How to Increase Donations for your Nonprofit
1. Tell a story
Remember, although donations show up as a monetary value, the potential donors you are targeting are real people. You should appeal to their emotions and experiences by creating compelling, relatable content. Instead of explaining the logistics behind your organization, focus on telling the story of how you were able to help a single individual. This will allow you to showcase the impact your organization has already made, and make it easier for potential donors to understand the impact their own donations can make. Although you can tell an engaging story in writing, we recommend creating videos, which have been proven to be the easiest form of content to consume and understand, as well as the most effective method for telling an organization’s story.
2. Contextualize donations
As we just mentioned, in order to get more donations, you should help potential donors understand how their own donations could make an impact. As such, you should make sure that you are clearly indicating how your organization is utilizing its donations. Let potential donors know what percentage of donations are directly supporting your cause, and how exactly the money is going to be used. You can do this easily using your Donorbox donation form, by inputing explanations of what recommended donation amounts can provide — for example, $10 can provide 10 liters of water to an underserved community, and $100 can provide medical supplies for 10 children.
3. Help donors do the work for you
While you should be putting in your own marketing efforts in order to promote your organization, there is no harm in encouraging your donors to do some of the work for you. By allowing users to share their contributions on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media platforms, not only will you reach an extended audience, you will also gain credibility. Individuals are more likely to donate to an organization if they know someone that has gone through the process of donating to them before, and believe it is legitimate and secure. Donorbox allows you to customize your Twitter share message and social share link, so you can have a say in what is displayed when donors choose to share their donations.
4. Make it easy to donate
All things considered, if your donation interface is too complicated or your checkout takes too long, potential donors might opt out halfway through the donation process. To not lose these donors, your donation check-out process should be fast and user-friendly. For example, Donorbox’s optimized donation form can be embedded into your webpage so that your donors can checkout faster without having to leave your website. In fact, with a quick time test, we were able to determine that the Donorbox checkout process is 30 seconds faster than that of a competitors’, whose donation buttons redirect donors to a separate donation page. Donorbox’s advanced customization options also allow you to make your donation forms as simple as possible, all while ensuring you get all the information from your donors that you deem necessary (email address, phone number, etc.).
5. Thank your donors
Getting new donors is great — getting them to donate regularly is even better. Once somebody has submitted a donation to your organization, you should send them a thank you message to show appreciation for their contribution and validate their decision to donate. Donorbox allows you, once again, to customize an automated thank-you email that is sent to all of your donors. Then, further down the line, you should keep them updated on the success of your campaign and what their donation allowed you to accomplish. Here again, telling a story would be most effective. Show them, for example, how their donation helped pay for somebody’s medical operation, or for a child’s tuition expenses. Remember, your donors want to know that their contributions are making a difference.
