’s also Google Ads. With the world’s top search engine offering >£90,000 in free digital charity advertising every year - and our Google Ad Grant tool making it easy to develop winning ads - ad grants are a great way to start boosting online donations.

Want to find out more about driving content to your website using SEO? We asked our own SEO specialist to go through the basics every charity needs to know.

TIP #3: Reduce your load time

If Forbes is right, your business has seven seconds to make a good first impression. In the online world, it’s even less than that. Research shows a strong correlation between website load time and conversion rates. With the optimal website loading up in between 1.8 to 2.7 seconds, you’ve got to move quickly. Even something as seemingly harmless as a two-second delay can hurt bounce rates - with companies like Walmart seeing a <2% increase in conversions for every second saved (thanks again Forbes, for the info).

TIP #4: Plan your landing pages carefully

People are scanning when they visit your website, so you need to be thinking about quick-access information. If you’re running a digital fundraising campaign, make sure your external links point to a dedicated landing page, so that people know they are in the right place. As for your other content? It all has a job to do. Be clear about the purpose of each page. Break your copy down into digestible chunks and say YES to headings, sub-headings, bullet points, infographics and photos (keeping your load time in mind, of course!).

TIP #5: Include a clear call to action

Seriously. If you do not have a visible donate button or a clear call to action, people won’t know what you want them to do!

TIP #6: Keep your donate page ‘Simple, Savvy and Secure’

When it comes to online donations, there is a lot we can learn from the retail world. According to SaleCycle, 26% of online sales are lost to ‘long and complex processes’, 17% to ‘trust’ and ‘website errors’, and another 16% to ‘slow delivery’. Sound familiar?

These are all issues that transfer to online charity fundraising, so keep your donate page:

• Simple:One page is enough. Only include essential fields and remove CAPTCHAs. The more complicated your form looks, the less likely people are to complete it.
• Savvy:Technology savvy, that is! Above all, make sure your donation page works. Lengthy transactions, cumbersome processes and a lack of mobile responsivity are all quick ways to turn people away.
• Secure:Show your brand, use a known checkout provider or plug-in and make sure your security badge is visible. People need to know they can trust your site with their details - or they won’t! (inspiration: SGEngage)

Accepting online donations for the first time?  We’ve got a great blog outlining the tools you need to get started.

TIP #7: Clarify your ask

Don’t just give donors stock options of £5, £10 or £25 with no explanation. If you can, develop a list of asks that showcase the actual costs of key project activities and take a few words to explain their impact. The more tangible and precise the ask, the more donors will feel part of the solution.

TIP #8: Share the success

Give your online donors the chance to share their generosity and inspire friends and family to do the same. A Facebook and Twitter link here, an Instagram story there… Quick share social media panels give your donors immediate kudos and inspire them to share their gift with pride!

TIP #9: Test, edit, repeat

Once you are happy with your shopping experience take your page live and track the changes. Can you see the improvements? If you’re still losing donors, go back to your analytics. Try and pinpoint the barriers, edit and refine each page. Remember, it is a process. Don’t worry if you do not find the right formulae straight away.

TIP #10: Feeling confident? Why not try an ‘Abandoned Cart’ campaign?

With a higher success rate than cold retail marketing techniques, ‘Abandoned Cart’ campaigns are another lesson to learn. In the B2C world, common campaign tools include:

• Pop-ups as you leave a website
• Email reminders
• Targeted social media campaigns and Google ads

There is a balance to strike here. As a fundraiser, your job is to inspire, never pester. But that does not mean you can’t adapt some of the ideas and techniques that work for you. A well-planned message delivered to the right people at the right time (and through the right channel), could be just what you need to rekindle online support.

After all, if they made it to your donation page, you know they care about your cause.