8 Ways To Tangibly Increase Your Donations

As fundraisers our ultimate goal is to raise as much money as we can for our charity. This not only keeps your charity running, but ensures we can sustain growth and delivery of services well into the future.

So, if there are tried and tested ways to increase donations we know you’re going to want to know about them.

1. Use Personalisation

If you have read our previous articles you will know we are all about personalisation. When used correctly personalisation can not only increase your donations but also increase supporter loyalty and advocacy.

But don’t just take our word for it!

Lifeline quadrupled their donations via email using personalisation as well as exceeded their stretch target of $550,000 to finish at more than $593,000.

Foodbank Victoria also saw that their open rates, click-through rate and most importantly conversion rates went “through the roof” from using personalisation.

Rochelle Nolan

National Manager, Strategic Fundraising

Lifeline Australia

PURLs through Give Easy have been a game changer for Lifeline.... Jeremy and the team were fantastic supporting us, and once we did implement it, it was apparent we couldn’t go back! The results were amazing. We went from eDMs bringing in around $5,000 to bringing in quadruple that!

The area we’ve had most success, however, is through our Giving Days. The personalised landing pages, ask amounts and donation function make each ask truly feel relevant and personalised. The results have been incredible – our most recent Giving Day exceeded it’s stretch target of $550,000 to finish at more than $593,000.

2. Reduce Form Fields

We understand data is important, but when it’s at the expense of getting donations, is knowing your donor’s birthday really worth it?

It’s a well known fact that our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. When you’re creating your donation form, focus on conversions and keep it to the essential information:

Don’t forget, you can always ask for further information on a post donation survey, thank you email or future communication.

Amanda Schofield

Individual Giving Manager

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Donors want a quick and easy way to make a donation and sending an SMS that clicks through to a pre-populated donation form has delivered great results for us both during our Telethon and EOFY appeals.

3. Instant & Urgent

More than half of all web traffic and page views now come from smartphones, but many mobile donations continue to suffer due to poor user experience. Don’t settle for a poorly optimised webpage where everything shrinks and you’re squinting at your phone. Ensure your forms are mobile first.

Quick tips:

4. Add Multiple Ways To Give

How often do you go to donate, only to realise your credit card isn’t within reach and you promise yourself you’ll ‘come back later’.

Avoid this problem by ensuring you have at least one additional payment method, e.g. PayPal.

PayPal provides security as well as the ability to save a donor’s payment details within PayPal’s system. Increased security and the convenience of stored payment details directly relates to less donor abandonment, increased conversions, and donor loyalty.

5. Use Storytelling

You can’t underestimate the power of strong storytelling. A good story can capture your attention, move you and drive you to action.

Who is your lead character? What adversity have they faced? As a donor, how can MY help ensure no one else suffers the same fate?

Don’t forget your loyalty communications and impact reports. The all important part where you show a donor they CHANGED the story, and the future is at least a little brighter due to them.

6. Use Donation Price Points

In its simplest form a price point provides a tangible outcome to a donation. E.g. $110 provides a family with groceries for a week. In its more complex forms price points can guide a donation. If your average donation online from a specific audience is $50, then by creating a price point at $56 will very likely slightly increase the intended donation.

Each charity is different and it’s worth digging into your data to see how you can test your price points to increase your revenue.

7. Take A Multi-Channel Approach

One of the biggest battles in fundraising is ensuring enough people actually see and read your message. Your campaign may be perfect but if it’s not seen by enough people you are never going to reach (let alone exceed) your fundraising goals.

People are busy and you’re never going to reach everyone at the perfect time. Which is why it’s important to communicate with your supporters multiple times throughout the campaign and on several different platforms. Use all the communication channels you have at your disposal: email, social media, SMS, even pitch the story of your campaign to your local news outlet.

8. Use Match Giving If You Can

We know that securing a matched giving donation can be hard, but if you can do it, it’s definitely worth it. In fact supporters in matched giving campaigns not only donate more but donate more often. Who doesn’t want that?

You can use matched giving as part of a specific giving day, as an addition to your wider appeal, or as a last big push to a significant campaign.

Claire Baxter

Head of Fundraising

Kidney Health Australia

Matched giving days are the secret weapon to time-based fundraising. They increase revenue, reactivate and acquire donors, raise awareness and importantly, they are fun for everyone involved!

How GiveEasy Can Help

GiveEasy has been founded on ease of use, for donors and charities alike. We haven’t set out to be the most technical, most flexible, blank canvas – instead we’ve focused on reading all of the data, providing clear templates based on best practice and best performance from watching thousands of campaigns over the years.

What this means for you as a charity is you don’t need a digital degree or external agency to help set up a campaign. You can set up yourself within minutes and not question where the form should sit or how much content to include. It’s all mapped out for you.

GiveEasy is on hand 24/7 to provide guidance on the specifics, if there is anything in this article you’d like to find out more about. We’d be happy to set up a call.