5 Online Donation Tools to Boost Your Fundraising Strategy

To support your nonprofit, you and your team constantly search for new ways to improve your fundraising strategy and boost donations. You may attend fundraising conferences, experiment with different event formats, read fundraising books, or launch new types of marketing campaigns. Maybe you’ve already considered investing in online donation software, but don’t know where to start.

The wealth of available online donation tools can be overwhelming, so we’ve compiled a list of five useful tools that can make the greatest impact on your fundraising success. When you research software solutions, look for these important tools and features: 

1. PCI-compliant payment processor
2. Mobile-responsive donation form
3. Text-to-give
4. Matching gift tool
5. Peer-to-peer fundraising tools

As we explore these options in more detail, keep your organization’s budget and goals in mind. Choose software that fits your nonprofit’s needs and expands your fundraising capabilities without draining your budget.

1. PCI-compliant payment processor

The first step to improving your fundraising strategy is to ensure that you’re using the right payment processor to accept donations.

A payment processor is a tool that your organization uses to accept and process donations safely. PCI-compliance means that the payment processor follows Payment Card Industry regulations and handles financial information securely. 

Essentially, the process works like this:

• A donor enters their payment information into your online donation page.
• Your payment processor verifies the information with the donor’s card association.
• The card association communicates with the donor’s bank, which approves or denies the transaction.
• The payment goes through the card association and back to your nonprofit!

You may be using a payment processor already as a standalone tool or as part of your online donation platform. If you choose online donation software that’s specifically designed for nonprofits, your platform will often integrate with well-known and trusted third-party payment processors to make the process easier. 

Whether you use a payment processor on its own or as part of a donation platform, ensure that your processing system is secure, reputable and cost-effective for your organization. 

2. Mobile-responsive donation form

The moment a supporter arrives on your donation page is critical because they need to decide in the moment whether or not to make a contribution. If your donation form is difficult to access or doesn’t work properly on their device, they could decide not to donate after all. 

To ensure your donation form is effective and fully functional, choose an online donation tool that provides the following features:

• Mobile-optimization. If you link to your donation page in social media posts or emails, many donors will come to your page on their phones. Choose a platform that offers mobile-responsive donation form design to avoid alienating these supporters and losing their support.

• Customization options. Donately’s #1 online fundraising idea to boost donations is to create a custom donation form. Your donation platform should allow you to customize colors, images and fonts to match your organization’s brand. When your donation form is recognizable to your supporters, they’ll trust that their donations will go directly to your nonprofit.

• Suggested donation amounts. Along with customizing visuals, the best donation tools will allow you to customize the suggested donation amounts listed on the form. Tailor these suggested amounts to slightly higher than the average size of donations you receive to maximize giving.
• Option to make donations recurring. Look for a platform that allows you to add an option for monthly giving to your donation form. This way, donors can easily decide to turn a one-time gift into a recurring donation.

Remember that every page on your website should tell your story, including your donation page. While you don’t want to overwhelm your donors with too much information on the page, you should include a short reminder of your nonprofit’s mission or the cause these donations will support.

3. Text-to-give

Once your donation form is optimized for mobile, why not add an additional way for supporters to contribute via phone? Text-to-give offers easy access to your donation form and a much shorter process overall, meaning donors are more likely to complete the transaction.

With text-to-give tools, all a donor has to do to make a contribution is follow three easy steps:

1. Text a designated keyword, such as “donate now,” to your nonprofit’s dedicated text-to-give phone number.
2. Click the link to your donation page that the software automatically sends in response.
3. Fill in the donation form with their information.

That’s it! Look for an online donation platform with text-to-give capabilities that allows your nonprofit to customize the keyword and the response donors receive. Then, start promoting the option to your supporters. Mention text-to-give as you market your next event or incorporate it into online fundraising campaigns themselves.

4. Matching gifts tool

Many companies will match the gifts that their employees make to qualified nonprofits at a specified ratio, such as 1:1 or 2:1. These programs provide an opportunity for nonprofits to raise more money without putting added pressure on individual donors. 

However, your donors may not even be aware that they have access to these programs. Each year, up to $7 billion in available matching gift funds aren’t claimed, according to Crowd 101’s corporate giving statistics. There’s where matching gift tools come in.

With a matching gift tool, you’ll be able to add a field to your donation form for donors to search a database of available corporate giving programs. This way, your supporters can easily find out if their employers offer matching gifts and how to participate. Some platforms can even automatically submit matching gift requests on your donors’ behalf, greatly increasing the chances that you receive these additional funds at no added cost to your donors. 

5. Peer-to-peer fundraising tools

Peer-to-peer fundraisers are a great way to let your supporters take an active role in your fundraising strategy. To start a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, recruit volunteers from your support base. Your volunteer fundraisers will collect donations from their own networks of friends and family on your organization’s behalf. 

These fundraisers are also incredibly flexible, so you can run a peer-to-peer campaign fully online or combine it with in-person or hybrid events. Often, campaigns with time constraints will lead up to your upcoming event, but you may also choose to host a rolling campaign that simply ends when you reach your goal.

No matter how you alter the format to fit your nonprofit’s needs, peer-to-peer fundraising tools can help you run your campaign smoothly. Most peer-to-peer fundraising software will include a variety of tools, including:

• A main event landing page for your campaign
• Customizable individual campaign pages for volunteer fundraisers
• Intuitive social sharing buttons
• Gamification tools to encourage progress and friendly competition

Peer-to-peer fundraising software also allows you to keep all of your volunteers’ campaigns organized, making it easier to communicate with your fundraising team and track data. You can then use the data that the platform collects to improve future campaigns.

As you can see, there are plenty of online fundraising tools you can fit into your strategy to help your nonprofit raise more for your cause. When you pair the use of these tools with intentional marketing and donor engagement strategies, you’ll be able to reach your fundraising goals in no time.

 

Jacob Spencer, Customer Success / Account Manager

I strive to make every step of our customer journey as enjoyable as possible. My goal is to turn everyone that trusts Donately into a raving fan! Raising funds can be daunting, but we know that with the right tools, it can and should be easy. 

Throughout my career, I’ve been able to help sales and success teams tackle new markets, grow and expand. 

Leading with empathy, listening to actually solve problems, and remembering that we are all human are the key elements to growing any business in a meaningful way.

When I’m not working you can find me spending time with my wife, 2 boys and our Border Collie, Abbie. Family>Everything.