If you fundraise online, having a top-performing donation landing page is key. A landing page is a final piece in your donation process that will persuade people to actually give. Unfortunately, a jaw-dropping 60% of potential donors leave donation landing pages without completing the transaction.
A lot of factors can lead to this — but chief among them are mistakes on the page that discourage donations. In this article, we will look at some real-life examples of great donation landing pages. This will show you the best practices for creating top-performing donation landing pages.
How can a landing page boost marketing efforts
A landing page is a dedicated webpage on your website that is meant to serve just one function. In the case of a donation landing page, the function is to solicit as many donations as possible. And it does this in several ways. Here are some of them:
- Build trust: Donors, especially those not familiar with your nonprofit, are skeptical when donating. Will the donation be used the right way? Will their financial data remain secure as they donate? A great donation page will eliminate all these fears, allowing people to give with confidence.
- Persuade potential donors: There are plenty of causes to donate to. A great donation landing page will persuasively explain why your nonprofit is more deserving of the donation.
- Make the donation quick and easy: A good landing page ensures that the process is as efficient as possible — this is done by completing the transaction on the same page with fewer clicks and not asking donors to fill out long forms.
Examples of top-performing nonprofit donation landing pages
1. Save the Children UK
Save the Children was one of the first organizations focused solely on helping children in need and ensuring their rights are protected. And for the last 100 years, the nonprofit has impacted millions of children in over 100 countries. And this impact is only possible because of the donations the nonprofit receives. In 2021, it raised £240m through various sources. Among these sources were donations made online through their donation landing pages.
Key Takeaways
- Fewer distractions: There is no traditional navigation bar above the fold (the area of the webpage you see before scrolling down). No links pointing to “What we do,” “Shop,” or “Contact us” as is the case on all other pages on the website. These links have been removed, ensuring donors only focus on donating.
- Recent donations section: There is a section that indicates who has recently donated and how much. This is a neat trick to show people that plenty of others are already donating on your website, which builds social proof (if others are donating, then you must be trustworthy).
- Interactive impact calculator: You can use the slider to indicate the amount you want to donate, and you will instantly see the impact your donation will have. £50, for example, will get 30 midwives’ birth kits, or 7 kilos of maize seed, or 4 school-in-a-bag kits, or 1 carton of therapeutic food.
2. Cool Earth
Cool Earth was founded in 2007 to “protect the best carbon-storing technology that already exists: rainforests.” And many who believe in the fight against the climate crisis have supported the nonprofit since its inception. In 2021, Cool Earth raised £1,171,831 from individuals and online through their website.
Key Takeaways
- Good headline: Most donation pages have weak, placeholder headlines. Unless your nonprofit is a household name, spend more time working on a headline that persuades and clarifies what value you bring. Cool Earth’s headline is a step up from the generic “Donate Now” that most nonprofits use.
- Clean donation box: Less clutter on the donation landing page is always a good thing — the donation box in this example stands out because of how clean it is.
- Suggested donation amounts: Giving people suggested donation amounts can help drive up your donations depending on who is giving and what amounts you suggest. Having these amounts reduces fatigue — donors don’t have to think about what is the right amount to donate.
- Explain the impact of donation: Like Save the Children UK, Cool Earth also has a section explaining how specific donated amounts will help the nonprofit’s cause. Donating £5 per month, for example, will “fund training and technology for biodiversity officers to track forest health on the ground and in the skies in the Peruvian Amazon.”
3. Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is by far one of the largest providers of reproductive health services in the USA, with estimates claiming it prevents 579,000 pregnancies per year and serves 5 million people annually worldwide. While some of the nonprofit’s funds come from the government, it also actively solicits donations online.
Key Takeaways
- Focus on a cause: One of the best ways to solicit more donations is to rally your followers on one single specific cause. Planned Parenthood decided to highlight the polarizing overturning of Roe v. Wade case, which eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion. This is a great way to garner support and donations from those enraged by the Supreme Court’s decision.
- Multiple ways to donate: Planned Parenthood allows people to donate via PayPal, credit card, or bank.
- Trust signals: The landing page makes it clear that the nonprofit is highly rated by Charity Navigator and accredited by BBB. Remember that trust is a deciding factor in whether people donate or not.
