Renting vs. Owning

According to Network For Good’s Online Giving Index for 2011, charity Websites with branded donation pages achieved 5x more donation dollars, on average, than sites with generic donation pages. Now, when they say “branded”, I’m assuming they are trying to pitch you their Donate Now package (which has a branded donation page and costs $49.95 per month plus a percentage) over their Donate Now Lite service (which has no monthly and no branded page and costs you 5% per donation.)

Personally if I knew a nonprofit would achieve 5x more donation dollars with a branded page, then I wouldn’t even offer a service with a non-branded page. Also, what they call “branding” is actually making the donation page that is hosted on their website, look exactly like one of your own website pages, which is a really good thing. But that still raises the question, why not just have your own donation page actually on your website?

It’s really not that hard to set up a merchant account either through Paypal, authorize.net or through your own bank (these are the safest options). And once you do, you have more options for raising money online and offline through your fundraising events. Paypal is a great option if you are just starting out – they are not the cheapest but it will be far less than 5% of every donation; Paypal offers a nonprofit rate of 2.2% and it’s the easiest to set up.

Setting Up Your Page

1. You don’t want to just slap up some numbers to choose from and a big donate now button – you just won’t get the results you want that way. Donors need to have enough information in front of them to make a buying decision, and to feel safe and secure while doing it.

2. Avoid Google Checkout – it just isn’t very flexible for nonprofits; it was designed for ecommerce stores where you add individual items to a shopping cart and it doesn’t easily allow advanced features like monthly giving options.

3. You will need to have your webmaster or a programmer create the new page on your site, or update your current page and connect the form to your merchant account provider. This will be far less costly than paying a company $50 per month to maintain a donation page that really isn’t going to change that often (once you’ve created your perfect masterpiece).

4. We prefer to have the main form WITHOUT the credit card transaction information on the nonprofit’s site – so you can gather the general info about the donor, and all their wishes in terms of dollar amounts, program allocations, frequency, and anonymity, and then sending them to your merchant account’s page so that THEY can handle the security for the part where the credit card number is entered and sent. The merchant account page can have your name and logo on it, and as long as you are using well-known reputable names like Paypal or Authorize.net, you will not have a branding or trust problem and you will never have to worry about major security on your end.

Elements of a Great Donation Page

1. A Photo – You have to have some kind of visual that will show why the money is needed / who is being helped, preferably a program participant/consumer NOT some stock photo you found online.

2. A BRIEF description of the need – people aren’t going to read an entire dissertation, just get to the point and add a couple of links to additional info that your potential donor may want to know more about. And don’t forget to say thank you ahead of time.

3. Example of what a donation will provide – this can be very powerful, connecting an actual dollar amount to specific things that the nonprofit does. Create the list with your program participants in mind and show what will be provided and for how long for that specific dollar amount.

4. A Credibility Area – reserve some space on the page to show professional affiliations, especially a link to your Guidestar page to show your Form 990, and select other areas of the site like the media center, and supporters page that can help influence the donors decision to give. See: Want to Get a Donor’s Attention? Show them your accountability.

5. How to Donate – this may seem like a given, but you really need to make sure everyone can donate offline as well as online. For offline donations, don’t just say “mail to this address”; give them a downloadable form that matches your online form, has your logo/header and mailing instructions. And let people know up front what online system you are using to process their payment so they feel secure before clicking on the Continue button at the bottom. There have been some misperceptions about Paypal requiring users to set up a Paypal account first – they don’t – you can use any major credit card without setting up an account, so let people know.

6. An Annual Report - in these tough economic times, you MUST have some kind of report of your accomplishments if you’re going to get any real donor attention. It does not have to be a full blown 30-page report; it can be as simple as a page on your site with some pie charts and statistics or even a short pdf version of an annual report. See Don’t Forget the Twice-a-Year Annual Report.

7. Let the donor make choices – letting the donors have some control may create a little more accounting effort on your part, but will have big rewards when you see your donations go up. Let them choose the program they want to contribute to, always leaving Area of Greatest Need as the default choice. Look at the donations you have been receiving on and offline to gauge the donation levels to set – don’t be afraid to go too high or to start a little higher – you don’t have to have a $20 option as long as you’ve got an “other” box.

8. Recurring Donations – don’t miss an opportunity to receive regular monthly gifts; it’s just not that complicated to add to a donation form. You can do monthly only or provide quarterly and annual options. You can also link to a monthly giving program page if you have specific benefits outlined i.e. a Giving Club.

9. Address privacy issues – allow donors to donate anonymously AND link to a donor privacy policy that clearly outlines where their information will be used. See: Donor Privacy Options: Is Your Online Donation Form Really Donor-Centric?

SEE ALSO:
Bust a Move – 5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Online Fundraising
Donate Areas That Capture Your Attention

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