This is a sponsored guest blog post by Tobi Nifesi, Head of Content at Keela.
About 75% of all donors in the United States and Canada prefer giving online. In response to donors’ increasing demand for flexible, online giving options, several nonprofit organizations have created donation pages on their websites that allow supporters to make contributions wherever and whenever they want to.
From 2017 to 2021, total online revenue in the nonprofit sector grew by 60%. This statistic highlights how essential online fundraising has become for nonprofits. Despite this, the average nonprofit donation page sees a 50-70% abandonment rate. In other words, 1 in 2 supporters who visit your donation page may leave the page without actually donating.
Considering how significant online donations can be for your nonprofit, you wouldn’t want your so many supporters dropping off right at the point of giving. You want your donation page to be the final touchpoint that encourages your supporters to contribute to your cause. You want your donation page to be great at converting supporters into donors.
This article will discuss how you can measure the effectiveness of your nonprofit’s donation page and highlight 8 steps you can take to improve your donation page conversion rate.
What is Donation Page Conversion Rate?
A conversion rate is the percentage of people who take the desired action when visiting a landing page on your website. For donation pages, the conversion rate is the percentage of your nonprofit website visitors who make a donation after visiting your donation page.
To calculate your donation page conversion rate, you have to divide the total number of donors who gave through your donation page by the total number of visitors on your donation page over a specific period. Then, you multiply this number by 100.
Your donation page conversion rate measures how effective your donation page is at getting people to make a contribution. It tells you how well your donation page is performing; your nonprofit team can use this metric to know when to optimize or update your donation form or page.
On average, nonprofits see a 17% donation page conversion rate. So, you can set this percentage as a benchmark for assessing the performance of your donation page. If your conversion rate keeps dropping below 17% over a few months, you’ll need to take some time to reevaluate the content, design, and structure of your donation page.
5 Tips to Increase Your Donation Page Conversion Rate
1. Make sure your donation page is mobile-friendly.
Your nonprofit needs to be well-equipped to accept mobile donations and process these transactions safely. In 2021, 28% of all donations to nonprofit organizations were made via a mobile device. This percentage has grown steadily over the past decade and will continue to trend upwards in the coming years.
If your donation page isn’t mobile-friendly, you run the risk of losing potential donors who prefer using their mobile devices to make transactions on the go. So, if you haven’t checked or tested your donation page’s mobile-friendliness recently, you can use Google’s mobile-friendly test right now to do that.
2. Use one powerful visual content.
Creative, visual content and elements such as images, illustrations, charts, and videos, are perfect for capturing people’s attention and telling a story. It can be very tempting to place many of them on your donation page to engage your visitors. But the reality is that the more visual content you have on your donation page, the more distracted your visitors might become as they view your page.
Instead of having a library of images or videos on your donation page, you should consider just having one powerful visual content that tells your nonprofit’s story clearly and concisely. This could be a video testimonial from a beneficiary or stakeholder, an image of your team at work, or a simple, well-illustrated fundraising goal tracker that shows your campaign’s progress. Whatever you do, keep your donation page simple and free of unnecessary distractions.
3. Use action verbs in your call-to-action
Your call-to-action (CTA) button can make or mar your online fundraising campaign. At its core, your CTA is a closer; it is the final element that most visitors will look at before they make a donation. You want your CTA to be clear, concise, compelling, and capable of encouraging potential donors to take action immediately.
Always include an action verb that directly tells visitors what action to take. Action verbs are verbs that indicate an action that needs to be taken. Your choice of an action verb will depend on the impression you want to leave on donors. You can read this article to learn the 6 types of nonprofit CTAs you should use, on your donation page or in your fundraising emails.
4. Offer multiple payment options.
There’s a great chance that your potential donors have different preferred ways of making online transactions. Some may have credit cards, while others don’t. Some may be comfortable using Paypal to process payments, while others prefer Stripe. The bottom line is that your donation page should offer multiple payment options so that any donor can conveniently and safely make an online donation.
Flexibility is vital when it comes to offering a great user experience on your nonprofit website. With every touch point that your supporters have with your nonprofit or its website, you want to give them a new reason to make a contribution. If you don’t offer flexible, multiple payment options or if they find it challenging to navigate your website and complete payment, they will likely get discouraged and abandon your nonprofit website. And you don’t want that.
5. Have a recurring giving option
Speaking of flexibility, your donors should be able to choose if they want to make a one-time or recurring donation while on your donation page. Recurring donors give 42% more per year than one-time donors, and you’re more likely to retain your recurring donors over time. You can boost your number of recurring donors over time by giving donors the option to contribute recurring gifts right on your donation page.
Having a recurring giving option on your donation page also encourages donors to contribute smaller amounts regularly. A donor, who would have been hesitant to make a donation because they think their gift is too small, would likely reconsider their position when they notice that they can make small gifts regularly in a way that adds up to a sizable contribution over time.
Use this Checklist to Improve Your Donation Page Conversion Rate
Online donations will continue to be essential to nonprofit fundraising; your nonprofit’s donation page needs to be well optimized to receive these donors, improve your conversion rate, and reduce your page abandonment rate. You should be tracking and evaluating your donation page conversion rate monthly and as you do, make the necessary adjustments to the page so your organization can raise more online.
With this in mind, the team at Keela designed a checklist that covers the key elements of your donation pages that you need to optimize to give your nonprofit organization the best chance at online fundraising success. You can get the FREE donation page checklist here and start optimizing your donation page right away.