Top-9 donation page mistakes and how to avoid them

If your online donation page doesn’t work properly, it needs immediate attention. The occasional mistake is inevitable, but with the high-volume traffic nonprofit donation pages aims to receive, it’s crucial that your donation form is in the best shape. 

Many supporters prefer to give online instead of in person donation or sending a check. An inefficient design of your organization donation page will make you miss out on these supporters’ resources.

That check-list helps you to find out if your donation form has any of those nine top issues and needs to be updated or not:

1. Hidden donation forms: If your supporters can’t find your donation form on your site, they can’t donate. Include your online donation form in your online communication strategy and make sure donors can easily use your online form!
2. Requiring donors to give too much information: Your supporters can just get lost and be turned away when many questions asked. Limit the number of required fields on your donation page. Don’t require your donors to create an account to give, but provide them with the option to create a profile to track their donations and involvement.
3. Overfilling your donation page: Remember, this page is not your newsfeed or the entire website. Keep your copy concise and only include one picture on your donation form so that donors aren’t turned away from giving.
4. Lack of security certification: Provide your supporters with assuring that their sensitive personal information is safe. And keep that data safe. Include the proper security certification logos and maintain PCI compliance when it comes to your donation form.
5. Not being mobile-friendly: How can you donate if the page cannot be opened correctly? Keep in mind that 91% of American adults own smartphones and the past year has seen a 205% increase in mobile donations. And make a mobile-friendly donation page and keep it simple for a higher donor conversion rate. All the top online donation tools should have options for mobile.
6. Avoiding different giving levels: If you offer different giving levels, like $20, $30, $40, and so forth, there’s a greater chance that this specific donor will round up and give $30 instead of down to $20 or filling in an “Other” blank. So make sure you give your donors various options to donate to your cause.
7. Not suggesting recurring donations: Donors have busy schedules and giving to your organization is a small portion of their lives. Instead of relying on all of your donors’ memories, provide the option of automatic, recurring gifts on your donation pages – give your donors the opportunity to make monthly, quarterly, or yearly gifts to bring in more donations and make a bigger impact.
8. Ignoring social media: If your donors are giving online, they most likely have social media profiles as well. They’re tweeting, posting, and commenting on a regular basis. So give donors a way to share your donation page on social media to give your nonprofit more exposure.
9. Failing to say thank you: Make sure that your acknowledgment page is just as great as your donation form. Your gratitude toward donors should be expressed thoroughly on the acknowledgment page, followed by additional information to involve donors.

And if you want a more introductory resource, feel free to explore this guide to online donation forms.