Did you know that charitable giving has been increasing for six years straight? Today, contributions total over $373 billion annually. The growth of charitable donations is even outpacing annual GDP growth. As total donation amounts rise, online giving seems to be accelerating the fastest. While overall giving grew 1% in 2016, online donations grew 7.9%.
How did your nonprofit’s results compare? Whether you’re falling behind the curve or simply want to set a new record this year, these tips are for you. Try these six ideas for nonprofits to improve conversions and increase online giving.
1. Check Charity Ratings and Control the Conversion
60% of donors research an organization before giving. That research doesn’t end with a quick visit to your homepage. More and more donors are delving deep into charity rating sites before reaching into their wallets. Sites like Charity Navigator and Charity Watch are happy to help, with up-to-date information on everything from nonprofits’ income statements to leaders’ salaries.
How does your organization compare? Set a calendar alert to check these and related sites at regular intervals. Look for incorrect information or areas where your nonprofit isn’t getting a passing grade. While some concerns may not be a quick fix, a targeted digital marketing campaign, new points added to your FAQ page, or even an informative blog post can go a long way towards providing knowledge and building trust.
2. Speed Up Online Giving—Especially for Mobile
Experts project that by 2018, online giving will reach over $100 billion. They also believe at least 45% of those charitable donations will be made on mobile devices. Nonprofit websites can expect bounce rates to rise as load times increase. Each impatient visitor who clicks away takes their potential online donations with them. Check your load times, then follow some of these ideas for nonprofits to help speed things up:
- Streamline the number of elements on your page.
- When possible, use CSS instead of inline design controls.
- Use only one external CSS stylesheet.
- Combine multiple style sheets.
- Reduce scripts and move them to the bottom of the page.
- Enable image compression and browser caching.
- Generate an optimized version of your code using PageSpeed Insights.
- Swap BMP and TIFF files for JPG and PNG formats.
- Reduce color depth of images.
- Crop and downsize photos before uploading.
- Remove unnecessary plugins.
- Make landing page redirects cacheable.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN).
- Check for 404/410 errors and fix broken links.
Don’t worry about tackling all these issues in a single day. Instead, set calendar alerts to measure and improve one or two issues every day or week. Need more in-depth advice on how to address these problems? Moz, The Daily Egg, and Cloud Living offer detailed guides on improving site speed.
Related: 20 Terms Every Nonprofit Marketing Expert Should Know
3. Ideas for Nonprofits to Make Online Giving Easy
Have you heard of the “5 Second Test?” It’s a simple exercise. A user is shown a website for only five seconds and then quizzed on their impressions and what they remember. Conducting the test can tell site owners a lot about the efficacy of their design and also the usability of their site. But there’s one question nonprofits should ask above all others when running this test: can users get to a donation page within five seconds?
No matter which page of the site a user is visiting, the answer to that question should always be yes. Placing a donate button above the fold on every page, or pinning it as a sidebar, is one easy way to achieve this. There’s no need to pummel visitors with multiple popups on each page, but the option to donate should always be visible. Try A/B testing different placements, button colors and styles, and calls to action to see which options lead to the most online giving.
4. Shorten Forms for Online Giving
The fewer steps it takes for visitors to make online donations, the better. Donation forms present a unique opportunity to speed up the journey. How many fields does your donation form require? Can some of these fields be removed or made optional? Try streamlining and simplifying donation forms and watch conversion rates climb.
5. Shift Digital Advertising Funds to Social
How much of your online fundraising budget is dedicated to digital ads? Experienced marketers know that when it comes to gaining targeted impressions, programs like Google AdSense are hard to beat. However, successful campaigns and low CPCs can cause marketers to overlook another major driver of online donations: advertising on social media.
Each social platform offers its own unique targeting options. Sites like Facebook also provide incredibly detailed options. Here, marketers can deliver campaigns to users who interact with similar charities online and those who have a history of online giving. Audiences can even target specific income brackets, purchasing habits, job positions, and hobbies. In addition to reaching ideal donors, social campaigns deliver traffic from users who aren’t actively searching for ways to give.
Social advertising can’t and shouldn’t replace PPC search ads. However, dedicating a small portion of digital ad dollars to social campaigns is a great way to reach new donors and keep current donors engaged to increase online giving.
6. Build Trust for Online Giving Through Brand Consistency
Today’s nonprofit marketers are shifting from a multi-channel mindset to an
Utilizing a professional brand marketing center can help. BlueSky ETO’s sophisticated, web-based marketing portals help streamline productions and improve marketing consistency to build trust and increase donations. These portals are an invaluable resource to marketers, designers, local chapter leaders and more. Tools like professional marketing templates also make creating cohesive ads for multiple platforms and locations a breeze. When brand compliance is nearly automatic, approval time is shortened. Current, relevant campaigns can be delivered quickly, leading to higher rates of online giving.
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Texting and mobile giving are so powerful that it’s amazing these technologies are still so underrated in the nonprofit community. SMS, for example, is truly a cinderella technology for nonprofits and social enterprises.
Texting is cheap, fast and easy. Has almost zero barrier to entry. And is built into every phone. People in lower-income communities, not just in the U.S. but around the world, have been utilizing SMS to give to charity.
We’ve been helping nonprofits use text messaging to raise funds since 2008. We offer a text to donate service that is affordable and effective.
Research shows that many nonprofits will raise more overall with an SMS donation program in their marketing mix than they will without one. Learn more: https://www.gmg.cm/blog/do-sms-donations-work
I think it’s super important to give back to the community when possible. These are great ways to help those who help others in need 🙂
I have not started an online charitable non-profit site and I think that would not be considered at this moment. I did participate in a crowd-sourcing campaign before and I was amazed at how easy it was to reach out and help someone in need of money for a medical procedure.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve been needing to research this myself. Now I have a better understanding of some options.
Thanks to technology and internet everything is easy and can do online now. Although sometimes we are still skeptical on sharing our back info when doing online transaction. This article really convince me well.
What a good post and this is the first time that I heard this, I will save this I can use this someday, glad you share this
I’ve never tried starting an online charity or a non profit. I think it’s really nice that people can easily donate online though. There are plenty of people in need who could really use the help.
I haven’t heard of the 5-Second Test, but it makes sense. I thought we had like 15 seconds to make an impression on a website. It’s also interesting to see the items that stand out to others, that we do not recognize when we are creating web content and websites.
I need to keep this in mind. This was an informative read–I didn’t know much about this.
Donating any way that you can is a kind gesture! I like to make smaller donations throughout the year!
Thank you so much for the post it was really helpfull for me, I have learnt a lot of things I didn’t know about this area. Really interesting
Online giving is becoming so popular now because of the advancement in technology. I prefer to give online, too, because it is convenient and easier.
My cousins daughter is trying to raise money for a beauty pageant. I bet these tips would help her!! Thanks for sharing.
This is so great! I love how the world is advancing! But call me old school, I personally love going to charities and donate my money and actually see where the money is going.
It’s easier to give now with everyone more mobile inclined.
I love the options. I do both online and physical.
It’s so important to give back to the community when possible. These are great ways to help organizations that help others in need.
I haven’t given this much thought before. Interesting! There are so many now too, thanks for the advice
I do most of my giving online through companies that my pastor has researched. I also tithe online as so much easier