What does your donation page look like? Is it easy for people to navigate and find, or is it messy and unclear? Or worse, does it send you right to PayPal! Make the most of your donation page with these tips

What you'll learn:

→ making it easy to get employer matching gift funds.
→ how to communicate other ways to give.
→ ways to convey that you are a trustworthy organization.

Want to skip ahead? Here are key takeaways:

[6:01] Double the Donation. This allows you to have people automatically submit their paperwork to get the matching gift from their employers. It has a search functionality and allows them to easily submit necessary information.
[7:21] Testing the rest of the donation page to appeal to the donors motivations for giving. Using tools to help you understand how people are engaging with your page will help you determine the order you put information on the page. Ultimately the goal is to build trust and appeal to their values.
[12:08] Add elements to build trust. Use a variety of elements. These could include GuideStar seals, testimonials, annual reports, etc.

Resources

[quiz] Should You DIY Your Website?
Double the Donation
HotJar
Microsoft Clarity
[podcast] EP 152 | Building Your Brand Message with Ashlee Sang

Full Transcript

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Hello, Hello, we are kicking off our whole month on donation pages. So much goodness happening this month. But today we're going to focus on some of the other elements that you can add or include in to your donation page. So yes, of course, we want to have a beautiful, easy form integrated into your website. Yes, we want to have it clean and simple, we want to share impact, there's a couple other things that you can also include on your donation page or on a separate ways to give page to really allow people to make the best choice for them so that they understand all the options that are available for them to be able to give you the money, they want to give in a way that they want to give to talk to them about their motivations for giving to your organization, and what they love most about what you do. So that's what we're going to talk about in today's episode. Now if you want to hear about all the other topics that are going to be coming up this month, so head on over to our YouTube channel, at Digital Marketing therapy, there's a video there that is going to talk you through all of the episodes that are happening this month, which I'm super excited about. Your donation page is a pivotal part of your website. And we want you to wake up to notifications that there's been a bunch of donations on your website, and help you keep moving forward as you start to build and grow and create sustainability in your organization, so you can continue to increase your impact. Okay, you with me? Are you excited? I'm excited.

But before we get into this episode is brought to you by our quiz. Should you DIY your website. So this is a free quiz you can take and it's going to help you answer some questions about your tech, your resources, your personnel, your time, your budget, all of the things that it goes into having an incredible website that's going to convert for you. And at the end of the quiz, you're going to know if you're a DIY you're done with you're done with you or or a done for you or I know those aren't terms, but I'm making them up now. You'll get resources to help you navigate the process either way, so that you can have a well converting a website and the budget and time that you need to work for your organization. So you can check the quiz out at thefirstclick.net/quiz. Again, it's a free quiz, snag those resources, and have some fun with it. Your website should be fun, it should be engaging, and it should help really spread your mission. And so that's what this quiz is there to help you determine. For now, let's get into the episode.

[Intro] You're listening to the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. Each month we dive deep into a digital marketing or fundraising strategy that you can implement in your organization. Each week, you'll hear from guest experts, nonprofits, and myself on best practices, tips and resources to help you raise more money online and reach your organizational goals.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Okay, so there's a couple of things that I'm going to assume before we kind of jump into this conversation of what other things you might want to include on your donation page, we're going to assume that you have a donation page on your website, that when people are coming to make a gift that they are coming here, they're just staying on your page, they're not going to a third party platform, they're not going to a Pay Pal link. They're not going to wherever your CRM, whatever, there's so many ways, and we're going to talk about this in next week's episode. But there's so many different ways that you can embed forms onto your website that there's no reason for you to not have it on your website doesn't matter the platform, there's a way to do it. So I highly recommend that you have that. So we're going to assume that you have a donation page form on your website. If you have any questions about that, please just hit me up hello@thefirstclick.net, I'd love to check out your website and give you some recommendations for some tech tools that you can use. But if you are wondering where to go, I would definitely start with your CRM, your donor platform, ask them what their capabilities are. Okay, that's out of the way. You also probably have a little bit about impact on that page as well. We're also going to assume that this is your main donation page. So all we always recommend that you have one main donation page that is always there that has an easy way for people to give no matter what Now, if you're running an event, you have a gala, you have a run walk, you have a golf tournament, whatever if you need other ways for people to give for those particular things, particular campaigns or sponsorships, whatever. Those can be separate donation pages, so we're not going to talk about those necessarily.

In this episode, we're focusing on your main bread and butter, your main donation page that is always up and always going. Now it doesn't matter if it's geared towards a monthly giving program or a one time giving program doesn't matter here. For the purposes of this, it's more just about how can we make sure that you have this core information on your website at all times. Couple other things before we jump into this is that you may have a giving page that talks about these other options. And then just your donation form separate. There's multiple schools of thought here. Ultimately, you need to test and you'll hear some different perspectives even during this month. So you can either have this all on one big long donation page, or you can have your donation form your mini impact statement, and then a link to other ways to give if you so choose, totally up to you, I would test it out. But the critical thing here is at least make sure that your donation form and impact statement are at the very top of your page. So people see it without having to scroll, that it's simple and easy and quick for people to make those decisions.

