Do you know that online giving increased by 9% throughout the nonprofit sector in 2021—and continues to develop for organizations massive and small? On-line giving and engagement have change into a cornerstone of the fundraising world, making it important for nonprofit organizations to supply a seamless on-line giving course of.

So, to assist your staff enhance the net donor expertise, maximize on-line giving, and higher interact together with your donors, we’ll stroll by means of a couple of important steps to excellent the net donation course of. From data-based fundraising outreach to investing in the fitting cost instruments, we’ll cowl the next methods:

• Focus in your donation type’s design.
• Optimize giving for all units. 
• Use a safe, accessible cost processor. 
• Leverage post-gift outreach. 

Able to improve the way you accept online donations and promote a streamlined giving expertise to your donors? Let’s leap in.

Focus in your donation type’s design.

When donors click on into your on-line donation web page, they need to be greeted with an easy-to-read, simple, and aesthetically-pleasing type. In spite of everything, in case your donation type is just too complicated or poorly designed, it may possibly replicate poorly in your group—or worse—drive donors away and result in type abandonment. 

These donation form strategies will show you how to to maintain donors on the web page till they full their presents:

• Remove pointless questions and fields. When you embrace too many fields in your donation type, the method could change into tedious sufficient for some donors to say “I’ll get again to it later” and finally overlook about their presents. As an alternative, stick with the necessities, resembling fundamental contact and cost info.
• Use constant branding. Colours, textual content, photos, and different design and branding parts ought to stay constant throughout your complete web site—particularly in your donation web page. This isn’t solely a mark of professionalism, however it additionally indicators to your donors that they’re in the fitting place and their info can be protected.
• Embed your type into your web site. By embedding your donation type instantly into your web site, you possibly can maintain donors from being redirected to a third-party web site to finish their presents. This small however vital step could make donors really feel extra snug, protect the design of your type, and streamline the donation course of.

As with the remainder of your nonprofit’s web site, the fitting design and accessibility parts can have a big effect on how donors navigate your pages and—most significantly—whether or not or not they determine to stay round and proceed partaking with you. 

Optimize giving for all units. 

With the rise of smartphones, you possibly can now not count on your whole donors to entry your donation web page on their desktops. In reality, based on 360MatchPro’s fundraising statistics, cell customers made up roughly 33% of on-line donation transactions final 12 months. 

With this in thoughts, you’ll want to organize for the numerous portion of customers who can be utilizing cell and handheld units to click on into your platform and try to finish the nonprofit payment process. 

To advertise an inclusive giving expertise for donors on completely different units, you possibly can:

• Use massive buttons and textual content which might be readable throughout units
• Incorporate a sticky navigation menu
• Make the most of a vertical format
• Spend money on donation type instruments with mobile-friendly templates

To make completely positive that the giving expertise is optimized for a number of units, you possibly can attempt to entry your donation type utilizing a smartphone and leverage instruments like Google’s mobile-friendliness test. 

Use a safe, accessible cost processor. 

Your payment processor is the behind-the-scenes software program that ensures donor knowledge and funds are being facilitated safely and conveniently. This makes it a important element of the donation course of that must be as safe and dependable as attainable. 

Particularly, take note of these key options to make sure that you’re utilizing efficient cost processing instruments to your group: 

• PCI safety compliance. As mentioned within the iATS Payments guide to PCI compliance, PCI compliance is “a guidelines of guidelines and necessities created by the foremost bank card corporations to make sure that retailers are securely dealing with buyer info.” It’s the closest factor to a golden seal of safety {that a} cost processor can obtain, and it signifies that your cost instruments may be trusted to defend donor knowledge.
• Anti-fraud instruments. As mission-based organizations that depend on folks’s goodwill and belief to lift funds, nonprofits are uniquely susceptible to the reputational backlash that comes with hacks and fraud scandals. To stop fraud, go for cost and donation instruments which have devoted anti-fraud measures, resembling CVV2 verification and encryption.
• A number of cost choices. Some donors desire to provide with their bank cards, some go for ACH, and others can be making an attempt to facilitate funds from the opposite facet of the world. To accommodate your whole donors and broaden your giving potential, make sure that your cost processor accepts varied cost strategies, resembling credit score, ACH, and worldwide processing. 

Poor safety, restricted cost choices, and different hiccups can flip donors away from submitting on-line presents. These options will assist uphold donors’ belief in your group and pave the way in which for a cushty giving expertise. 

Leverage post-gift outreach. 

The net donation expertise doesn’t finish when donors have submitted their presents. Removed from it—the way in which that your group communicates with donors after the very fact can decide whether or not or not they determine to provide once more and stay connected with your organization.

An built-in cost processor is usually a massive assist on this regard, appropriately capable of combine instantly together with your CRM and manage cost and speak to info. These particulars ought to then be used to create more practical post-gift outreach by: 

• Bettering future fundraising appeals with donors’ names and giving dimension
• Leveraging donors’ names and giving historical past to personalize thank-you messages and acknowledgments
• Alerting donors to further giving alternatives, resembling selling matching gifts programs primarily based on donors who used their work emails to submit presents

Whereas it’s straightforward to concentrate on donors as they’re within the means of navigating your web site and donation web page, taking steps to additional steward donors within the aftermath of their presents pays again in dividends.

Now that you just’ve explored key ideas, tips, and instruments to advertise a extra constructive on-line donation expertise, you must have every little thing you want to get began with bettering on-line fundraising to your group. Begin the method by implementing these greatest practices and staying knowledgeable about donation and cost software program within the nonprofit area. 

In regards to the writer: Peggah Azarvash

Peggah, a gross sales account government at iATS Funds, is a passionate Gross sales Government with 10 years’ expertise offering cost resolution help and steerage to nonprofits.