How to Create an Irresistible Donation Page for Experts

Expert’s Guide to Creating an Irresistible Donation Page

As you well know, online registration and donations can eliminate a number of headaches for your organization. We’ve put together a list of best practices that can help you get even more out of your online giving pages.

1. Mobile Bidding—Add a Mobile Bidding and FAQ page to your online registration pages to increase donors’ engagement in your next event.
2. Online registration for any event—Leverage Online Payments for more than your once-a-year event by creating donor pages for year-round online giving. You can even use Online Payments to create registration pages for classes, seminars or conferences unrelated to a benefit event or auction.
3. Timely reports—To get the most out of your year-end giving strategy, run online reports twice daily to measure your success and plan your follow-up calls to those who have not yet responded.
4. Sponsor links on giving page—Include your sponsors on your online giving page to provide them with more marketing exposure and give them compelling reasons to continue being a sponsor. Include sponsor logos and messages on the page. Review the copy with your sponsors to make sure you and the sponsor agree that their message aligns with yours.
5. Recruit volunteers—Use your donation form to help recruit volunteers with a pull-down menu. List the general areas for which you need volunteer help, such as Event Night Support, Data Entry, Clerical, etc.
6. Find out why they donated—Create a pull-down menu asking what inspired the donor to contribute today. Gathering this data will help you gauge campaign success. Include selections that reflect your fundraising tactics, such as:
   • I received a mailing.
   • I received an email.
   • I saw a story or ad on television.
7. Ask for sponsorships—Make signing up for sponsorship easier by including it on your event registration form.
8. Recurring donations page—In addition to a standard Recurring Donations web page, create a separate Recurring Donations page to use with a fundraising campaign promoting recurring donations. Use a friendly URL for the page and include that URL in all campaign materials. You can host a Recurring Donations page on your site without making it visible to the general public by eliminating site navigation to that page (commonly called a ‘hidden Web page’). By keeping the page hidden from the general public, you can more easily track your campaign success.
9. Accountants as sponsors—Recruit accountants and tax preparation consultants in your area to sponsor your end-of-year donation campaign. Commit to including their contact information on the promotional material and on the donation page in exchange for sponsorship dollars.
10.  Integration with contact database—From a technical perspective, the giving page should be integrated with your contact database so new donor data is automatically added and existing donor data can be updated if appropriate. When a donor completes the form, it should trigger confirmation emails to be sent both to the donor and to a designated staff member.

With these tips, you can make the most of your online giving pages, creating a pleasant experience for your donors and increasing the revenue for your organization.