Giving Website Best Practices –
1. Make sure your giving site is mobile friendly and that on the mobile view, the focus is on the impact of giving
a. Having a responsive giving form increases likelihood of giving via a mobile device by as much as 50%
2. Include a giving button on all giving pages. The giving button should stand out, include a clear call to action, and take constituents directly to the giving form.
a. All pages should be focused on driving constituents to the donation form.
3. Having a giving button on the institutional homepage will make it easier for visitors to the institutional website to make a gift. Another option would be including a link about supporting the institution on the homepage.
4. Giving pages should be image-oriented where possible and limit the amount of text on the pages. This draws constituents into the site and permits the telling of impactful stories.
a. Include information on more ways to give on the site and incorporate images where possible.
5. Make the experience personal for your donors by including personalized ask amounts in email solicitations as well as other personalization.
Giving Form Best Practices –
1. Make sure your donation page is mobile friendly and that on the mobile view, it is easy to use. Limit the number of links to other parts of your site on the form as the main focus should be on completing the donation.
2. Limit the number of fields on the form to only the most important information.
3. Include in memory of and in honor of options on the donation form.
4. Enable perpetual giving options and/or scheduled payments.
5. Include a field for additional comments on the donation form so donors have a chance to share comments/questions about their donation.
6. Customize finish button to say Make a Gift or something similar.
7. Use pre-population on the donation form so that a donor’s contact information will already be filled in for them, reducing the amount of information that donors have to fill out before completing their gift.
8. Use appeal codes on all links to donation form to track how donors are reaching your form.
9. Give donors the opportunity to share their donation on Facebook (activate Facebook share option on finish step).
10. Incorporate matching gift information on the donation page to make it easy for donors to see whether their employer matches their gift.