Is your donation page optimized? While I don’t know your specific page, I can confidently say no because every donation page can be optimized. Whether it’s a big thing — like being clear with what a donation will do — or a small thing — like removing distracting links from your page — it can add up to a big difference.

For example, is your donation page secure? Most likely. But do your donors know it is? Perhaps not. Take this experiment, for example, where the organization added a shaded treatment to the Credit Card information area — where donors are most sensitive to security issues — and added a little 'lockbox' icon to reinforce, visually, that their information was secure.

The end result? A 20.4% increase in conversion rate.

And that’s just one minor change in one area of a donation page. As a fundraising research lab, I get to spend a lot of time looking at examples and experiments as does our Sr. Director of Research and Education, Jon Powell. After looking at over 400 different donation page experiments, he actually found that there were 19 main areas of a general donation page that you can change, tweak, and experiment with. Here’s the short summary:

1. Header: Simple with no navigation and no donate button.
2. Design elements: Avoid over-investing in design, and ensure text is readable.
3. Headline: Clearly spell out the specific effect of someone’s donation.
4. Background image: If using one, ensure it is related to your value proposition.
5. Intro Copy: Introduce your general value proposition here. Communicate clearly and concisely.
6. Main Image: No image needed.
7. Video: Avoid it.
8. Body Copy: Stick to a concise general, and bulleted message. Avoid excessive explanation copy and narrative.
9. In-line Reviews: Use them cautiously.
10. In-Line Premiums: Describe it here, and use an image.
11. Call-to-action Copy: Provide a single call-to-action at the end of the body copy, reinforcing the impact of donating.
12. Gift Array: Test an enter-your-own dollar amount field if your average gift size is significantly larger in this channel compared to others
13. Gift Array Presentation: If using an array, use big designed buttons, and do not use a premium upsell.
14. Gift Type: Do not default or overemphasize a recurring gift.
15. Form Field Design: Arrange to reduce page length, add headers with numbering and clarity.
16. Form Fields: Pre-populate with customer information and ensure phone is always optional.
17. Credit Card Fields:
    • Visually box out fields with a high contrast background and visible lock icon.
    • Alternate Payment Methods: Use caution when adding payment options you can’t control (i.e. PayPal).
18. Call-to-action Button Area: Use credibility seals and reinforce impact of gift with brief copy.
19. Verification/Confirmation Pages: Eliminate them.

Happy testing and good luck!

Brady Josephson is a charity nerd, entrepreneur, digital marketer, professor, and writer. He’s on a mission to see more people giving and more causes thriving. At NextAfter, Brady focuses on business development and partnerships, content creation, and marketing.

For information on how you can improve your donation page and and where do you get started? Three suggestions for you:

You can see all the research that went into these 19 areas and get a free guide with more info on each area here: https://www.nextafter.com/interactive-donation/.

You can take a free online course on Donation & Landing Page Optimization here: https://courses.nextafter.com/register/donation-landing-page-optimization/

You can attend an in-person certification training workshop coming up near you, check here: https://www.nextafter.com/training