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According to the 2024 Trends in Giving Report by Blackbaud, online giving accounts for 13.4% of small nonprofits’ total revenue, 8.3% for medium nonprofits, and 4.1% for large nonprofits—and those numbers will continue to rise in coming years.
It’s also important to know that 45% of online donations are made on a mobile device, and as a result, having a mobile-responsive website and donation pages are now standard best practices.
1) Ensure that your donation page(s) match the branding of your website and are hosted on your website domain.
According to Bonterra, sending donors to a third-party payment website, such as PayPal, results in one of every six donors dropping out of the donation process. To maximize online fundraising success, it’s essential that your donation pages are hosted on your website. Accepting PayPal in addition to credit cards is a best practice to accommodate donors who prefer to give through PayPal, but don’t make all donors use PayPal.
A good example of a donation page is the Coral Reef Alliance. In addition to their logo, color scheme, and an image of a vibrant coral reef, their donation page(s) are hosted on their domain (give.coral.org) but do not include the navigation header of their website so the donor’s sole focus is placed on completing the donation form. According to NextAfter, removing links in the navigation header on donation pages results in a 195% increase in donations.
To accommodate the preferences of all donors, the Coral Reef Alliance accepts five types of payments – Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo, credit cards, and bank transfers (ACH payments).
2) Add a monthly giving option to your primary donation page and create an additional donation page where monthly giving is the only option.
Monthly donors give $24 per month – or $288 per year (compared to the average one-time gift of $126), and account for 31% of all online revenue to nonprofits, according to the M+R Benchmarks Report. Thus, securing more monthly donors should be a high priority for your nonprofit.
As a best practice, your primary donation page should include an option for donors to upgrade their one-time donation to monthly, for example, Feeding America. Some nonprofits choose to have monthly giving set as the default on their primary donation page, but doing so can result in accidental monthly giving sign-ups. If you set monthly giving as the default on your primary donation page, provide easy instructions to opt out of monthly giving to not alienate your donors.
That said, to effectively promote your monthly giving campaign in print, in email, and on social media, your nonprofit needs an additional donation page with a unique URL, such as feedingamerica.org/monthlygiving, where monthly giving is the only option. For example, in addition to its primary donation page, Feeding America also has an additional donation page just for monthly giving.
It’s also worth noting the “Donate” button on Feeding America’s website functions as a pop-down that features one-time giving (Give Today), monthly giving (Give Monthly), and tribute giving (Give in Honor). This is a trend seen more often on the websites of large nonprofits.
3) Add a monthly giving pop-up to your one-time donation page(s).
According to the Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, only 16% of nonprofits have a pop-up on their one-time donation page(s) that asks one-time donors to become monthly donors. That’s a missed opportunity because a “Donate Monthly” pop-up can result in a 64% increase in monthly donations. For example, UNICEF prompts one-time $10 donors to help save children’s lives by becoming $10 monthlydonors.
4) Experiment with donation amounts on donation pages.
Surprisingly, there is little data on which set of donation amounts results in the highest increase in online giving. As a best practice, study and mimic large nonprofits similar to yours in mission and programs that have years of experimenting with donation amounts.
For example, the American Cancer Society has $10, $25, $50, $100, $250, and $500 donation amounts listed with $25 set as the default donation amount for one-time donors. NextAfter has found that highlighting the second option is a best practice and that using large rectangular buttons rather than small radio buttons results in a 22.9% increase in donations.
That said, innovation in AI has resulted in smart donation amounts based on the donor data in your nonprofit’s CRM combined with internet behavioral data that customize the donation amounts on your donation pages based on what donors are most likely to give. Amazing!
5) Add an optional mobile number field.
Ninety percent of text messages are read within three minutes of being sent while only 24% of emails are being read at all. Nonprofits are missing a big opportunity to stay more connected with their donors by not capturing their mobile phone numbers. You can text donors information about fundraising campaigns, events, urgent call-to-actions, and volunteer opportunities – just to name a few.