Now, let's get to the added stuff. So the first thing that I love is a platform called double the donation. It is not a free platform plugin tool, but it will help you really add extra money to those donations. So what double the donation does is it allows people to automatically search for their employer to see if they have a matching gifts program. So let's say I know Verizon has a matching gifts program. So let's say I work for Verizon, I go to your organization, I put in my money and like oh, well donation, I can pick my company, I automatically get the forms that I need to submit for that donation. And it makes it super simple and easy. If that donation, if my company is not there, it gives me tools and resources to encourage them to be on the platform or to put their matching gifts program on there to make it easy for people and employees to give and get those matching gifts. So like I said, it's not a free option. But some of the clients that we know that have worked, worked with it and use it have made their money back within like the first two weeks. It's just a great way to make it user friendly. And for them to not have to dig around and find the paperwork. All right, their form super quick and easy. So double the donation, I definitely recommend checking that up. Now the second thing we want to think about is if they didn't make a donation right away, and they're scrolling, why are they scrolling? What is the motivation. And again, this is where we might want to do a little bit of testing a different a couple different versions, maybe test one way out for three to six months, and then maybe flip the content and see what that does. I love a tool called Hot jar. Or if you have Microsoft clarity, which is Microsoft's analytics running on your website, then you can see video scrolls of videos of how people are scrolling through your site, you could also see heat maps for how people are engaging. So you definitely want to do something like that hot jar is very similar, so that you can kind of test some of these elements. But what we're gonna want to test is the order that we put things.

So do you need to have more impact story information? Or do you want to go straight into something that's like, additional ways that people can give? There's no right or wrong, I would again, just test. So I'm just going to go through what some of these elements are going to look like. At the end of the day, nonprofits have a much harder time getting and building trust with potential donors, and keeping that trust with the donors they've got for future retention and additional gifts over time. So those are the elements that we're going to be thinking about as we like add more stuff. So let's talk about ways to gift. So really think about other opportunities that people have within your organization. Is it stock options? Is it in kind donations that you're looking for? Is it crypto, whatever it might be. We don't want to have a big long laundry list. But we do want to make sure that we have that information there. So they know kind of some of the things that we're doing. I like to have them in column so that people can clearly see not a ton of information. If you do have a lot of information about that program, then you can have a button that just says Learn More send them there for larger gifts, sponsorships, things like that.

Definitely have contact information, make it easy for them to get in touch with the development director or the event planner or whoever is handling those types of things, donations and in kind, whatever those kinds of contribution. Make it super easy. If you are in a state where they have special credits like Child Tax care credits or things like that, another great place to put that information. Also make it super easy for people to find where to mail you a check some people still want to mail you a check. Okay. always recommend having your tax ID and your address in the footer of your A website, but you can also include it here. So this is where the design of it is going to come into play, because you don't want to, again have a big ol laundry list of things. So be really thoughtful and prioritize the elements of what it is that you're giving, put them in squares, maybe you have six squares, I don't know, figure out what those options are, and how you can lay that out. Just to make sure that people can see them quickly, I can identify with a header, yes, I'm interested in stock option gift, I can see that right here, I can click and get more information, I don't have to read through a whole bunch of stuff in order to get that, okay. So that's really important to pay attention to the style and the design of how you lay those options out.

Then the next thing that we can include Here is more information on sponsorship. So if a business or somebody that you've been talking to about sponsorship for an event or something is landing on your donation page, and they're trying to figure out how to get to the information where your sponsor stuff is, you can have an easy button like that just says interested in sponsorship, click here, you might have two buttons, that says like one that says View our sponsor. So I've talked in previous episodes about having a sponsorship page, where you list all of your sponsors that are supporting you through the whole year to give them additional visibility. So you don't necessarily have to have all of your sponsors listed on this donation page. That could be a lot. But it could be a really great thoughtful place to add a place for people to go see who some of your sponsors are, also helps you build trust and validity. Because if you have some big players in your community that are giving to your organization, you want to shut that out, that helps other individuals understand that, okay, these people, this organization has it together, they've got some great partners. And my money is probably going to be well spent well contributed, you know, make the impact that they're sharing on this page, prove that, that they, these big companies are participating with them. And then that helps build trust.

So we definitely want to include that as well. Now, talking about trust, also adding in your seals, or like if you have GuideStar, whatever, anything that's showing transparency with your fiscal responsibility, yes, everybody can go look it up on their own. But they might not want to do all that work. And if you can just have that really clearly listed there. It's a great way to easily have people be like, okay, they're financially responsible, you know, I can trust them with my dollars. Another great way to do that is testimonials. So could you talk to some of your best donors, some of your monthly donors, some of your longest time donors, it doesn't necessarily have to be your biggest as far as money goes. But more have been giving to this organization every month for a year. Here's why. And this is what they do to communicate their impact. And I love it and all the things right. So those testimonials can be really, really impactful. Definitely want to have an image because it makes it feel more real. If you can do them over video and have short little snippets, that's even better. People love to see they love to hear voice, it just helps them trust you more connect with you more and it's a little bit more authentic, doesn't have to be difficult, you can just pop on Zoom and interview them and just cut the different things out that are going to share the impact. And the motivation behind these donors. It's a great thing that you can also use across all channels, different places on your website, on your social media. So it's a piece of content that will be useful in all sorts of places.

