Donations forms are the easiest and quickest way for fundraising. Donations made through a branded form are 38% more efficient than when you have a simple link for a payment company, such as PayPal. There’s a lot you can do with a donation form.
Let’s say you are part of a non-profit or a charity organization, part of your job is raising funds. How do you do it? Go door-to-door asking for donations? Although door-to-door may give you some results, it’s not as efficient as you imagine. It is a direct approach that convinces few people, but not enough to reach the amount your nonprofit needs to properly perform.
Doing events can be a more creative way to deal with fundraising. And here comes a “but”. We are in a pandemic moment where people can’t have gathering events.
Then, what is the solution?
You can build a donation form for your organization. People are on the web, so should your non-profit. Create a website, talk about the organization, and answer questions. What do you guys do? What are your projects? Show your work.
Then you can add a beautiful donation form that convinces people to donate for your non-profit. On a web basis, you can reach a larger group, that goes beyond your neighborhood and region. Your nonprofit is in the eyes of the World.
Follow our tips and build a form that can capture more donors and more donations to your organization.
What is a Donation Form?
The most important element of a donation page is the donation form. Through the form, you can get donors’ information and receive donations.
Having the proper form can give an excellent experience for the donor. That will happily come back.
Your donation form is the main contact the donor has to the organization. For this reason, it has to be informational, yet simple. Also, it has to be user-friendly, giving a closer relationship with the institution.
Donation forms are of great importance for any non-profit foundation or charitable campaign. They work to build trust, give and gather information, besides receiving donations. Therefore, stop ignoring it and add one to your donation page.
Why does your nonprofit need a donation request form?
Donation request forms are the easiest and most affordable way to receive donations. Using a form you can organize all the donations and give a receipt to the donor.
One more reason is the pandemic moment we are living. You can’t do any fundraising event to collect donations. Therefore, you must think about alternatives to raising the money to the foundation you are administering. And going online is an easier and quicker way.
Online you can reach a larger group of people willing to contribute to your cause. An online form can only help you with the task of gathering more donations.
You can, on the form, talk about the project, give options for donation amount, inform how to donate, and give a receipt using the PDF copy.
As examples of institutions that use forms, we have the International Center for Journalists and Love Earth WEC. ICFJ uses a larger form, embedded on their page. While Love Earth WEC prefers a straight to the point form. Both use the brand of the non-profit and each of them decided on one way to accept the donation. Use both pages as inspiration to create your institution’s form.
Donation Forms vs. Fundraising Platform
If you search online you will see that there are a lot of low-cost platforms for your fundraising. Platforms such as Indiegogo and Gofundme can create campaigns for your nonprofit organization. But, they can have fees (some of them are free) and they are not on your own website. Also, it is about campaigns, not always a recurring fundraiser.
A form can be embedded on your page so you don’t have to create a campaign, your form is always available for donations. Besides, you have the possibility, using MightyForms, to build it for free and embed it on your website.
Then, you can see the main reason you are needing fundraising. If it is for a single campaign, so is possible that use a fundraising platform can be interesting for you. On the other hand, if you have a website and your nonprofit accepts donations at any time, then a donation form is the best solution for you.
Steps to Build a Donation Request Form
Your form must be clear and fillable. Keep it simple, but, at the same time, it must contain all the necessary information to complete the donation.
We have five tips for your non-profit starting using donation forms and conquering more donors.
1. Use Integrations
You can automate your workflow using integrations MightyForms offers for you. Several tools can make your job easier and streamline your fundraising. Here are a few integrations that will help you get more donors:
- Google Sheets
Have your forms submissions data sent automatically to your Google Sheets. This helps you to organize any data you receive with the submitted forms. keep tracking of the donations and set up all the money entrances.
- Cloud Storage Services
You can connect your MightyForms account to your Google Drive or Dropbox. When you do it you can then have all the submissions straight to your drive account.
- Stripe for donations and PDF copy as a receipt
Receive any donation using your donation request form. With Stripe integration, you have the option to let the donor give the offer straight on the form. This speeds up the process and makes your life easier. After that, you can send the donor a receipt. Use the PDF copy you have to confirm the donation. All the necessary information will be on your PDF copy, making it the perfect receipt.
2. Choose the proper fields
Adding the right fields to your form can prevent abandonment or lower its rate. You can gather any essential information you need using the proper fields. In a donation form you need these fields:
- Name
- Phone number
- Terms and conditions
- Donation method
Tipping request
Any service you use for fundraising is going to have mandatory fees. You can ask the donor tipping to cover those fees. And you don’t have to worry about asking for too much. CauseVox found out that 75% of donors accept tipping to cover the transaction fees. This means that if you include a field for tipping you have great chances to have your transaction costs paid by the donor.