4. International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is the largest refugee resettlement agency in the USA. It focuses on helping people affected by humanitarian crises survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. It works in over 40 countries.
Key Takeaways
- Responsive page: Depending on what device you are using to view the donation page, some elements are shown or hidden. The mobile version, for example, has minimal copy and no background image. The desktop version, on the other hand, uses the extra screen real estate and displays the entire webpage without any elements hidden.
- Free from distractions: Like most of the examples in this article, IRC’s donation page is also free from distractions — no menus, sidebars, or anything not related to getting the donation is displayed above the fold.
- Brand consistency: Some nonprofits make the mistake of creating donation pages that are unrecognizable from their brand. But IRC did a great job of sticking to its brand colors and theme. This is important as a lack of consistency may make donors doubt if they are on the right page.
5. American Cancer Society
Outside the federal government, the American Cancer Society is the biggest funder of cancer research grants in the USA. Research indicates that the nonprofit has helped decrease cancer deaths by 32% since 1991.
Key Takeaways
- Benefit-driven headline: Makes it clear what each donation will achieve — “Donate today, and help us end cancer as we know it, for everyone.”
- Images of real people: Showing those who have benefited from the nonprofit’s cause is a surefire way to motivate donors to give more.
- Gift matching: The American Cancer Society has a simple checkbox that lets donors see if their employer will match their donation — this simple act can easily double donations.
6. Make-A-Wish-America
Make-A-Wish granted its first wish in 1980 to a 7-year-old leukemia patient, Chris Greicius. The boy wanted to experience what it was like to be a cop. So officers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety gave the boy a uniform and went on patrol. To this day, the nonprofit has granted over 520,000 wishes worldwide.
Key Takeaways
- Tell stories: You can share your success stories or give insight into what those who benefit from your cause go through. In the case of Make-A-Wish, they have 6-year-old Keegan saying he wishes “to have a hockey rink” on the donation page.
- Headline paired with persuasive copy: Just telling people to “donate now” may not be enough. You may need to do a bit of explaining so donors understand the value and importance of giving to you, this is especially true if you have a bland headline like “Donate Now.” In the case of Make-A-Wish, the description says: “When you donate to Make-A-Wish® America, you’re giving children renewed strength to fight their illnesses, bringing families closer together and uniting entire communities. You can change lives. “
- Short page: People often don’t have the time to read long donation pages — it’s not like they are buying a $1,000 TV. So keep your pages short.
Best practices for high-converting landing pages
Overall, here are some tips to keep in mind to create high-converting donation landing pages:
- Strong headline: Statistics claim that 8 out of 10 people will read the headline copy and only 2 will read the rest of the copy. This makes the headline one of the most important elements on your page. So, take your time to make it persuasive and benefit-ridden. And if you want to take it further, add a subhead or description.
- Limit distractions: It may be tempting to add as many links as you can on the donation page. But don’t fall into this trap. The donation page should only focus on getting donations — not telling people that you also have a blog, a news section, etc.
- Powerful visuals: These will help spice up your page. But make sure that the graphics don’t end up being a distraction. They should compliment the donation box.
- Optimize for mobile: Most people now browse the internet on their smartphones. So, it’s helpful if you adopt a mobile-first approach to developing landing pages.
- Share stories: Providing an inside look into the lives you are touching will allow people to easily connect with your cause.
- Have a prominent Call to Action: Make sure your “Donate Now” button is big and clearly visible.
- Have an easy-to-fill form: Don’t make the process of donating a pain. The form needs to be as short as possible. This means only collecting information you truly need. Otherwise, the form will get long and people will leave the page, promising to donate later when they have more time.
- Offer multiple ways to give: The popular options are PayPal, credit card, and bank transfers.
- Increase trust: You can do this by telling donors how you spend your money, having a secure donation page, and providing proof of others who have donated to your cause.
- Test your pages: Finding the right combination of winning elements that will create a high-converting donation page takes a lot of testing. So don’t give up. Test different headlines, images, colors, etc.
If you don’t have enough funds, most of your projects will have to be paused or even terminated. This is why having high-converting donation landing pages is very important, especially if you rely on website donations. It takes plenty of resources to get people to a landing page. And we hope the examples in this article will help you convert more of those visitors into donors.