So that's kind of it for trust. I also recommend adding your Annual Report somewhere where it's super easy for people to click and download. And the footer is a great place for that. But if there's place that makes sense on your donation page, again, anything that we can do to show transparency, and to show and build trust with people that are on that page. So flip that right to impact. So the second or third kind of grouping of content that we're going to want to add here is additional impact stories. So again, this could be videos that you've taken already of your community sharing the impact that they experienced. It could be some infographics that are sharing, you know, how many meals you've served, whatever. But again, we want to really tie it to personal story. So we don't want to just throw a whole bunch of stats at people we kind of glaze over. So how can we create a physical like a graphic and tie it to a personal story? That's what we want, right?

So let's say you mentor youth. So maybe it is like an infographic of a person of a human and you have like have an arrow pointing to the brain that's like something about the mental health services that you provide. But instead of just saying we provided mental health services to 500 teams in the last five years, maybe it is sharing like a little mini tidbit of, you know, Jane was able to go from failing her courses, to getting all A's through the mental health support that she received for her ADHD, I don't know something that's more personal, right, then maybe, like, where the heart is, you have another arrow. And it's like a little nother sentence about the impact. You know, below that you can have some statements of the numbers and the volume for sure. But the other great place that you can add that in is up at the top with your donation page with the form with the levels. So that's a great place to say, you know, $50 supports five teams in our mental health program $50 a month, right. So that's a place that you can put that information down here, we really want to share and connect with that motivation. So then maybe on the legs, you're talking about something athletic, maybe on the hands, you're talking about creative writing, or art, but just something that's gonna give also people a way to connect with you where they connect with you. So if we stick with the after school program, you know, I might not care so much about STEM, right. But I care about art and creativity. So to see that you offer both in a really quick infographic is going to make a big impact, where ever my motivation lands, to give to your organization. You can also again, share testimonials from your community that you serve. So instead of it being from donors, and sponsors, this would be coming from, you know, people that have adopted the pets, what has that done for their home, people that are at your hospital, at your children's hospital, and the treatment in the care that they've received, and now they're home healthy and thriving, you know, whatever it might be, those testimonials can really make an impact too, because again, we're sharing the story. I'll link up in the show notes, some of the podcast episodes that we've done recently about brand messaging, and it's important, and how we can use that to share our impact. Because I think it's a really interesting way to stop talking about us is start really connecting with our potential donors.

Okay. So double A donation, we've talked about elements that can help you build, or I'm sorry, we've talked about ways you can give having additional ways you can give elements to help you build trust, I think I said this was number three, talking about impact, but I guess it's number four. So that's a whole lot to put on a page. And it's definitely going to be a longer page. But what I want to say to kind of wrap this up, is that we want to continue to drive traffic to this page as much as possible, we want to make it clean and easy. So if you choose like a ways to give page, one of the pros is that you can then use your donation pages, whatever. Therefore, you can always link those to that ways to give for people to see more, you can update that have that as longer form, you could, you know, maybe link it to other blog posts or content that you have on your website, you know, you can use it in a little bit more fluid way.

Adding it to your donation page means people don't have to think about it, they can just scroll and see what's there. So again, test, see what works for your organization, add some of these elements in there. Remember to keep it visual, regardless of how much content is on there, people are scrolling, and they're looking for the information that they want to find. So make it easy for them to see where on that page that information is. If you find that you have a lot of information on your donation page, you can create anchor links at the top. So if you have key categories, put those at the very top up, put them right below the donation page or the donation form. And then people can click on those. And what an anchor link does is then drops them to that part of the page where that information is doesn't take them somewhere else, it just drops them farther down. So that's another option to make it easy for people to navigate through that page. If you have quite a bit of content that's on there. Because remember it keep it easy. Make sure that people know how to contact you how to get in touch with you if they have any questions. We don't want to lose the opportunity for the donation because people couldn't find how to get in touch with us because they have an issue with the form or their check isn't working sometimes tech breaks so or they want to give you a bigger gift. Or they want to talk to you about in kind options, what have you all of that, make sure it's clean, simple and easy to find. So I hope this was helpful for you. Definitely open up your donation page and see how it looks. And what it's doing for you, and let's get some more money rolling through those websites. I can't wait for you to hear the rest of the episodes this month. They are fantastic. But for now, make sure you subscribe wherever you listen these episodes go live on Tuesdays. And I would hate for you to miss out. You can check us out wherever you stream your episodes, or on YouTube at the I almost said at the first clip at Digital Marketing therapy. Thank you so much for being here. We'll have resources and show notes for you at https://thefirstclick.net/207 But for now, see you in the next one.