3 Key Elements for Nonprofit Donation Pages to Boost Giving

Three sets of hands, one is holding a tablet with a donation page open, the second one is pointing at the tablet and the third one is holding a porcelain mug with coffee in it.

Your nonprofit relies on a steady flow of revenue to power your operations. In order to strengthen your fundraising strategy and bring in more donations for your mission, you need a well-designed giving page. Your organization may already have an online donation page set up, but is it doing everything possible to encourage donors to give more

A strong donation page can help attract donors to your organization, encourage existing donors to give in larger amounts (and more frequently), and allow you to build stronger relationships with your supporters. By intentionally designing your donation page to appeal to your target audience and offer a positive user experience, you can boost your annual fundraising efforts in no time. 

If you’re building a donation page from scratch or simply looking to revamp your existing giving page, you’ll need the right strategies and tools. Armed with a powerful website builder for nonprofits, you can streamline the entire design and development process for your donation page, saving your organization time that can be used towards advancing your mission.

Add these key elements with the help of a comprehensive website builder to create an effective donation page:

  • Branding

  • Donation amount impacts

  • Recurring giving options

Your giving page is the central hub of your fundraising strategy, so putting the extra effort into it now will allow you to reap plenty of rewards in the future. Let’s begin!

Branding

Your brand is what defines your nonprofit’s identity and differentiates your organization from the other nonprofits that serve a similar purpose or community. According to Morweb’s guide to the best nonprofit websites, a branded donation page helps to reinforce your values, boost your brand visibility, and reassure your supporters that they’re giving to your organization. 

To make sure your donation page aligns with the rest of your website, make sure to add the following branded elements: 

  • Fonts. Use the same body and header font that is used across the rest of your marketing materials and website. If you’re just getting started on establishing your brand guidelines, consider using sans serif fonts, like Arial and Helvetica, for their readability.

  • Color scheme. The right color scheme can help convey your nonprofit’s values and evoke different emotions and feelings in your audience. For example, if you’re an environmental conservation organization, you might infuse earthy colors, like green and blue, into your donation page design and website to reinforce your commitment to saving the planet. 

  • Images. Choose high-impact visuals to feature on your donation page that speak to your mission and how donors’ funds will be used. For example, a healthcare nonprofit might include images of patients on their donation page that benefited from their services, all thanks to donor support. This allows donors to see the tangible connection between their donation amount and how it makes a difference in the community. 

  • Logo. Display your logo prominently on your donation page, so donors feel confident that they’re on your nonprofit’s giving page. If you haven’t designed a logo yet or are thinking about revamping your design, Kwala recommends opting for a simple, mission-centric design that authentically represents your organizations.

  • Messaging and tone. Use the same language from your website on your donation page, so your giving page feels united with the rest of your content. Mixed messaging might confuse your donors about how your donations are being used, so be sure to centralize how you speak about your mission. 

You’ll also want to consider accessibility and ensure supporters of all abilities can engage with your visual elements. With the right nonprofit website builder, you can add in alt text with ease and even feature an accessibility widget on your website, so donors can adjust your content to their specific needs—such as increasing the font size, changing colors to greyscale, highlighting links, and changing font type to regular non-serif.

Donation amount impacts

Even if donors have a good understanding of your mission, they might not have the full context of how their contributions will be used. To ease their minds and motivate them to give, highlight specific donation impacts right on your giving page. 

For example, an animal welfare organization might explain that a donation of $15 can provide a week’s worth of food for cats, a donation of $25 can provide new five enrichment toys for dogs, and a donation of $50 can fund spay and neuter surgeries for five dogs. 

With each added increment, be sure to highlight the benefits that this donation amount will have on your mission and community. This will help donors understand the tangible connection between their donation and the real-world impact it will have. Plus, if donors arrive on your giving page with a plan to give $10, for example, but see that giving $25 can make an even bigger difference, they’ll be more likely to increase their giving amount. 

Provide donors the option to easily click a button to select a suggested giving amount. To make the giving process flexible, you should also create a write-in box, so donors have the freedom to type in whatever donation amount is most feasible for them. With this option, donors might even give more than the suggested amounts you’ve outlined! 

Recurring giving options

If you’re hoping to grow your fundraising results, a strong recurring giving strategy can help. Launching a recurring giving program is more cost-effective than continuously acquiring new donors, and recurring donors will provide more value to your organization over time.

To help turn one-time donors into recurring donors (and take your fundraising strategy to the next level), you need to offer recurring giving options right on your donation page. For example, under your suggested giving amounts, an animal welfare organization might include a message that says:

“Your ongoing support is critical right now to support the animals in our care. Will you make your gift monthly to deepen your impact and help us find dogs and cats their forever homes?” 

Alongside your recurring giving message, include an option to conveniently click a button to change the one-time donation to a monthly donation, choose a suggested giving amount, or write-in an amount of the donor’s choosing. Consider offering different forms of recurring giving, like giving on a twice monthly or quarterly basis. 

With a secure payment processor, you can automatically take the intended donation amount out of your donors’ bank accounts each recurring giving cycle and safely transfer it to your nonprofit’s account. This makes the giving process simple for donors and gives your nonprofit extra fuel to power your mission. 


With the right tools, you can design an engaging donation page that will boost giving in no time. Look for a nonprofit website builder that comes with built-in templates, so you can easily plug in your content and add in custom touches to your giving page—-with no coding required. Once your new donation page is launched, track your fundraising progress and make changes as needed to amplify giving. 

Interested in learning more about growing your giving results? Explore how Mission Capital can help you unlock your nonprofit’s potential

Previous
Previous

No Change, No Gain

Next
Next

Discovering my Asian Identity