A good donation page will enable supporters to give to your cause but a GREAT donation page will maximize your online gifts. That’s because a well-designed donation page makes it easy and enjoyable to give more and give frequently. 

Follow along to learn how to optimize your donation page and get inspired by top nonprofit organizations.

1. Include an engaging header image 

Displaying too many images on your donation page is distracting and creates a cluttered look. Narrow down your content to feature one “hero shot” or photo that captures what your nonprofit is about. This photo should evoke feelings of hope and generosity to inspire potential donors to complete their gift. 

Once you have decided on your hero shot, highlight it at the top of your donation page in a banner image. This will maximize its visibility without cluttering your donation page. 

The International WAGR Syndrome Association has a beautiful hero shot on their donation page showcasing children with WAGR syndrome who are the core focus of their organization.

2. Offer suggested donation amounts 

New donors might not know how much to give on their first time. Offering suggested amounts makes that decision a little easier and may even lead to higher donations. Set your suggested donation amounts slightly higher than your average donation. For example, if your average donation is $16, suggest donations of $20, $50, $100, and $500 for the big spenders. Of course, users should still be able to enter a custom amount, every dollar counts. 

The Big Island Substance Abuse Council offers a nice range of donation amounts in an engaging and intuitive format. Donors can choose from five recommended amounts or enter their own amount.

3. Enable recurring donations 

Offering a recurring donation option is the best way to build lasting relationships and increase the lifetime value of your donors. Recurring donors give an average of 42% more per year than one-time donors. The goal of any nonprofit is to foster stronger relationships with donors and convert casual supporters into loyal advocates for your cause.

Coastal Community Action offers a recurring donation checkbox to encourage donors to give monthly in support of its community initiatives. Donors can also select which program they want to support. 

4. Feature donation dedications 

Offering the option to dedicate a donation helps connect donors’ stories to your cause. Donation dedications can make a great gift to a friend or help honor a lost loved one. You can take it a step further by showcasing dedicated donations on your nonprofit’s website. This will help past donors feel appreciated and encourage others to give as well. 

The Voices Project is a nonprofit organization advocating for recovery and support for individuals and communities struggling with addiction. The organization offers a dedication field to allow donors to dedicate their gift to people they have lost to addiction.

5. Minimize form fields 

Too many fields on your donation form can be daunting for donors. They will be less likely to complete the donation process if you ask too many prying questions. Stick to just the essentials. Ask for donors’ contact information and payment details leaving any additional fields optional. 

The American Friends of Covent Garden’s donation page maintains a welcoming, minimalistic feel by only asking for essential fields and arranging them in a simple format.

6. A Heartfelt Thank You 

Thanking your donors is an essential step that shouldn’t be overlooked. Donors give to your nonprofit because they believe in your cause and want to help make a difference. A heartfelt thank you message lets them know that their donation is not only helpful but 

appreciated too. When crafting your thank you message, be sure to include the following: 

• The donor’s name 
• How their donations will be used 
• Links to any additional information 
• Your nonprofit’s contact details 

A donation receipt is also important for tax purposes. Make sure to set up automatic email confirmations so that donors can submit their receipt to claim a tax deduction. 

The Associated Recreation Council of Seattle wears its heart on its sleeve with a meaningful message to donors. The organization explains how donations will be used and thanks the donor for their contribution.

The Gist 

The amount of effort your nonprofit puts into its online donation page has a direct impact on the amount of funds raised. Keeping these simple best practices in mind, you can take your donation page from good to great! Check out Morweb’s list of best nonprofit websites for even more inspiration on your web design journey.

The post The Anatomy of a Great Donation Page appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

With social distancing guidelines keeping organizations and members physically apart, a strong web presence is more important than ever. For instance, a modern, well-designed website will help your association:

• Boost brand awareness. With a website that’s wholly representative of your association, you can build a strong online identity as well as strengthen brand recognition within your industry.
  
