Ultimate Guide to Donation Forms: 20+ Donation Form Best Practices for Modern Nonprofits

20+ Donation Form Best Practices for Modern Nonprofits

Ultimate Guide to Donation Forms: Donation Form Best Practices for Modern Nonprofits - Two people look at a computer with a donation form to their right.

Erin Booker

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August 28, 2024

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7 minutes

Nonprofit Trends

The Giving Experience

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A donation form represents much more than just a bunch of fields and buttons. It's a symbol of support from the community, a prediction of positive impact and promises fulfilled. With so much on the line, there's not a right way or wrong way, but there are online fundraising strategies that impede success and practices that lead to conversions. Here are the best of the donation form best practices.

What is a nonprofit donation form?

To many donors, a nonprofit donation form is just that—a form that accepts funds from supporters of a charitable organization. But to a nonprofit, that donation form is a series of questions and choices that either lead to a financial contribution or stand in its way.

Benefits of donation forms for nonprofits

Donation forms allow digital donors to give money to the nonprofit of their choice at a time that's convenient for them, using a method that makes sense for them. The big benefit of donation forms, then, is that they facilitate the nonprofit's direct impact without burdening the nonprofit with additional work.

4 types of online donation forms

There are four types of donation forms for nonprofits that can collect contributions for your online fundraising efforts. The first is the standard embedded form, which is a form that is visible and fill-out-able right on the nonprofit's website.

The second online donation tool is the popup form, or as Funraise often calls it, the contextual giving form. This is when a nonprofit uses their story to explain the impact and need and at the moment of crisis, drops a donation button that links to a form that comes up without taking the donor away from the story.

Third, mobile donation forms are optimized to make it easy for donors to support your digital fundraising efforts anywhere, anytime, on any device (mobile site or not).

Finally, event donation forms sell tickets to nonprofit fundraising events. Oftentimes, they include a donation as well as a dinner, swag, or some other purchase of goods.

Nonprofit donation form best practices

Just like there are millions of nonprofits, each with a different mission, there are infinite ways to build a donation form. Each form fulfills a special need, and as such, there are many best practices. Some of the most universal include customization, mobile-optimization, data security prioritization, personalization, and donation size maximization.

See how Funraise sets up a donor-friendly, mobile-friendly, nonprofit-friendly donation forms with a proven donation flow.

Customize your donation form

We put customization at the top of the list because it is one of the most basic things your nonprofit can do to increase conversions on your donation form. It lets potential donors know that they're in the right place, it instills confidence in your nonprofit, and it makes the donation process consistent from beginning to end.

Funraise offers the most customization options, the easiest form builder, and the most tech-forward forms in the nonprofit world.

Keep your eyes on the prize

There are a lot of different reasons to put a donation form on your nonprofit's website: collect donor data, fire up a membership program, sell tickets to an event... But the overarching reason to build a donation form is to collect donations, and the reason you collect donations is to fulfill your mission and make positive impact in the world.

As you work through the process of putting together the experience for donors, keep in mind that the flow should result in higher conversions and more donations.

Connect it to a mobile app

Today's data collection and donor stewardship are just as tech-reliant as anything else. And today's fundraisers and donors are part of the "there's an app for that" audience.

Think about how people use their phones these days:

They use phones for banking (deposits), investing (Robinhood), and many other financial services.
They use phones for checking in for flights, movies, concerts, and other event-type gatherings.
They use phones for work. Emails, calls, texts, document signing, and so many other work activities are being done on mobile sites every day.

So, give the people what they want and need. Get your team the on-the-go, realtime access to donor data that an app provides and deliver subscription donation control, nonprofit donation receipts-on-demand, and donation history to your supporters.

Funraise offers the mobile apps that your teams need to keep an eye on donations, conversion rates, and other salient tasks.

Make it mobile-friendly

If you haven't heard, fully half of your one-time donors are accessing your online donation form through a mobile device like a smartphone, tablet, or maybe VR headset by the time you read this article (hey, a fundraiser can dream, right?)

