donations pageOne of the most important parts of a NFP organisation’s website is the donation page. Without having such a page, you are missing out on potential donors who visited on your website with the idea to help but didn’t find a way to do it. Therefore, if you do not have a donation page, the time has come to create one and the following guide will help you make it perfect! If you already have it, check the guide anyway, as it points out the common design mistakes that put off prospective donors, thus hindering your fundraising activity.

What puts people off?

Before we tell you what you need to have on your donation page, we would like to mention what you should not have.

Text Fields

Having in mind that lots of people will access your website through their phones or tablets, it may be a good idea to keep the text fields to a minimum. For example, if a registration is required or they need to fill in any information, ask only for the most relevant details as they may find it bothersome or hard to write too much on their phones.

Colours

Another important thing to have in mind is colours. On the image, you can see how different colours affect people’s mood and which one are good for your website. Basically, you may want to consider some shades of yellow and green, while avoiding purple and some shades of red.

Text and Images

Another very important rule to keep in mind is that you should not put too much texts or too many images on your donation page. A lot of text to read can easily get people bored and urge them to close your donation page. Instead, add a little text which gives answers to the most important questions people may have – how to donate, what the money will go for etc. A lot of images, on the other hand, can distract people and take their mind off donating – something you would not like to risk.

Links

If you need to put links to other pages/websites on your website, consider forcing them to open in a new tab as this will keep the prospective donors on your website. Also, try to keep links to a minimum – you don’t want to send people away before they have donated.

What you need on your page?

There are, of course, certain elements that every donation page should include:

  • Various payment methods – more and more people use PayPal today, but there are also other payment options such as Payza, SMS donations, debit/credit card payments etc.
  • Mobile-friendly buttons and overall responsive design – make sure your donation page looks great on all devices and no elements overlap. There should be some distance between the buttons so that people can easily navigate it. If you are not sure whether your design is mobile-friendly or not, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool.
  • Make sure you provide a ‘Why Donate’ information section or a link that will take the visitors to such a section. A ‘Contact Us’ link would certainly be an advantage.
  • Most importantly, keep it clean, simple and with a natural flow. Do not complicate things and do not make the user question your organisation’s credibility or legitimacy. 

To sum up, your donation page can be a powerful tool that will help you utilise your website and make it a great source for extra funds, as long as you keep it clean, simple and easy to use and navigate. Just remember to use a mobile-friendly design with a little text, no distractions and appropriate colours – and start planning what you are going to do with all the donations that will flow in your organisation’s budget through it!