• Improve member engagement. With helpful tools and information about your work, your website can help cultivate relationships with existing members and position you as a respected leader in the space.
  
• Enhance the member experience. The best association websites go beyond visuals and prioritize content. By balancing form and function, your website can meet members’ needs and drive organizational goals.

Remember, your association’s website is typically an individual’s first stop when looking to learn more about your work and get involved. Since it only takes a few seconds to form a first impression, your website should be optimized to attract visitors’ interest and provide a great experience. 

To ensure your team is equipped with the necessary knowledge for building a strong member website, let’s cover three key components:

1. Valuable Content
2. A Great Mobile Experience
3. An Engaging Visual Design

Walking through this checklist will ensure you’re optimizing the member experience on your website. Let’s get started!

1. Valuable Content

Members are the lifeblood of associations, so you’ll want to prioritize their experience by featuring valuable content and tools pertaining to their needs. After all, nonprofit marketing experts claim that effective content is a fundamental part of organizational growth.

While the type of content varies from association to association, there are a few primary components that prospects and members will find particularly useful, including:

• Information on your program. Your association’s website is a prime opportunity for converting prospects into members. In fact, providing helpful resources enables them to learn more about your program and deepen interest, according to this article. Capitalize on this by clearly telling visitors how and why they should join. Then, give them direct access to your application, so they can take action the moment they make their decision.
  
• Member directory. When selecting your content management system (CMS), make sure you can add, edit, and categorize members into an easy-to-use directory. With interactive mapping capabilities, members can conveniently search and connect with others. According to Fonteva’s association member engagement guide, members should feel like they’re part of a growing community, and encouraging interactivity is an important consideration.
  
• Members portal. Upon joining your association, members should gain access to an exclusive members portal, where they can pay dues and access member-specific resources. Further, your portal should remind them of upcoming events and allow them to update their personal details. Plus, according to this membership program guide, you’ll want to make sure to send automated notifications about membership renewal, which is simplified with the right membership website.

In today’s crowded online market, you need to go the extra mile to ensure your association stands out. Overall, attracting and retaining association members should be the primary purpose of your association’s website, so choose your content accordingly. By offering the above helpful features, you can create an immersive and valuable member experience through your website.

To further simplify the process, invest in professional membership website builder tools that are built specifically for associations. Otherwise, you might overlook vital functionality that your members may find useful.

2. A Great Mobile Experience

These days, many of your members are likely accessing your association’s website on their smartphones. In fact, mobile devices have consistently accounted for more than half of all web traffic since 2017. In the second quarter of 2020, mobile devices generated 51.53% of global web traffic, according to Statista. In other words, mobile usage is a vital consideration when it comes to association web design.

Whether your members are simply browsing your work or updating personal details on their member profile, they should be able to interact with your content regardless of the device they’re using. By ensuring that your association’s website is built for mobile use, you can easily avoid negative user experiences, such as:

• Zooming in and out to read and interact with content
• Rotating the device to view the page

Remember, every page, form, and pop-up on your website should scale for mobile devices. Otherwise, visitors may abandon your website altogether, according to this nonprofit web design guide.

To create a positive mobile experience for members, ensure your CMS offers mobile responsiveness so that your website will automatically restructure itself for mobile screens. Otherwise, your visitors will be greeted with a condensed version of your association website’s desktop view, which will make it difficult to navigate. With automatic responsiveness, your association’s team won’t have to worry about developing multiple versions of your website for mobile devices, tablets, and desktops.

3. An Engaging Visual Design

When you develop informative content, it’s important that you present this information in a visually appealing way. Otherwise, your association’s website may turn visitors away and prevent you from reaching your membership goals.

As you organize your content, keep these best practices in mind to make it easy for visitors to interact with your association’s website:

• Scannability: Each member likely visits your website with a very specific goal in mind. Making your website easy to scan will help them quickly locate the information they need. Start by developing a visual hierarchy, which is how you present elements to imply importance. For instance, many web designers opt for a “Z” pattern, which considers where your eyes focus first, second, and third (i.e. a “Z” formation).
  
