How to Upgrade your Non-profit Donation Forms

Donation forms are unique to non-profit websites. Although similar to ecommerce shopping carts, the user experience on a donation form is unique. Ultimately, non-profits want to make it as easy as possible for people to make a donation.

There are many things we want to know about our donors at Catholic Charities of Baltimore, my employer. We want to them to feel appreciated. We want to build a relationship with them right away. And ultimately, we want them to complete their donation.

Let’s look at some examples of good and not-so-good donation forms. I haven’t asked any of these organizations for financial information, so these forms may be doing better or worse than I predict. Just because I cite a form as a good example doesn’t mean it will work for your particular organization. The only way to know for sure what will work for you is to test extensively.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) website is one of my favorites. It’s clean, modern, visually appealing, and the content is always fresh. I guessed it would have a good donation form and it does. The form is just one page, but it’s a long page. The one-page format will encourage visitors to complete it. At the top of the page, there’s an eye-catching graphic and brief mention of why you might donate. The suggested donation amounts are listed horizontally. This may be a weakness, as some research has suggested vertical lists are more effective.

WWF uses a lot of premiums in its promotions, and to encourage donations. For many non-profit organizations, premiums are not cost effective. Test carefully before committing to them. The right column of the WWF form lists other ways to donate. This space could be used differently, however, such as showing pop-up or roll-over messages. Listing other ways to give may help the undecided but, conversely, it may distract those who have already decided to donate.

WWF monthly donation form is just one page, encouraging donors to complete it. Shown here is the upper portion of the form.

The lower half of the WWF donation form (below) includes more key elements while collecting billing and payment information. First, there’s an opt-in email notice that defaults to “yes.” The “submit” button is red and easy to find. There’s a notice that the WWF is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and a notice that the credit card transaction is encrypted and secure. This might also be accomplished with trust certificates that display your security certificate or third party seal of approval. These options all encourage donations. At the very bottom of the right column, other payment options are offered, plus a link to more details about how donations are used. Altogether this is a good form that should be successful. WWF offers links to other information and asks only for the information it must have in order to process the transaction. The email opt-in will enable the organization to have follow-up contact with the donor.

The lower portion of WWF monthly donation form contains payment information, mainly.

Next, I’ll compare two similar sites, University of Maryland UMB Foundation and University of Georgia Foundation.

Partial view of the University of Maryland WMB Foundation donation form.

Partial view of the University of Georgia Foundation donation form.

The two organizations serve similar purposes and collect similar information from donors. Both require four screens to complete the donation. It is possible to donate to different funds using these forms, but only one or two unnecessary questions are asked. The “submit” buttons, while not hidden, could stand out more on the pages.

When taking a user through a process that uses more than two screens, utilize a progress bar so the donor knows how far through the process he or she is. This is missing from both the Maryland and Georgia sites. The progress bar helps reduce process abandonment. Slightly redesigning these alumni donation forms could reduce them to two pages each and make the donation process seem simpler and faster.

The two most difficult-to-use donation forms I found belonged to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Boston Symphony Orchestra’s donation form, partial view.

Both sites have the same basic problem — they use their ticket purchasing systems to process donations. These systems are unsuitable for donations because ticket purchasing asks for and gives a lot of additional, unnecessary information. The Boston site took me through nine pages and required me to join while I attempted to make a donation. In the end, I was redirected to the Bank of America site (the matching donation partner I selected) and was never able to make a donation.

The Baltimore site was a little better. It only took me through five pages. I did have to join and provide additional information but I was able to complete the donation process on page 5. It would probably be worth the investment for these organizations to invest in simple systems to accept online donations and use the ticket purchasing systems just for tickets.

Partial view of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s donation form.

How can you make your donation forms more effective? The right answers can only be found through testing. Try different combinations to determine what will work best with your target markets. Be sure you only test one variable at a time within the same target audience.

Page layout. How many columns, vertical or horizontal lists?Keep it simple. Use a simple, clean layout with no distractions.Ask only the questions to which you must have answersGraphics. How many photos? Video?Number of pages. Use a one-page form or a two-page form?Use of white space. Give information? Display links? Display roll-over messages or asks?Will you offer premiums or gifts for some or all donation levels?Will you display trust certificates to show your site is secure?Confirmation page. After the donor clicks “submit,” be sure the very next page acknowledges that the gift is being processed and say thank you.

Here are options that almost certainly will not work.

Do not put lots of text and instructions on the page.Do not collect as much information as possible about the donor.Do not give the donor many options.Do not fill all the white space on the page.Do not include scrolling text, banners, and ads.Do not use one donation form for all your campaigns, departments, programs, or funds.

There’s no single element that will make or break a donation form. It’s often the combination of elements on the entire page that makes it successful. What works for one non-profit organization or audience may not work for another.

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