How to collect online donations for your not for profit
Are you wondering how to accept donations online?
Are you wondering how to accept donations online?
Giving your best and everything you can for the betterment of the world is a full-time job. Some days, it can be messy, but the joy of helping someone get on their feet again is what rejuvenates you.
When you are giving your best to the world, we know it takes a lot of effort. Are you wondering how to accept donations online?
Let us tell you how to collect online donations for your non-profit organisation to keep the lights on.
The first thing you should do to start accepting online donations is to create a donation form for your non-profit organisation.
The purpose of an online donation form is to collect only the necessary donor’s information and not to overwhelm them – including the donation amount.
When creating the donation form, it should be easily accessible and simplistic for the donors to understand and not difficult to locate on your website.
There are two donation forms – embedded forms and pop-up forms. Each of these donation forms has different purposes when it comes to collecting donations online.
Embedded donation forms can be found on the landing page of your website. They are great tools when attracting new donors because they contain information about your organisation, and it is a way of answering the donor’s questions.
An embedded form is best suited for collecting online donations because it is designed to match the rest of your website and provides more information to new donors. It does not collect any additional fees from your donation.
An embedded form would require information from a donor: their names, addresses, and emails with any information the organisation is interested in.
The embedded form is better at presenting more information than a pop-up form, and they are better suited for new donors.
Unlike the embedded forms, the pop-up forms are meant for people who already know about your non-profit organisation and are aware of what you do.
They are a great way to direct donors to your donation form from other sites on your website.
However, many people have pop-ups blocking plug-ins enabled on their computers. Unfortunately, these plug-ins will block your donation forms, which results in you losing some donors.
On the other hand, when a donor has decided to donate on your website, the pop-up comes up asking you to donate as you are filling out the donation form. It becomes inconvenient as the donor must close the pop-up as they are typing in their credit card details.
Although pop-ups are great for driving traffic to your donation forms, they can be blocked by plug-ins and can cause inconvenience to the donor.
Taking a look at your email list will help you get more online donations for your non-profit organisation.
Send updates to your existing donors, and regularly engaging with them will help you get more in the future. Engaging with the donors and reminding them of the work that you do will help them understand the importance of your work.
Strong communication is the key to reaching out to donors and keeping them updated on the events that are happening with the organisation. Segmenting your email list will allow you to identify donors from your least to most engaged supporters.
Once you have identified them, create a personalised message for each group. Depending on their engagement, you will need to use different messaging styles accordingly. People are more likely to donate when they receive a personalised message.
These days crowdfunding can be found almost everywhere. It is when a campaign or organisation asks the public to donate to a cause – families going through tough times, pet surgery etc.
One of the reasons crowdfunding has become more popular over the past few years is how easily it can be shared with other people and bring awareness to a campaign.
Your non-profit organisation can use crowdfunding to share more about your organisation, its reason, and what you hope to achieve. It can frequently update subscribers, encourage visitors to subscribe, and boost donor involvement.
Another way of accepting online donations for your non-profit is through recurring donations. They are collected either weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. This donation format is excellent for donors because it saves the donor time from revisiting your website to donate in the future.
The recurring donation option builds trust with the donors as they have read your website and understood your cause, and they are willing to put a number of their earnings into your funds.
Another benefit is that it increases your overall revenue. When a new donor visits your website, they might be hesitant to donate a large amount right off the bat. $100 might be a lot when someone is new to your organisation, while having to donate $10 per month might be more appealing.
Compared to only donating one-time, monthly donors are more loyal and likely to attend your events throughout the year. Loyal donors are also more likely to inform friends and family about your non-profit organisation’s cause.
To put it simply, peer to peer fundraising is to ask your supporters, volunteers, and family to fundraise for your cause. They create an online campaign that advocates to other people to raise money for you on your behalf.
Peer to peer fundraising is a great way for your non-profit organisation to reach out to people you would have never been able to.
The individuals who advocate for you do it by advocating on your behalf, bringing awareness to your mission to their local community.
When accepting donations online for your non-profit organisation, you should prepare donation receipts. It is a written record of the contribution made to an organisation by a legally qualified/eligible donor.
It confirms that the donation has been successfully made and can be used for tax incentives. Keeping track of a donation can prepare the donor for tax return in Australia.
While you give the community your best work, collecting donations is almost equally as crucial so that you can do what you do best.
Having your website ready is a must, and you can explore the many options to collect online donations such as direct debit for your organisation. Start looking at which option is best suited for your non-profit organisation.
If you don’t know how to set up a recurring donation system, contact the Payleadr team today and we will get you ready.