• White Space: Simply put, white space refers to the empty space between page elements (e.g. images, text, and so on). While it may be compelling to take up all usable space on your association’s website, white space will help to break up content and ensure it’s fully digestible. For the best results, aim for a balance between white space and content.
  
• Smooth Navigation: Navigation is a cornerstone of website usability. Ensure your navigation bar features pages your members will find useful. Take it a step further with strategically-incorporated calls to action, where you direct prospects toward your desired course of action. For instance, Morweb’s association website best practices guide states that many associations feature buttons in the top right corner of their navigation menu, linking to the membership login page and registration page.

These are just a few primary visual components to keep in mind. There are many other elements to consider, but these will serve as a solid starting point in developing a user-centric design.

With a limited staff juggling many responsibilities, your association may be hesitant to take on a website redesign project. However, learning what goes into a well-designed association website plays a key role in developing an effective member experience. By pairing these best practices with an intuitive website builder, you’ll be well-equipped to create an engaging web experience for your members.

The post Association Websites: 3 Ways to Engage Your Base appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Website design is important, and leveraging the right web development features will help you navigate many of these questions. Customizing your website will enable you to effectively tell your nonprofit’s story, so be sure to use a website builder that allows for some creativity and flexibility.

This all comes down to your content management system (CMS). Your CMS should provide you with the tools and functionality to build out the exact website you want, without any confusion or frustration. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the top features you should look for in a CMS when building your nonprofit website:

1. Customizability
2. Mobile Optimization
3. Fundraising Software
4. SEO Tools
5. Blogging Tools

Making the most of the above features will help boost your online presence and make a great first impression for new site visitors. Let’s get started.

Customizability

What if your team isn’t experienced in web design and needs a simple, straightforward way to present your content? Look for a CMS with simple customizable features so you can easily create and update your site without any coding experience required.

With a customizable CMS, you’ll be able to take advantage of tools like:

• Drag-and-drop. Drag-and-drop tools allow you to pick from a set of pre-designed elements and play around with your page’s design without the need to carefully code each component.
  
• Live editing tools. Use live editing tools to ensure your live page looks exactly how you want it. Edit your page in real-time on the front end of your website instead of having to guess how it will look from the back end.
• Images and videos. Featuring compelling visuals on your website can help tell your nonprofit’s story, encourage visitors to explore your website further, and even inspire them to make a donation. Make sure your logo is prominently displayed on each page of your website and take advantage of features like image carousels to avoid overcrowding the space. 
• Data capture. Add email sign-ups for newsletters or volunteering so you can capture data from your web visitors and keep them engaged with your organization.
• Social media integrations. Since many of your supporters will likely engage with your nonprofit on social media, make sure your CMS supports social media integrations like live social feeds for Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Customization features can help you portray your nonprofit exactly how you want. Make a positive first impression by creating a professional website that’s easily editable and looks how you envisioned it. From there, you’ll have a solid foundation for building it up.

Mobile Optimization

Most people view websites on their smartphones these days, which means potential donors who visit your website may be viewing it on a smaller screen. That means optimizing your website for mobile is incredibly important, and you need a CMS with mobile-responsive functionality to make it happen.

Here are the top mobile-related features you should look for as you build your website:

• Mobile responsiveness. Each page of your website should adjust to fit any size screen, whether it’s a tablet, desktop, or smartphone.
• Mobile forms. Every form on your website, including donation forms, volunteer sign-ups, etc., should adjust for mobile. If your visitors try to make a donation on their smartphone and have to zoom in and out or rotate their device, there’s a chance they’ll abandon the form altogether.
• Lead capture forms. Pop-ups like lead capture forms should scale for mobile so that visitors don’t become frustrated looking for a way to close the pop-up screen.

Optimizing for mobile users is a good strategy for boosting donations and giving your web visitors a positive experience. Even more, you’ll reach a lot more people, and fewer people will leave due to a negative experience.

