What donors really want: the best charity fundraising platforms

For context, it’s worth considering why donors’ attitudes have shifted, and luckily it’s not fundraising rocket science. 

Your supporters will be familiar with many other charities with digital platforms and apps, and they often offer slick experiences that are usually optimised for mobile-first interactions. So if your charity’s digital presence isn’t well thought-out and frictionless to deal with, it’s arguably time to rethink your digital framework and reposition it in the eyes of supporters.

Trust and transparency should be big motivating factors for this, because your supporters want to feel confident about their security and where their money goes. And in an era of ever-increasing digital fraud, their ability to have faith in your  donation and e-commerce set-up is non-negotiable.

In addition, your capacity to personalise your donors’ experiences should be a high priority. Charitable supporters like to be valued, rather than treated as transactions, so make sure that your touchpoints make them feel like they’ve been seen.

‘But why does that matter more now?’, you might ask. Well, the difficult effects of the cost of living crisis have been well documented already, and fundraisers will hardly need to be reminded of what it’s tended to mean for charitable giving.

Maintaining an awareness of the wider world’s circumstances is critical, because the squeeze means the competition is tougher than ever. Against that backdrop, the digital nuts and bolts of your giving process must be spot-on.

A clunky or compromised donation system can lead to drop-offs, lost support - and less income. Or, look at it from a positive viewpoint instead: when you do have a seamless giving platform in place, you’re meeting your donors’ needs, matching their expectations and far more likely to build loyalty and long-term support.

Choosing the best charity fundraising platforms, and the right one for you, is therefore a balance between looking inwardly, at your current set-up and internal efficiency, but also being acutely aware of external appearances and how your donors’ experiences are playing out.

Having set the scene, let’s summarise what the best fundraising platforms for charities deliver. They are:

• Mobile-friendly and easy to use: for intuitive donation journeys
• Your flexible friend: to work for campaigns, events, peer-to-peer fundraising and regular giving alike
• Rock-solid regarding safety and compliance: for secure payments and clear data handling
• Built with scalability in mind: in order to grow with your charity
• Designed to be interconnected: for integration with CRM and other systems.

That last point is a crucial one. For one thing, when a platform offers integration with other software, systems and databases, donors won’t be lost in silos. More broadly though, truly integrated platforms provide improved functionality and efficiency, with all sorts of opportunities to streamline and simplify workflows. They should also bring with them the best online fundraising tools for nonprofits.

Now for the good stuff: some practical tips for you to consider as you plan forward steps for your fundraising journeys. And while we wouldn’t claim that the following list is comprehensive, if you tackle most of these suggestions, we believe your charity is far more likely to find success.

• Audit your donor journey.

That’s right, get testing on desktop and mobile, mapping first exposure right through to long-term advocacy. You’ll find plenty of advice on how to improve donors’ journeys online, but your audit’s assessment of interactions should reveal friction points that you can then iron out.

• Simplify forms and reduce clicks in donation flows.

Some ways to achieve this are to reduce the number of required fields, employ pre-filled information, and of course serve up quick payment options. Suggested donation amounts on a single page can also help to keep donors ‘in the zone’.

• Test donation page speed and usability.

Your donation page serving it's purpose is top priority. Making this critical supporter-facing touchstone load quickly, be effortless to navigate and quick to use, is a must if you want to ramp up conversions and keep existing donors sweet. Here's some more tips to make giving easier.

• Collect donor feedback on the online giving process.

In other words, hear from the people who matter most. One option is to actually talk to them, doing real-world observations as they interact with your digital assets. Other popular, but less personal routes, include post-donation surveys and feedback emails.

• Provide impact messaging at the point of donation.

Just as your donation page should be short and simple, the words you use with donors should be as clear and punchy as possible. Getting it right with brief lines that make donors feel something can be the difference between final clicks or falling conversions.

To round things off, here's a quick example of how The Fashion & Textile Children’s Trust (FTCT) have widened their reach and enhanced their supporters’ experiences. They're a London-based grant-giving charity, one that’s been helping families since 1853. Their challenges included limited digital reach and an overreliance on traditional fundraising methods.

Thanks to the use of our Access Raise platform, FTCT were enabled to engage donors more easily, diversify income and grow their online giving. This has led to improved supporter journeys and more confident fundraising, with a website that now supports over 40,000 visitors every year. Our knowledge of the best online fundraising tools for nonprofits has also seen the integration of features like AI content tools and simplified Gift Aid reporting.

"Having Evo’s AI tools is like having an extra pair of hands. They save us time, boost confidence in our content, and mean we don’t have to be experts in everything. It’s a game-changer for a small team."

- Jill Haines, Marketing and Communications Manager

To read the full case study, please head over here.

Change hasn’t just arrived in the world of charitable giving, it’s going to keep on coming. What’s vital is to remember that donors should be at the heart of fundraising, but also that their expectations can guide the choice of supporting software you use. Charities that select a high-quality platform, one that balances supporter experience with organisational goals, will surely encounter fewer bumps in the fundraising road.

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that the key letters of the subheadings above spell out the word ‘RAISE’.

It’s an apt word in general for fundraisers, of course, but it also happens to be the name of our all-in-one platform for more effective and joined-up fundraising (it’s almost like we’d planned it).

To find out more about what Access Raise could do for your charity and book a demo of its many benefits, please contact our friendly team.