If your donation form is only accessible to folks on laptops and desktops, you're cutting out a significant portion of prospective donors, throwing accessibility and inclusivity by the wayside, and definitely not capitalizing on in-the-moment emotional giving.

Funraise offers mobile-friendly versions of all our forms. And sites. And reports and dashboards.

Offer multiple payment methods

If we've said it once, we've said it a million times: let people give how they want to give. Maybe you accept checks, but the number of folks who have (or use) physical checks these days is dwindling. And donors want to give and get on with their day, so offer the ACH for recurring, the Apple Pay for on-the-go donors, the credit card for auction purchases, and DAFs or stock gifting for major donors.

Funraise offers a plethora of payment options for your form so that you can accept donations from any donor, anywhere.

Prioritize donor data security

With the rise of cyberattacks across the globe and the proliferation of places our digital trail drops nuggets of data, nonprofits have an obligation to keep their donor details safe, secure, and out of the hands of fraudsters.

Funraise offers the most data security possible, employing bank-level protection that's constantly being monitored and upgraded.

Highlight the benefits of recurring donations

When they're in the middle of giving, donors aren't necessarily thinking of their long-term impact—but you are. So clue them into the potential that they can tap into by giving regularly instead of gifting a one-time lump sum.

Funraise offers a recurring upgrade option that allows you to do all that with just a click. Upgrade a $50 one-time online gift to a $10 monthly gift. Thank us in 6 months.

Implement personalization

We say "personalization", you think, "I'll add the donor's first name to an email!" But there's so. much. more. Let us enlighten you to all the ways that you can personalize donor communications: using machine learning, you can provide a fully personalized user experience that delivers a donation form with a targeted ask array at the scientifically-verified best moment via the proven best communication channel for each and every donor.

Funraise offers intelligence-driven tools that analyze your data in new and innovative ways with our Fundraising Intelligence reporting feature.

Look for ways to maximize donations

Think of your donation conversion rate and average gift amount: How can you get those up? Pull a few tricks out of your sleeve, like: an abandoned cart reminder—but for donors. Multi-step forms—75% higher form conversion rate; 54% higher average donation. Donors Cover Fees model—reduced effective platform fees and effective processing fees.

Funraise offers all these Power Ups for your form, plus more. And our donation form conversion rate is 50% *hair flip*. Hold your applause; no photographs, please.

Make it easily findable

Ever been on a nonprofit website and weren't sure they were even a nonprofit? Of course you have. Don't be one of those organizations that hides their giving forms—what are you afraid of? Highlight your delightful giving experience, make sure your donation buttons are plentiful and bright, and use tracking links to get your donors to the right place.

Funraise offers reporting that tracks UTMs for your online fundraising effort and development needs, so you know whether folks are landing in the right place.

5 Elements of a high-converting donation form

Some donation forms are just sparkling with joie de vivre, drawing donors in and stimulating online gift revenue, monthly gifts, and matching gifts! To achieve high-converting donation forms, look at the donation process through your donors' eyes. As you discover moments of friction, smooth them out one by one, until the experience is polished to a high-converting high shine.

CRM integration
Clear flow
Reduced cognitive load
Strengthened donor relationship
Suggested ask array

1. It integrates with a CRM

Integrating with a CRM may seem like an element for you rather than the donor, but if we look at the long game, the supporter data, behavioral particulars, and donor journey all contribute to a level of donor stewardship that brings people back time and time again and leads to ongoing, multi-pronged support across years.

2. It has a clear flow

Donating shouldn't be like walking into a haunted house; not only should you know what's around the corner, you should be able to predict the path from beginning to end. There should be no surprises, and the end result should be a donation. From the donor to your nonprofit. That's it.

3. It reduces cognitive load

We mentioned multi-step forms before, but as a function of high-converting forms, they're essential. Why, you ask? Well, let's look at the problem with single-page forms: they have soooo much text that it can result in mental overload, otherwise known as brain drain.