Fundraising Software

Your website is already a powerful fundraising tool because it houses all of the information individuals need to learn about your nonprofit and get involved with your cause. For that reason, pick a CMS that makes it easy to engage your supporters and raise funds.

Your CMS should offer:

• Donation pages. Add an on-site donation page, which is one of the most important elements of your website. Ensure your donation page is easy to navigate and branded to your organization so individuals are more inclined to give. You’ll also want to make sure your donation page is easy to access from anywhere on your website by highlighting it in your navigation menu.
• eCommerce. Some supporters prefer to give in other ways. Use a CMS that offers eCommerce capabilities so you can set up a store with merchandise (like custom shirts) and offer another way for individuals to support your cause.
• Event management features. Easily design event registration pages and create an events calendar that’s easy to update. Your CMS should give you the tools to do this so you can keep your supporters updated on important events and collect payment directly through your website.

One of the most important functions of your nonprofit’s website is to fundraise for your cause. You can do this through an on-site donation page or an online store. Your website should also make it easy to register and purchase tickets for your events. From there, follow tips like these to keep your momentum going.

SEO Tools

You’ve probably heard the term search engine optimization (SEO), but do you know how to implement it into your nonprofit’s website? SEO involves optimizing content on your website to help it prominently rank in popular search engines, like Google.

If you’re new to web design, chances are you don’t have a lot of experience in SEO, either. According to Morweb’s guide to nonprofit web development, you should pick a CMS with SEO tools that can help you improve your site’s content and rank better on search engines.

These tools include:

• Meta title editors. Your meta title is the title search engines display in search results. Make sure your CMS allows you to easily edit your meta title so you can boost click-through rates.
• Meta description editors. Your meta description is a short description that describes the purpose of your web page and what content they can expect to find there. Your CMS should make it simple to edit your meta description tags.
• Customizable URLs. Your website’s URLs should also be customizable. URLs that are too long or difficult to read can turn web visitors away. However, if your URL includes the keyword you’re targeting and remains short and simple, you’re more likely to rank and get visitors.

When your CMS allows you to customize content with key SEO elements, your nonprofit’s website will have a higher chance of ranking on search engines and getting more attention from web users. Make sure your CMS offers these features so you can maximize your online presence.

Blogging Tools

Will you be posting blog articles on your website? Blogs are an impactful way for nonprofits to communicate the good they’re doing and keep their supporters updated on their progress. But running a blog takes organization, especially when you want it to drive your supporters to take action.

Blogging tools are an important feature that should be part of your CMS. With the right toolkit, you can easily craft your posts and share your content to other channels. These features include:

• An easy-to-use blog editor. The process of drafting, formatting, and editing your blog posts should be intuitive. Create your posts the way you want so they match your nonprofit’s branding and are tailored for your readers.

• Scheduling tools. If you’re leveraging an editorial calendar, make sure your CMS allows you to schedule posts so you can ensure they go out at the right time. This will also give your staff time to review posts before they go live and make sure they’re just right.
• Live previews. As with the rest of your site, it’s important to preview your blog posts before you publish them. Find a CMS that offers a live preview mode so you can make sure your blog posts look exactly how you want them to both on your computer and on mobile before they go live.
• Social media share icons. Encourage your readers to share your content on other platforms by offering share options for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email etc.

Nonprofit web design takes a lot of planning and organization. Make sure your CMS offers you the tools you need to stay on top of your blog content and communicate exactly what you need to your audience. Keeping your website content current is one of the most essential parts of great web design, and this can set your site up for success. 

Building your nonprofit website doesn’t have to be a daunting task. If you focus on the features that your organization will need, you should end up with the right tools to help you put together a professional and intuitive web design.

Looking for some more guidance? Check out Morweb’s guide to nonprofit web design for some of the top best practices.

The post Top 5 Essentials for Your Nonprofit Website appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.