No Donations For Your Nonprofit? | How You Are Discouraging Them

No donations for your nonprofit?  Why? When you realize that donating is the last step in the users’ paths, you’ll know that there is an entire list of things you can do to make it as simple, direct, and clear as possible for your potential donors. When you don’t consider their point of view, it can generate a wide array of consequences that will end up scaring your donors away and no donations for your nonprofit. Here are some of them:

• Frustrating website experience. When you have a slow-loading website or one that is not optimized for mobile devices, or you have dozens of broken links all over the website or messy and unclear navigation, then you are pushing donors away. This is the exact opposite of building trust. Clean up your website’s structure, make every little thing work properly, and have a nice visual appeal!
• Confusing payment methods. Research has shown that users prefer donating through websites, and using their credit and debit cards. But, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to earn their trust. When your donation process includes taking users to external pages that don’t even look like your website or don’t look safe, they will run away. Always create a donation process that happens entirely within your website (via integrated plugins or “hand-made” forms). Make it as smooth and secure as possible
• Users can’t really know how their donation makes a difference. This is one of the key components of nonprofit websites. TELL THE STORIES of how your work (and their donations) actually make a difference! Show the faces of people who have benefited from your work, show pictures, or videos from the communities that thrive thanks to you (and them!), have your past donors write a few lines, etc. Make it real! Show them their donations really count.
• You don’t identify your target audience. You come across as too cold and distant, too academic, or on the other hand, too informal and hard to take seriously. The first thing you need to nail in this process is identifying your audience and crafting a tone for your entire website that resonates with them.

Make changes to increase donations!

• If you want to increase donations – make payment simple.  If you are using a CRM like donor box, embed it into your web page instead of linking off site.  GiveWP is a great plugin that works with WordPress.  Check out our latest example of a donation page. CLICK HERE
• Add the impact that even $10 has on your organization for the programs you run.
• If you are membership based, make sure people know why they should join your organization.
• Add stories to your website that compel people to donate – stories of impact, stories of your success.  This gives people the WHY to donate.  Stories can be text based or videos.
• Make your content engaging – let people clearly know who you are, what you do, and what inspires you to work at your organization.
• Use great imagery and share on social media 3 – 5 times per week.  Reals work better than plain posts.
• Make sure your navigation is easy to use and takes user through the journey of discovery.
• Have a compelling homepage that pulls people into your website by featuring videos, statistics, and a good call to DONATE button.

Put yourself in the shoes of your potential donors and shape the process with them in mind! If you need help with that, or you want to avoid ending up with no donations for your nonprofit, contact us and we’ll help you reach your goals! You can read more about our services here!

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