Separate steps, on the other hand, break everything down into bite-sized nuggets, leading to a more engaging experience and a higher completion rate.

4. It strengthens trust with the donor

All the security measures we've been discussing and all the customization and personalization we've touted... they do more than just look fancy and make your donation experience slicker than a Slip 'N Slide. These elements are a crucial part of establishing a trusting relationship with your donor base.

5. It includes suggested donation amounts for donors

But not just any suggested donation amounts: these are considered from every angle. Obviously, your ask array relates to the fundraising campaign you're running, but using behavioral signals and machine learning, your donation platform can personalize them to each donor. Impact cards on a webpage or in an email can lead to specialized donation form setups, and recurring upgrades can suggest a specific amount based on the one-time donation amount chosen.

Tips for highly successful donation forms

Finally! Some extra super-secret tips to take your giving form from a pretty standard donation form to a high converting donation form. The key? Connection—to your mission, story, impact, CRM, supporter base, community, and technology. In this case, connections = conversions.

It's part of your nonprofit story

It's called contextual giving, and it's how you take a donor from the realization of need to the delivery of online fundraising revenue. On your site, imagine you have a super compelling video. With contextual giving you would place your ask in the form of a donate button as your donors watch the video, then have the donation form pop up on the same page just as they feel the impulse to donate.

It highlights impact

Donation forms may not have a lot of content on them, but that's because they're an extension of the impact-celebrating content. Think about impact cards, emails that ask for a specific gift amount option to achieve specific results, and even the confirmation page once the donation payment process has gone through.

It's accessible

Whether it's through a form for mobile users, a text reader, or a multi-step form, highly successful donation forms are accessible donation forms. Consider using W3 standards to accommodate a variety of disabilities, think about where or how people will be giving (standing up on a swaying commuter train?), and how much mental space and time they'll be able to dedicate to the giving process.

It's automagic

What's automagic? Automagic is doing all the things seamlessly. Highly successful donation forms ask for the right donation amounts by gift type, pull up a donor's address, send out a donation confirmation, and alert your team of a matching gift without you having to lift a finger. Automagically.

It brings people back

Engaging content does it. Compelling impact does it. A friendly team does it. What is "it"? Make people feel special and encourage them to return. Basically a highly successful donation form says, "Y'all come back now, ya'hear?"

It's connected to AI

Artificial Intelligence is the wave of the future, and as some of the most tech-forward elements of a fundraising platform, donation forms should be on the front line. If nothing else, keep this trick up your sleeve and be ready to pull out the colorful scarves at the perfect moment.

Mobile phone with donation form and donation charts floating around the phone.

Woman looking at fundraising chart with button to book a call.

Yellow shapes in background with donation form in front with stylized text, build an intelligence giving experience.

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Donation Forms Best Practices FAQ

How can you create a high-performing donation form?

Following the advice of your online fundraising platform is the best way to create a high-performing donation form that results in more donation conversions. Funraise's industry-leading nonprofit donation form conversion rate is 50%, which means that half of the people who see your Funraise donation form make a financial gift.

What is the most important piece of a donation form?

The most important piece of a donation form is the overall donor experience. Rather than focusing on one button, color, or placement option, think through the tip-to-tail process from the donor's perspective and identify moments that can be streamlined to make the donor feel more comfortable giving.

Difference between donation forms, buttons, and links?

The difference between a donation form, donation button, and donation link is relatively small, but it's important. A donation link is the conduit through which a donor lands on the nonprofit's website. A donation button puts the form front and center. And the donation form is where they make their gift.

Importance of donation forms for nonprofits?

In this age of digital tools, donation forms have become a critical component of online fundraising strategies for nonprofits. These forms serve as the gateway for digital donors to contribute to causes they care about, and their design and functionality can significantly impact a nonprofit organization's ability to raise funds effectively.