13 Dec ONLINE DONATIONS: TURNING WEBSITES INTO A DRIVING FORCE FOR ASSOCIATIONS’ GROWTH

Having a good online presence is becoming more and more crucial for not-for profit  organisations, however having a website does not necessarily mean they are making the most out of it. 

While 95% of charities and not-for-profit groups in Europe have a website, just 56%  can use this web presence to accept online donations. [1]  

Nevertheless, users are increasingly active on the web: 46% of European donors prefer to give online. [2]  Moreover, globally, 24% of all online donations are made from mobile devices. [3] 

These statistics show that websites can be a driving force for associations’ growth.  

Website improvements to increase membership and donations  

Having a good website structure is key to present your project, activities and goals. Nevertheless merely informing users is not enough to engage and turn them into members or donors: you need to inspire and generate trust.  

Here are three elements that can help users’ in the path to online donations: 

–Transparency in sharing projects and results 

Embrace transparency: showcase your projects and share their results in detail. Potential donors need to know and see how funds are used, want to feel reassured about the credibility and reliability of your organization. 

It is vital to let your audience know about your association, provide a full picture of your activities and show the way you work. Audio-visual material is very helpful and effective to this purpose: make sure you make photos and videos of what you do available on your website to help users discover and embrace your cause. 

For Funding homepage for example, provides a clear overview of all the projects users can support: in–depth information, detailed objectives and donation progress are provided and made well visible. 

–Call to action 

After having discovered your organisation’s history, mission and activities, users may be interested to get involved and support you. Are you sure this step is made easy and intuitive on your site? 

A good example of effective call-to-action is provided by Operation Smile: call-to-action buttons are available throughout its website and many different ways to support the organisation’s activities are clearly displayed and explained in distinct dedicated sections, so that users can click on their preferred option and finalise their donation in just a few easy steps. Dedicated sections allow to effectively communicate projects and actions to support, and help users to make their choice. 

–Payment methods 

Payment pages should never be underestimated as they are part of the users’ trust building process towards your organisation: a secure payment method able to ensure users an intuitive and frictionless experience like MyBank can boost the reputation of your association and the trustworthiness of your website. 

Cesvi, Operation Smile, For Funding, Anteo Cooperativa, Comitato Italiano per l’Unicef, and Lega del Filo d’Oro are only a few of the many charity organizations and associations that have chosen to offer MyBank payments on their website to increase users’ trust. 

With MyBank, donors can support projects and initiatives directly from their own home banking protected environment, with no sensitive data shared with any third parties, no payment amount limits, and with real time confirmation of the transaction.  

Conclusions 

A good website is key to communicate an association’s mission, tell its history and goals, share its activities, initiatives and events, broaden its audience and turn users into members and donors. 

Websites need to have a well thought-out structure so that users are offered a seamless customer journey able to generate interest and convey reliability: turning users into donors is, indeed, a matter of trust. 

Reliability and transparency are two elements that should be well perceived by users  throughout the website, and payment pages are no exception.  

A payment solution having users’ security at its core and providing a reassuring, frictionless experience like MyBank can be a valuable support for associations and charity organisations in their trust building process. 

[1] [2] https://funraise.org/techreport

[3] https://givingreport.ngo/wp-content/uploads/2018-GivingReport-English.pdf