This article was originally published in my Digital Tip-A-Month Newsletter. Sign up to get more tips like this in your inbox once a month.
There’s one element of the fundraising campaign package that often gets neglected, and that’s a problem, because it’s arguably the most important part of the whole process: your donation form.
A Strong Donation Form = More Donations
We put a lot of energy into creating great emails, running effective ads, testing subject lines – but to seal the deal, your donation form has to be just as strong. It deserves regular attention year-round, including testing to improve its conversion rates, but the end-of-year giving period is different, and donors often behave differently. The form that works fine, or even great, during the rest of the year might need some sprucing up now.
If you have a big enough list to A/B test your EOY donation form throughout your campaign, that’s great, and you should build testing into your plan. But if you might not have the volume or bandwidth to run significant tests, and even if you do, you can’t test everything. Giving your donation form a careful look and making tactical adjustments can do a lot to boost your conversion rates.
Just like humans should see a doctor at least once a year for a check-up, your donation form should get an annual check-up, too, and for most organizations, this is the best time of year to do it.
Half-Hour Exercise: Give Your Donation Form a Check-Up
Take a look at the donation form you’ll be using for EOY fundraising and look closely at it. Ask yourself these questions, and see if there’s room to improve:
- Does the form overall look clean, professional, and trustworthy?
- If you’re using images, are they relevant and powerful? Are they large enough, and not pixelated or stretched? Do they make an emotional connection and convey why someone should donate? Are they connected to your EOY campaign theme?
- Do your headline and introductory text make a strong case for giving?
- Do they convey what your organization will do with the donation, and the importance of your work? Do they powerfully reflect your brand and mission?
- Do they mention anything special you’re doing for EOY, like deadlines or matching gifts?
- Alternatively, are they too long? Will donors read them and feel motivated, or skim over them? And, importantly, are they free of typos?
- Are there any unnecessary fields? If so, get rid of them! Make the form as concise as you can.
- Have you included the right donation options?
- EOY donors often give at higher amounts than they would at other times, so consider removing your lowest donation level from your gift string, adding a higher one, or just bumping up your entire gift string.
- Similarly, if you have a monthly giving program, consider whether to have a monthly option on this form. There’s no right answer to this: a monthly option will likely get you less revenue before the end of this calendar year, but more in the long term.
- Don’t forget your thank-you content! Both your thank-you page and confirmation email should be warm and grateful, and should include all the relevant details about the transaction for your donor’s records.
With these things in mind, plus the results of any tests you’re able to run, you’ll be in good shape to convert all those potential donors you’ll be driving to this form!