A donation form can help nonprofits educate and convince donors to give more than they initially planned. It can also drive donors away if it’s hard to understand. In this post, we’ll give you some tips to build a form that works and provide you with examples and templates to get you started on the right track.
Charitable donation forms are the first thing donors see after clicking on a call to action. Nonprofits have the opportunity to educate and convince donors to give more than they had initially planned. There’s also the chance of losing donors if the donation form is challenging to understand or if you don’t include the right options for the donor.
Creating effective and easy-to-use charitable donation forms is crucial to your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts. In this article, we’ll give you some tips to build a form that works and provide you with examples and a template to get you started on the right track.
Charitable donation forms play a crucial role in convincing donors to give. You may want to use a simple solution that’s easy to set up and use but there are things to keep in mind.
For example, Donorbox will let you get started and create and customize your donation forms very easily. Just a few simple steps – and no coding knowledge required!
But even as you customize your donation form, there are tips you should leverage to ensure its effectiveness.
A simple donation form is great but one that doesn’t go the extra mile to get you more donations is not. Imagine donors coming to your donation landing page and having to input a donation amount of their choice – they’d have no idea how much they should give!
What if the donor could give more than they did?
Choosing the right donation amounts shows your donors the amounts that will help you with your mission. But they must also suit their own giving abilities.
For that, segment your donor data as per donors’ past giving amounts. Find out the most frequent donation amounts of your donors. You can include them in your donation form or start your donation tiers with an average of the donors’ gifts and increase from there.
Donorbox securely stores your donor data and lets you apply filters to segment these records. You can then use our simple donation form builder to add donation tiers to your form. Here’s a good example of how it looks –
Create a Customized Charitable Donation Form
The first thing donors want to know is where their gifts go. Nonprofits can add a mission statement or tagline at the top of the donation form or the page where the form is added. This will get donors in the right frame of mind from the start.
But the primary way organizations can answer this question in the donation form is by adding donation details for each donation amount. These details can help convince donors to give more when they see the impact of their gift.
Check out how Shelter the Homeless has done it with the Donorbox donation form on their donation page.
Donation forms are crucial not just for donations but because they give you more information about donors. But remember that people don’t want to spend hours filling out a donation form.
Some unavoidable questions may include –
You must keep it simple and ask for only what is needed right now. Remember that your donation form should be donor-friendly, making the giving process fast and convenient.
Donorbox makes it happen with UltraSwift™ Pay. It includes digital wallet options (Apple Pay, Venmo, Google Pay, PayPal, etc.) in your donation form to make giving super fast. At the same time, it eliminates the need for donors to input their personal information. The details you need will be taken from their digital wallets.
This way, charities can reduce donor drop-off rates and improve the overall performance of their charitable donation forms.
See this example from our nonprofit user – donors can easily skip the other steps by making a donation through their PayPal account.
Make Giving Super Fast With Donorbox
One option that all charitable organizations should add to their donation form is the chance to become a recurring donor. They know how vital recurring donations are to their financial health.
Organizations can add monthly and quarterly gifts to their budget and plan their future programs and events. To achieve this, add such intervals to your charitable donation form.
You can also start a recurring donation campaign to educate your donor base. Talk to them about these options and why you’ve decided to include them. Let them know how these donations will help.
Alternatively, you can simply customize your website donation form to start including these intervals. But educating and informing your donors would be important in both cases.
On Donorbox, you can customize your donation form to include any 4 of the one-time, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual intervals. You can also mark one of them as your preferred interval for donations. Look at this great example from The American Society of Landscape Architects Fund.
By adding the brand color and mission statement to a charitable donation form, organizations can build trust with donors. This is especially true when you’re navigating them outside of the website.
Branding also helps promote the organization’s purpose and image with new donors and encourages them to learn more.
Donorbox lets you change the default color of the donation form. You can add a message to it as well. In addition, you can also customize the Donorbox-hosted donation page to include the logo, relevant images, videos, etc. to tell people your organization’s story. Check out this example of an on-brand donation form and page created on Donorbox.
Your charitable donation form helps you accept donations online. But unless your donors feel the convenience of giving, it is of no use. When building your donation form, research which payment methods are the most popular among your target audience.
For example, Donorbox lets your donors choose from credit/debit cards, bank transfers, and direct debit, as well as digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, PayPal, etc.
Having an array of different payment methods makes your donors feel comfortable about making a donation. Your younger donor demographics will also appreciate the ability to give with digital wallets.
Ask your team of volunteers and staff members to test the donation form and give their feedback. Make a list of any new improvements or defects they suggest or notice. Work on them before you make the form live for donors.
This ensures that you are able to give your donors the best giving experience possible. If the defect directly comes from your donors, it means you’re at a high risk of losing them.
But also, be open to receiving feedback from your supporters. If they suggest an improvement, make note of that. Or if they’re facing an issue, you should instantly connect with your fundraising solution team. To make this process more efficient, add a “comment” field to your donation form and allow donors to leave comments.
After reading the above steps, charities and organizations may be concerned their forms aren’t good enough. We’ve created a free donation form template to help you get started.
Please note that this template is meant to help you build an online charitable donation form with the must-have fields, questions, and payment options.
Printed donation forms are not as common as they used to be. Most charities and nonprofits have moved online to accept donations and run their campaigns.
These examples here are some of the most inspiring charitable donation forms we could find to help you get started. We have also included what we like about them and what we think could improve to help improve your design.
The True Athlete Project (TAP) is a highly impactful charity operating in the US and UK. They have embedded the below Donorbox donation form on its donation page to accept online donations.
Their donation form includes a statement about their mission. It’s a recurring donation form with 4 different intervals and multiple donation tiers. Each donation tier includes a name and a quick explanation of how it helps.
Live Thrive is an Atlanta-based charitable organization that is using the Donorbox donation form to crowdfund money for their new facility.
This simple and compact charitable donation form belongs to a crowdfunding campaign created on Donorbox and embedded in the charity website. We love how it has already helped them get nearly 200 donations for their capital campaign.
Wildlands League is a 50-year-old charitable organization based in Toronto, Canada. On their mission to help the climate and wild spaces, they’ve created the below donation page and form on Donorbox to accept donations online.
They’re redirecting their donors from the website to this donation form and hence, this is a crucial part of their online fundraising.
This short and insightful episode from Donorbox’s very own YouTube channel helps you optimize your donation process by making the most of your charitable donation form. Give it a watch for tips on embedding your donation form, the tone to be used, accessibility, and more.
Donors make their final decisions to give after landing on a nonprofit’s donation form. Organizations that keep the donation form simple and focused on their donors’ needs will get a better response and receive more donations.
As you work on finding the best solution for your charity, check out Donorbox’s range of fundraising features. In addition to Recurring Donation Forms, we also help raise money with Crowdfunding, Peer-to-Peer, Memberships, Events, Company Donation Matching, Text-to-Donate, and more. You can also manage your donors and integrate Donorbox with leading CRM tools.
Sign up and start fundraising in just about 15 minutes!
Want more insights into online fundraising and nonprofit management? Go to the Donorbox Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a curated list of our resources every month in your inbox.
Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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Kristine Ensor