Every interaction anyone has online generates a ton of data these days. If your organization isn’t taking advantage of this by adding tracking codes to your Donorbox donation form, you could be missing out – big time. In this article, we’ll cover why tracking on your donation form is so crucial, the types of tracking and analytics available to you, and how to get started.
Approximately 28.1 million websites around the world use Google Analytics. And it’s estimated that Facebook Pixels exist on more than 30% of websites. The world of tracking and analytics is huge – there’s no reason your nonprofit should miss out!
Data gleaned from adding Tracking & Analytics to your Donorbox donation forms can help you fundraise smarter, raise more, and grow your understanding of your donors. Read on to learn how it works!
Tracking and analytics should be used by all organizations, including nonprofits. Here are three key reasons.
The more data your organization has, the better. If you’re trying to grow your fundraising, having access to data about your donors, how they operate, and how they give provides crucial insight as you plan out your campaigns.
While your Donorbox donation form allows you to collect a lot of data already, such as contact information and answers to unique questions you set, knowing more about your donor’s journey to and through your donation page is invaluable.
Data collected through tracking and analytics codes can help you determine where your donors came from, therefore which of your platforms work best. For example, if you advertise a campaign on Facebook and another through Google Ads, you can track which receives the most donations to help you decide how to invest your marketing budget in the future.
Collecting and analyzing data about your campaigns is crucial to understanding whether your efforts were successful.
For example, you can test your marketing campaign messaging on Facebook by creating tests with different fundraising campaign forms. Understanding how many visits and donations each campaign form received will help you determine which messaging was more effective with your audience.
Now, you can mimic that messaging during your next campaign to boost your fundraising!
Donorbox offers many different ways for you to customize the type of data you collect from your donation form.
Tracking & Analytics is available for $35/month for Donorbox Standard plans and is included for Donorbox Pro and Premium plans.
Launched in 2005, Google Analytics is perhaps the most well-known analytics tool on the market. Google offers comprehensive features to help you assess your website traffic for marketing purposes, SEO, and more.
Donorbox donation forms with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) trigger the following e-commerce events for you to track and understand your donor journey:
See the specific data that gets sent in this Zendesk article.
Bonus: Check out all the ways your nonprofit can leverage Google Analytics.
A Facebook Pixel or Meta Pixel is a piece of code you place on your website or donation form to collect data about how your Facebook ads are performing. Use it to track conversions, identify your target audience, and understand who may be interested in donating but hasn’t yet completed their transaction.
You can put a Facebook Pixel in the “after-donation” tracking location on your Donorbox form. Here is a list of all information available for tracking in this location.
Bonus: Sharpen your Facebook fundraising skills in this blog.
Google AdWords, or Google Ads, is a platform to advertise your nonprofit on Google. Donorbox allows you to track donations as Google AdWords conversions to see how your ads are performing.
Similar to Facebook Pixel, you can add your Google AdWords Conversion ID to the “after-donation” tracking location on your Donorbox form. Learn more here.
Bonus: Consider applying for a Google Ads Grant to promote your nonprofit for free!
UTM parameters are tags placed at the end of a URL to track various information related to a marketing effort. These UTMs allow analytics tools to track information that helps you assess the success of your campaigns.
Donorbox records the following UTM parameters:
These parameters are found in the advanced section of the donation details page. Learn more about how to access that information here.
Bonus: Map these URL parameters to your Salesforce account with the Donorbox + Salesforce integration. Learn more about all of your custom and standard mapping possibilities in this blog.
Similar to Donorbox collecting UTM parameters from URLs, you can also choose to pass data from Donorbox onto a URL on your own website.
This helps you create a personalized thank-you page or pre-fill a form to improve the experience of those who just gave to your organization.
Donorbox will send the following parameters:
Learn more about this feature here.
Now that you understand the tracking and analytics tools available to you with Donorbox, here’s how to get started!
If you already have an account, log in. If you don’t, sign up – and start fundraising in fifteen minutes!
Tracking & Analytics is a $35/month add-on for Standard users. It’s included with Pro and Premium accounts.
If you’re using a Standard account, locate the add-on under “Integrations and Add-ons.” Then click “Activate Tracking.”
Select which campaign you’d like to add Tracking & Analytics to or create your first campaign using these steps.
Locate your campaign on the Campaigns page and click “Edit Campaign.”
Once on the campaign editor page, scroll down to find the Tracking & Analytics section. Click “Tracking & Analytics.”
From this page, you can add the corresponding tracking codes using the following directions:
Enable URL redirection to redirect your donors to a specific page after they make their donation.
Click the toggle, then paste the URL you’d like to redirect to. Here, you can also choose to send data as query parameters, as we described in the section above. Plus, you may choose to exclude a donor’s personal information from this data passing.
Learn more in this article.
These days, no organization can afford to miss out on data that helps them fundraise smarter and gain more support for their mission.
Donorbox strives to provide impactful tools to help fundraisers master every step of the donation process, from creating impactful campaigns to analyzing their success. Whether you’re a seasoned fundraising pro or are just getting started, we have the tools and resources to help. Sign up today and see why over 80,000 organizations have trusted us to raise more than a collective $2 billion!
For more Donorbox how-tos and fundraising tips, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a curated collection of blog content delivered right to your inbox!
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower