These days one of the easiest ways to continue non-profit fundraising online is through the use of donate buttons. This tool is extremely effective whether you are part of a non-profit organization, an agency or a person raising funds for a mission, program or general help.
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated enormous problems for everyone, especially for non-profit organizations, with the social distancing guidance in effect. Fundraising activities have taken a different direction for nonprofits, finding it impossible to get donations and support the organization. But to maintain the relationships, most of them have to stay connected with the donors!
In this situation, virtual fundraising is the solution. For the first time, record number of non-profit organizations, academic and religious institutions are turning into online solutions and the donate buttons.
In case you are new to crowdfunding, typically, you may have some questions in your mind concerning the ways to receive online donations. These are the questions people ask most frequently about this amazing tool:
Donate Button – What It Is?
The donate button is part of the website that explicitly connects donors to the donation page or to your donation form. This is the key way visitors contribute to your nonprofit, mission or virtual events on your web.
Where Should I Insert The Donate Button?
You can use the donate button anywhere you want to raise funds for your non-profit organization! The usual locations to place this powerful tool are the website, emails and social networking accounts. Make sure you placed it boldly on your website header or centered at the bottom of your newsletters.
How Can I Get Donate Buttons For Non-profit Fundraising?
You can use online donation tools to make a donate button for the website of your organization. There is a wide variety of choices, and if you are new to online fundraising, it may be challenging for you to select a good donate button provider.
Anatomy Of An Effective Donations Page
A person enters your organization’s website. They share the cause that you defend and want to be informed about the work you do, and they are willing to contribute financially. However, they end up leaving without making any charity. What happened? The fault may be with an ineffective donation page.
Having a well-built donations page is a crucial element of a fundraising-oriented website. This should not be limited to a raw data collection form. It must contain a promise, arguments for requesting collaboration, and information that anticipates possible objections. All this with a graphic design that makes that content enter through the eyes. And with an architecture that makes it easy for the user to make the charity.
The donor must be in front of a clear page that allows him to interpret unequivocally what he is being asked to do. The process must be very agile since the number of steps at this point is directly related to the dropout rate.
Motivate The Potential Donor
It is of utmost importance that organizations know how to arouse the interest and motivation of potential donors. The basic elements to arouse interest are:
- Show what the organization achieves.
- Clearly indicate what your needs are.
- Give a certain sense of urgency to these needs.
- Give the possibility to choose between different ways of collaborating or the specific destination of the donation (whenever the latter is possible).
- Show the social support you receive, with testimonies from beneficiaries or donors, messages from personalities or experts, figures of partners, etc.
This page has to communicate reasons and mobilize feelings so that the potential donor feels confident that they are going to make the right decision when collaborating with the organization.
Take Care Of The Design
Simplicity in the design of a donation page is very important since, although the Internet user is active, the large amount of information available on the network prompts him to have little patience. For this reason, only essential elements must be included in it, and everything that is not essential must be removed. In this sense, you have to limit distractions (menu, footer, social media icons, etc.), to keep the focus on the donation.
Facilitates Access To The Donation Page
The donation page should be clearly visible on your website. Ask yourself if donors have to travel a long way to get there. A donation page designed in detail is of little use if potential donors cannot find it easily. For this reason, access to this page must be provided from the entire website or at least from the most representative pages.
This should have great visibility on the main page because it is generally the one that receives the most visits also because it is the banner of the website. Includes direct links to the donation page, without having to go through intermediate pages that offer different collaboration options.
Attention To The Donation Form
The form is the last step for the entrance of specific donors and partners to an organization. We must make it easy for potential donors. A very long and complicated form can also stop the donation.
One of the keys to developing a good form is to request strictly necessary information. So, you have to think carefully about what fields you really need to include carrying out the donation / affiliation process.
Within the donation form, the call to action button is a fundamental element. In it, someone is asked to do something, in this case, to donate; therefore, the message must be clear, direct and concise. It should also attract attention.
Give Thanks
When a person has completed the online donation process easily and quickly, they should also feel that it has been worth doing. The first step for this to happen is that as soon as you have pressed the donate button that completes the process, a thank you message will appear on the website itself. This type of thank you should not appear merely as a receipt, but a sincere communication of thanks.
If all these aspects are not taken into account when building a donation page linked with a donate button, it is quite likely that it will not end up fulfilling its objective.