Effective Online Fundraising with your Nonprofit Website

Long gone are the days of knocking on door after door or sending out pamphlets in the mail. Nowadays, nonprofits have found a more efficient way to collect donations—through online fundraising!

One of the best tools for online fundraising is your nonprofit organization’s website. By integrating an online fundraising platform (something like Donorbox) into your website, your organization can begin fundraising in the 21st century.

However, there are certain steps you can take to make online fundraising through your website as successful as possible. Below, we’ve listed 4 tips your organization can take to turn your nonprofit website into an effective online fundraising tool.

1. Make Online Fundrasing Easy

Potential donors don’t want to jump through hoops to give away their hard-earned money. Your goal should be to make the donation process as straightforward and convenient as possible.

• Offer multiple payment methods. In addition to an online fundraising platform that lets users donate with a card, let potential donors know where to mail cash or check if they prefer. You can also look into setting up a text-to-give method. Try to cater to all kinds of potential donors.
• Keep your donation page clean. Only include the necessary information on your nonprofit website’s donation page. If it’s too cluttered, it could distract or confuse online users.
• Allow recurring donations. Through your online fundraising platform, give donors the option to make a regular, ongoing donation rather than just a one-time gift. This way, your donors won’t have to navigate your website every week or month to donate.

Remember, web users like convenience. If your website is optimized for easy online fundraising, they’ll be more likely to follow through with their donation.

2. Make Online Fundrasing Prominent

Don’t be afraid to give web users several opportunities to donate. By consistently reminding them to donate throughout your website, they’re more likely to remember and commit to giving.

• Have a donation page in your menu. If online fundraising is necessary for your organization, show your web users its importance. Give your donation platform its own page and make sure to include it in the menu.
• Incorporate donate buttons throughout the site. Place them in your header, footer, under your hero image, or wherever you desire.
• Use calls-to-action (CTAs). As users browse your website, include a call-to-action on each page. We’ll include an example of this below.

Here’s an example of what a call-to-action looks like on one of our client’s website—Lupins Africa. This can encourage web users to donate to your organization.

3. Make Online Fundraising Accessible

If you’re going to use your website as a major fundraising tool, you need to make it accessible for all potential donors. Try to keep users that are visually or hearing impaired in mind when designing your donation page.

Here’s a few tips to being making your website more accessible:

• Include alt text for images. Alternative (alt) text describes the content of images, graphs, or charts on your site. This way, donors that use screen readers will still know what content you’re including on your website.
• Incorporate transcriptions for videos. If you have videos on your website that include important information, make sure to include subtitles or a transcription for hard-of-hearing users.
• Consider color contrast. The background color of your website and color of your text can affect the readability of your donation page. Use tools like the WebAIM contrast checker to test your site.

Making small changes like these can greatly improve the accessibility of your online fundraising.

4. Make Online Fundraising Mobile-friendly

According to Statista, as of late 2022, almost 60% of website traffic comes from mobile users. If your nonprofit website isn’t optimized to support mobile users, your organization could lose out.

Here are a few of the best ways to keep your online fundraising friendly for mobile devices:

• Larger text. Don’t make potential donors zoom in to read your donation form or type in their payment information.
• Bigger buttons. Remember, mobile web users will be using their thumbs, not a mouse. Make your donation buttons larger and easier to press.
• Faster speed. No one wants to wait for a website to load in the middle of donating. Make sure your website processes donations quickly.

Learn more about how to make your nonprofit’s website mobile friendly.

Need Help?

Your nonprofit website can play a major role in your organization’s online fundraising efforts.

Whether you don’t have a website or own one that needs a little help, our team at Yemba Digital is happy to serve your nonprofit organization.

If you need a website or just want assistance with your site’s online fundraising efforts, contact our team today. We can’t wait to serve you!