5 Tips To Drive Traffic to Your Donation Page

One of the main goals of your digital marketing efforts is to get donations, and to do this you need to make sure your donation page is getting a lot of traffic. Once a potential supporter reaches your website or social media profile, it should be optimised to make sure that visitor reaches the donation page.

These simple and effective tips will help you ensure your traffic is driven towards your donation page, and that none slip through the cracks!

Keep in mind that this is part of a bigger process. Check out our other blog articles on what makes a good nonprofit website and on what makes an effective donation page.

1. Post links to your donation page on social media

Your social media posts are aimed at getting people interested in, and passionate about, your nonprofit. Combine this with regular calls to action, and links to your donor page, and you’ll be driving supporters to your donation page!

Your social media posts should be able to tell viewers why they should care and how they can help, and make this as easy as possible with direct links. Combine an image or story on Instagram with a donation link for an engaging call to action.

This doesn’t mean bombard them with constant calls to action, this will seem like you’re trying to force the buyer journey upon them. Instead, make sure that in between other styles of post, e.g interesting stories relating to your cause, you also post convincing links to donate. Post regular opportunities, but do it subtly, and mix it up!

You can also link straight to your donation page from your profiles (e.g. in the bio sections.)

2. Make your mission clear from the start

If a person is viewing your site, it’s likely because they want to know what you do, why it’s important and if they should donate. Don’t make them spend ages searching to find this out!

As soon as a person lands on your sight you should be telling them the purpose of your nonprofit, and how this benefits the world. The sooner a viewer knows this, the sooner they’ll want to take action. It should be obvious to any viewer what difference their donation will make.

Make sure you sell it too, make it poignant and clear that your nonprofit needs their donations to do good. A good mission statement goes a long way, check out this article for some great examples of effective mission statements.

3. Make your ‘Donate Now’ buttons visible

To make donating easy, and to catch the eye of people who may not have come to your page to donate, your ‘donate now’ buttons should be striking and easy to find on each page of your website. This can increase donations by up to 190%!

Have the donate now button in a uniform spot on all pages, so supporters don’t have to waste any time searching. Often the most effective position is the top right of the navigation bar. Although for mobile, an in-text button may be more effective due to the menu format. These in-text buttons can be helpful for desktop too when used wisely, for example in the footer of each webpage.

Also, ensure you’ve considered colour to make your button eye-catching and simple, most nonprofits find orange or red works best for this.

4. Add detailed calls to action (for those who aren’t sure yet)

For viewers who may not be ready to donate yet, add calls to action that offer more information on why they should. Your regular donate buttons should be as simple as possible, but these extra ones should be sections on a website page which explain an issue, why it’s urgent and exactly how a donation would help. These should still include an eye-catching button, but just give some extra background information for those who need some persuasion.

Other ways to do this are email marketing and lead capture forms, which ensure you stay on potential donors radar and gives them more information about your cause so that they donate when they’re ready.

5. Host your own donation page

It is important that you host your donation page on your own website.

This means you will be able to monitor your analytics, to see what is working and what isn’t so that you’re able to stay on top of your donations and make any necessary improvements.

For tips on how to improve your donation page itself (now that you’re driving traffic to it), check out our article on making an effective donation page.