10 Tips to Improve Your Giving Tuesday and Year-End Donation Pages

Giving Tuesday and the remainder of the year-end giving season are approaching! You can benefit by improving the online donation pages that are connected to your website and your email appeals. Whether clicking through on email appeals, visiting your website after getting an appeal in the mail, or doing a web search, a lot of prospective donors will end up on your donation page.

Don't take it for granted that all your visitors will make a gift once they reach your donation page. The truth is, many prospective donors leave uninspired, confused, or frustrated.

Here are 10 tips to help you improve your year-end donation pages:

1. Feature a Clear Call-to-Action Headline

The first two questions of any visitor to a web page are: Where am I? What can I do here? The most effective way to answer both is with a clear and compelling headline.

The best headlines are succinct and to the point but also tap into the reason your donors are motivated to give in the first place. "Donate to save children's lives" typically results in more donations than just "Thank you for your donation." If your donation page is reachable by clicking on an email appeal, make sure the headline is consistent with the theme of the email.

2. Present a Strong Value Proposition

Once visitors have figured out what they can do on your donation page, the next question they ask themselves is, "Why should I do it?" Make the case for giving by presenting a strong value proposition and also showcasing what their dollars go towards.

3. Display Powerful Images

Images are often more powerful than words when it comes to communicating how a donor's gift can help others. Featuring an image that reinforces your core message and mission, and is well-integrated with the rest of the value proposition on the page, can significantly increase giving.

4. Keep the Page Focused on a Single Call to Action

Many donation pages are cluttered with navigation elements at the top, left, and bottom, plus sidebar elements. This results in a lot of distraction and provides opportunities for visitors to leave the page before making a gift. Simplify your donation pages with as little extraneous navigation as possible, so the visitor is left with just one course of action: Making a gift!

5. Reduce the Number of Clicks

Don't ask visitors to click through multiple pages to reach a donation form or to confirm their donation with another click after submitting the form. You risk losing donations.

6. Display Security Seals

It's essential to display a recognized security seal on your donation page so prospective donors are confident their personal information won't be compromised.

7. Offer Multiple Giving Options

There's a wider range of donors on your website than ever before — young, middle-aged, and older donors; first-timers and long-time members. Make sure your donation pages provide both flexibility and clarity to meet a broad range of donor preferences.

You want to enable one-time gifts, monthly gifts, gifts in honor of, and gifts of stock. You also want to support a variety of payment options (credit card brands, PayPal, and checking account debits).

8. Think Mobile

More and more visitors will reach your donation page with smaller size digital devices such as smartphones, and small and mid-size tablets. Make sure your main donation page and any donation pages reachable by clicking on an email giving link are optimized for all sizes of mobile devices.

9. Display a Colorful, Eye-Catching Donate Button

Good: large and colorful donate buttons at the bottom of the donation page that look clickable and feature goal-oriented language. Not as good: donate buttons that are small, use pale colors, and feature generic language. So, "DONATE to help the kids" is often stronger-performing language than just "DONATE."

10. Use Easy-to-Read Font Sizes and Colors

Small font sizes and pale text (grey is surprisingly common) can make reading your donation page a real challenge. Make sure your page copy (both headline and body text) uses a dark font (preferably black) on a white background. Check that it's of sufficient size to maximize readability on wide variety of devices.

Graphic: Wes Holing

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