According to Qgiv, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act specifically forbids businesses from texting consumers without their consent. However, nonprofits have an advantage in that nonprofit organizations don’t need explicit consent. Donors consent to receive text messages from nonprofits simply by providing their mobile phone numbers.
That said, a best practice is to make providing a phone number optional on donation pages and to inform donors that they will be contacted via text if they provide their mobile number. The Human Rights Campaign is a good example of using a donation page to collect mobile phone numbers.
The 2025 Certificate in Digital Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of website and email marketing, online fundraising, and social media. Packed with practical advice and customized for nonprofits with limited time and financial resources, the total cost is $159 USD.
6) Add charity rating badges to your donation page(s).
Seventy-two percent of individuals say that the presence of a charity rating badge increases their likelihood of giving. If your nonprofit does not have charity rating badges on your website, then it’s time to look into getting registered with Charity Navigator, Candid, and GreatNonprofits. All three programs are free to use, accept online donations for your nonprofit, and are nonprofit organizations themselves. A good example of the use of charity badges is the American Kidney Fund on its donation page(s).
There is also the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, which recently restructured its fees to make the badge accessible to small nonprofits, and Charity Watch only reviews very large nonprofits and not by request.
Charity Navigator, Candid, GreatNonprofits, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and Charity Watch are only available to nonprofits based in the United States. If your nonprofit is located outside of the US, then Google “charity ratings [your country name]” to find similar programs.
7) Provide the option for donors to pay credit card processing fees.
Fifty-five to 60% of the time online donors will opt-in to pay the credit fees for processing their donations. As a best practice, require that donors opt-in to pay the fees (✔ a box), add a fee of 3% or less, and after opt-in, calculate the new donation amount so donors understand the total amount that will be billed. The International Rescue Committee is a good example to follow.
It’s also worth noting that 50% of nonprofits offer donors the option to cover processing fees. If your fundraising platform doesn’t offer the ability to add credit card processing fees to your donation pages, then it’s likely time to search for a new platform.
8) Add a tribute giving option to your primary donation page and create an additional donation page where tribute giving is the only option.
According to the most recent Online Donor Feedback Survey, 46% of online donors have given a tribute gift within the past 12 months. Also known as honor and/or memorial gifts, most nonprofits add the option to their primary donation page, such as the American Red Cross.
However, to effectively promote tribute gifts during the holidays or for special occasions in print, in email, and on social media, your nonprofit should also create an additional donation page with a unique URL where tribute giving is the only option, such as redcross.org/tributegiving.
Finally, the Online Donor Feedback Survey also reports that the most popular tribute gifts are memorial gifts at 43%, followed by birthday gifts at 26%, and religious holidays (Christmas, Hannukah, Eid al-Fitr, Solstice, Diwali, etc.) at 9%. However, the vast majority of nonprofits only offer memorial and/or honor gifts. If nonprofits expanded their tribute gift offerings to include birthdays, holidays, and special occasions, such as weddings and graduations, donors would likely give more types of tribute gifts and more often. To learn more about tribute gifts, download How to Launch & Grow a Tribute Giving Program for Your Nonprofit.
9) Create an action-oriented “Thank You for Your Donation” landing page.
A “Thank You for Your Donation” landing page is the page that donors land on after their donation has been processed. It’s an important page because it is one of the few times you have the hyper-focused attention of your donors as they wait for their donation to be confirmed.
Surprisingly, “Thank You for Your Donation” pages are one of the most overlooked pages on a nonprofit’s website. Most look and function like relics from the early 2000s. Follow the lead of the World Wildlife Fund and design your “Thank you for Your Donation” landing page to grow your social media following and inspire your donors to get more involved.
10) Include a mailing address and phone number on your donation page(s).
Donors who prefer to give offline will likely visit your nonprofit’s website and click the “Donate” button only to become frustrated that your primary donation page does not include information on how to give via mail or over the phone. The Nature Conservancy lists its mailing address and phone number at the bottom of their donation page(s).
Post Updated: June 15, 2025
The 2025 Certificate in Digital Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of website and email marketing, online fundraising, and social media. Packed with practical advice and customized for nonprofits with limited time and financial resources, the total cost is $159 USD.
