How Charities Can Attract More Donations Online

With charity giving currently experiencing low growth rates, we look at how non-profits can use their websites to attract more donations. 
At the moment, giving to a non-profit organisation is at a worryingly low growth. The Blackbaud index shows that currently, online giving is growing at 3.2%, the lowest rate for some time.

However, online giving isn’t the main concern. The growth of overall giving is now the lowest it has been in more than five years.
It could be that people will prefer to donate to non-profit organisations online in future, so what should non-profits be focusing on?

Why is it so Low?

Understandably, people donate at Christmas time (80% more than throughout the year). As the festive period encourages people to give to those in need which will result in lower donations throughout the year.
But what else could contribute to the decrease in online giving to nonprofits, and how can we change this?

Make it Mobile

Make your site mobile! 62% of generation Y stated that they donate on their mobile phone. It sounds obvious, but last year, charities missed out on an estimated £1.5 billion of donations due to a high bounce rate of 79% on mobile devices.
This has been calculated by taking into consideration the overall conversion rate of 1.2% for nonprofit websites with the average donation of £96.60.

If your website isn’t mobile responsive, don’t expect your donors to return to donate later on a desktop device.

Build Relationships

It’s important for a non-profit organisation to build relationships with donors. Know how to thank them for their donation to encourage them to return and donate time and time again.
If an organisation takes donors for granted, they will be more likely to take their donation to a better organisation. It’s all about loyalty and retention.
A simple post-purchase email can help to build a relationship with the donor to keep them returning and donating.

A Simple Donation Page

Make your donation page simple! If you require donors to fill out too many information fields, they won’t be as likely to complete the donation process. A donation form should be easy to navigate and simple to fill in.
The more fields it requires to give a donation, the lower conversion rates you will see, so just stick to what is necessary.

Where is Their Money Going?

Tell your donors where their money is going! People want to know how and where their money will make a difference.
Non-profits can employ this to their website on the donation page. This will illustrate the ways each amount of money can make a change. It’s almost as if the donations are being packaged as a product.

Price Anchoring

By telling your donor where different amounts of money will go, it will make it easier for price anchoring to be used.
For example, charities can pre-fill a donation box with a range of suggested prices.

Often, non-profits will give three price anchoring options, which is commonly seen throughout ecommerce. When presented with three options, customers will most often pick the middle choice, as they don’t want to seem cheap selecting the lower one.

Social Media

Social media is more popular than ever, so making it possible for your donors to give on these sites is crucial.
Recently, Facebook has revealed a change in the way that online donations can be received on the social media platform, which makes the donor’s money go further.
These changes include an option for individuals to match a donation, encouraging people to donate more.
Additionally, Facebook is now removing the fee that it takes for personal cause fundraisers, which was previously 6.9% plus $.0.30 on every donation. This means that more money can go directly to helping the cause.
At the moment, this feature is only available in the US but will be expanded in the future. By implementing this tool on non-profit social media accounts, it makes the giving process easier and more accessible. After all, There are 3.03 billion active social media users which will be able to access this.