This post was updated on 4/21/20 to offer new examples of great nonprofit donation pages along with the latest best practices.

For many nonprofits, fundraising is consistently an important goal of your website. You may want your site to accomplish a variety of organizational goals. But a steady flow of donations can help keep your organizational gears in motion so that you can turn your focus to the really important stuff – helping your community.

For that reason, donation pages continue to be a central part of nonprofit website design. If you’ve succeeded in making strong calls to action that guide website visitors to your donate page, you should reward them with a compelling and easy to use online donation process.

Many people will never be able to come to a meeting, march in a rally or volunteer at a food drive. But they can access this donation page and, when they do, they’ll be hoping for a rewarding experience.

What Makes a Great Donation Page?

The most important rule for a nonprofit donation page is that it’s donor-friendly:

  • It’s a part of your main website rather than sending people away.
  • You offer an inspiring call to action or reason to give.
  • There are straightforward options for donors to consider.
  • The donation form is streamlined and responsive.
  • You share some information that helps build trust.
  • There’s contact information for anyone with questions.

Examples of Nonprofit Donation Pages

We’ve collected a few of the best nonprofit donation pages to show you. We’ll walk through each one and point out a few things that they’re doing right so that you can use them as inspiration for your own website.

Nature Conservancy Canada

NCC’s donate page does a great job balancing a simple donation form with information about why to give, donor benefits, their impact, and overall efficiency. You can also see all of the steps of the donation process along the way.

CAMFED

The CAMFED donate page explains how different giving levels will make a difference followed by suggested or custom giving levels that take you to an on-site donation form. The main donate page also includes spending information and a video about the impact of giving.

Heifer International

This is a great example of a nonprofit donation page focused specifically on monthly giving. In addition to giving donors options, the page spells out what recurring donations mean alongside compelling and hopeful images.

Invisible Children

Invisible Children’s donate page offers one-time and monthly giving options as well as links to inspiring supporter stories and a call-to-action specifically for the monthly donor program.

Compassion International

This donation page is reassuring and helpful for both new and returning supporters. Donors can quickly give at the top of the page or scroll down to learn more about the organization’s mission, other giving options and donation security. Plus, there’s an option for live chat.

World Wildlife Fund

If your nonprofit offers donor incentives, check out this page from World Wildlife Fund. It allows donors to easily navigate between different giving options, cover processing feeds, select a gift (or not), and complete their gift.

National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias

NFED uses an effective, one-page form that keeps supporters focused on completing the donation process. They make it easy to switch between one-time and monthly donations alongside a sidebar with approachable giving level suggestions that are specific to their mission.

Donors Choose

This monthly giving-specific page from Donors Choose does an excellent job explaining how the program works and why it serves the donor. It also showcases information about efficiency and transparency with links that open in a new window for those who are interested.

NRDC

Here’s another good example of how to include donor incentives on your page without a lot of clutter. NRDC uses a fantastic photo and strong call-to-action with a well-designed donation form. Notice how they work in a mention of a matching gift and some additional information at the end.

Rotary International

Think you have a lot of information to offer about donating to your nonprofit? Rotary International provides a helpful example of how to get it all on the page with bright colors, visuals, and digestible pieces of content no matter the donors’ interests. And for a long page, it also does well on mobile.

If you see something you like, apply it on your nonprofit’s site. An important page like your donation page should be constantly evolving and improving. Why not get started right now? Once you’re feeling good about it, you’ll be ready to tackle more pieces of the online donation process, like a Thank You For Donating page, your Ways to Give page, and getting your site ready for fundraising events like Giving Tuesday.

Do you know of any other great donation pages not included in this list? Do you have any questions about making your own? Let us know in the comments below.

Comments

  1. Thanks Rori for using my Flickr image, and crediting me. It’s great to see it with all these good examples.

    I’ve been gathering and sharing fundraising related images on Flickr for nine years, all available for re-use under Creative Commons, so feel free to use others:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/howardlake/

    • Thanks a lot for making the image available through the Creative Commons Howard! We’ll be sure to check out your stuff for future posts as well.

  2. this is a great list! It’s so hard to find the right places to donate that you can really trust. I’m going to head over to a couple of my favorites on this list now. Thanks again, great line up.

  3. Great post. Keep sharing these kind of helping stuffs that can encourage people in donating to make this world a better place.

  4. Great site and list! Thanks a lot for the post, I’ll be checking back for more soon!

  5. Thank you for the great information! I am starting a non-profit and building my own website. I’m wondering if you can recommend a website builder that offers great options for donation pages. And mobile capabilities/viewing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

    • Hi Kerry. This is a tough question since we don’t normally use website builders for our clients. That said, we’ve heard good things about NationBuilder (http://nationbuilder.com/) as a simple platform for nonprofits. I know they also have a donation processing add-on.

      I’d also recommend looking at the hosted version of WordPress (https://wordpress.com). It will most likely take more time to get up and running, but WordPress is an incredibly flexible platform.

      Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions.

    • Hey Kerry!

      We updated our site not too long ago with Squarespace and it’s super user friendly. WordPress is a great option too!

      This is such a great article – we’ll be updating our donations page soon and this info is super helpful!

      Thank you!
      Madison

  6. Thank you for the must have donation list. We’ll starting a non-profit with donation based website.

    • Thanks for sharing Vahid. I’d recommend listing We Farm Africa on the websites in the article. Good luck with the new nonprofit.

    • Thanks, Anowar! We’re happy you found it helpful.

  7. Hello, can you help us with creating a donation site for our organization? Thank you