Recurring donor
Ask if each respondent of the form is a recurring donor. For those who check the box, you can then use the feature Logic Rules to establish specific next steps on the form. You can, as an example, use a different suggestions amount for recurring donors.
3. Set up a Success message
If you want to conquer recurring donors there is a technique that can help you on the task. Set submission success messages This can give your organization more credibility and generate brand trust.
Imagine a situation when you donate to some institution. But by the ending, you don’t receive any notification. Not only you don’t have an appreciation. but also you don’t know if the donation was made or what are the next steps.
That sounds frustrating, right?
So, don’t repeat this bad practice.
Follow these tips to set to the donation form a success message:
- Make It Personal. Use the donor’s first name on the message. It makes the message personal and gives more credibility to it.
- Say “Thank You”. Add a thank you note to the success message. It is important to show your appreciation after a donation.
- Confirm The Donation. Say that everything is ok with the donation. Confirm you received it. Don’t forget to send a real receipt. This is only to confirm that the donation process is complete.
- Give Donor Something Back. It can be an invitation for a play you are organizing, an e-book you are putting together, or even the invitation for a gathering you are hosting, after the pandemic, of course. Offer gifts according to the amount donated. Incentive recurring donations doing so.
4. Write a strong CTA
"Calls To Action" are those words that can make your fundraising grow. Which means, you must do it right. Here are our 3 tips to get the CTA right:
a. Placement
The first thing to pay close attention to is where you are going to place your CTA. It is dangerous to place it on the top before the visitor gets familiar with the cause. But it’s equally dangerous to set it in the end. That’s why you must test where and when to place the CTA.
A great way to test small adjustments is with A/B tests using Google Tag Manager.
b. Wording
Pay attention to is the words you choose. Always use strong verbs that give commands, like “donate now” or “make a contribution”.
c. Make the Value clear
Our last tip is to use the word “free” as much as possible. People get interested when they can win something. Besides, this is Nicholas Kusmich’s golden rule - give before asking. And don't just give anything. If you're asking for value, you must offer value.
Be very clear on how and why the donations are important for the cause you are working on.
Offer something related to what your institution does. For example, the Apollo Theater Foundation offers a package of benefits according to how you decide to contribute to the foundation.
What can you offer?
- Case Studies
- Webinars
- Invitations
- E-books
- Dinner parties
5. Donation Form as Landing Page
Multiple landing pages increase your SEO efforts. According to HubSpot companies see a 55% increase in leads increase when they go from 10 landing pages to 15. So, why not have your forms as a landing page? With more leads, you have a greater chance to raise the number of donors to your nonprofit.
Building your form as a landing page you can make it a beautiful page, using your branding. You can then add information about what the institution stands for and give more details about the projects you administrate.
Follow these tips to build a donation form as a landing page:
- Keep it simple. Simplicity is the word of order when building a form. You don’t want to lose donors for building a complicated form. The form must be clear and easy to respond to. Keep the donation form minimalist, accessible, and straight to the point. Ask only the necessary questions, using concise text. A direct approach is the best way to conduct your donation form. And, never forget, make your donation form accessible for any type of device.
- Use your brand and logo on the donation form. You are building a landing page. Your branding, something that represents the non-profit organization must appear on the page. Especially the organization logo. Make sure to the donor that they are on the right page. Ensure that this is your donation form and that they can do their offer. Use colors, typography, and images. You can add an element that resembles your organization branding. Just remember that too much is not ok. Use branding, but keep it simple.
- Offer as much value as possible. Give the donor all the possible choices when it comes to transferring their donation. And make it with a minimum amount, let's say $5, and go on with upper numbers. But stop in a reasonable amount. One last thing that is nice to do is put next to each value what the organization can do with that much money, showing to the donor what they are contributing for.
- Add terms and policies. Add the terms and policies to create brand trust. Donors feel more confident in donating to institutions with disclaimers and policies. Inform about tax-deductions or any other tax implications. This is a document. Therefore, be clear of any legal aspect that concerns the donation.
Free Charitable Donation Form Template
Did you know that as a non-profit you can contact us directly to apply for a discount? Build the best forms for your institution today. Follow our step-by-step and build your donation request form.
Generate more leads and conquer more donors using the right form for your non-profit institution.
The first step is to log in to your MightyForms dashboard. Then you will select a donation form template or build a form from scratch.
You can use Logic Rules to determine the value of the donation
Use the Stripe integration to allow the lead to donate straight from the form.
It’s time for you to personalize your form. Select a page background, change the typography, and use your institution logo. Customize your donation request form.
You can choose to receive a PDF copy of each submission. Use this copy as a receipt for the donor.
Try MightyForms for free and start working on fundraising to your nonprofit today.
