The first big tip: don’t make your fiat (regular USD money) donation page the same as your crypto donation page. On the crypto donation page, avoid the temptation to put huge explainers ahead of the DONATE NOW widget—it must be clear and easy how to give. If we lost you at ‘fiat’, then you might want to keep reading…
In 2021, crypto giving increased by 839% in 2021, and campaigns like Crypto Giving Tuesday raised $2.4M which showed many donors how easy it is to donate crypto to nonprofits. The rapidly growing crypto phenomenon is emerging not just as an opportunity for growth in the for-profit sector, but as a fundraising tool for nonprofits.
Now, in 2022 it is clear crypto philanthropy is having its global watershed moment as over $80M has been donated via crypto to aid Ukraine in Q1 of 2022. This is a new type of direct contribution and scale of giving that is going to reshape the importance of crypto philanthropy.
Cryptocurrency may seem like a daunting frontier for nonprofits, but there is a huge overlap between the future of fundraising and the potential of cryptocurrency fundraising. We know both the millennial and Gen Z generations gave more than any other generation during the 2020 pandemic. We also know that Millennials are more charitably inclined and more likely to invest in crypto than their baby boomer or Gen X counterparts, according to a new report by Fidelity.
The same survey suggests that crypto donors are also more generous: nearly half of the surveyed cryptocurrency investors donated $1,000 or more to charity in 2020, compared to just one-third of the general investor population. Many believe the nonprofit industry needs to adapt to accept more decentralized forms of currency to appeal to tech-savvy and socially conscious next-gen donors who want to put financial freedom in the hands of individuals rather than banks.
If you’re at a nonprofit trying to understand the 101 fundamentals of cryptocurrency fundraising, check our article on how to accept bitcoin and other crypto donations.
If your nonprofit is already to start accepting crypto donations, the next step is to make sure the donation page makes sense. Here are six guiding principles to help shape that crypto donation page and compelling message:
1. Optimize the Header + Hero sections to engage the user in 10 – 20 seconds
- Focus on one CTA: Donate Cryptocurrency
- Remember that we want to keep the important info at the top of the page (in the first screen seen) to share with the highest number of user
- Use the headline as a donate CTA with reference to the value proposition of donating cryptocurrency, like children.org
2. Embed a crypto donation widget on top of a dedicated crypto donation page
Platforms make it easy for nonprofits to accept top cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), convert to cash, and issue receipts using donation processing widgets. A cryptocurrency donation platform enables nonprofits to accept charitable gifts in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.
There are various ways to accept cryptocurrency donations, but we love platforms like The Giving Block that allow organizations to embed the full donation widget on their site for ease and accessibility.
3. Make the motivation clear: emphasize tax incentives
Emphasizing and highlighting the tax benefits of donating crypto is especially important for the kind of high net-worth individuals most nonprofits are appealing to with crypto campaigns.
We love this example from Partners in Health with a headline referencing the tax incentive to donate crypto:
4. Include only the important information and limit distractions ‘above-the-fold’ to avoid overwhelming users
Offer only what is needed to clarify goal action and reduce decision fatigue. Videos can be useful when nurturing audiences, but the general rule of them is the fewer distractions, the better for donation landing pages. Fun fact, ‘above-the-fold’ is an old newspaper term for the part of the paper you could see above that middle fold. When used in context of the web, it just means what can be seen on first load of the page without scrolling.
5. Provide easily digestible info below-the-fold
Given this is a relatively new form of fundraising, we’d recommend providing some high-level facts about crypto fundraising, but placing them “below-the-fold” (the portion of a webpage that a user must scroll to see).
- Consider including headers with common questions to help clarify information
- Add “Donate Bitcoin, Ethereum and all major cryptocurrencies to the Foundation” to help with SEO indexing and future ads that may be run directly to the page. Your goal should be to have “Donate [crypto] to [your organization]” be the top Google result.
- List what cryptocurrencies your organization accepts. Don’t overuse word ‘crypto’ and ‘cryptocurrency’ but mention specific coins ‘ethereum’ ‘dogecoin’ for future long-tail searches
6. Acknowledge the environmental impact
Since there are some environmental implications for accepting certain types of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies and a general lack of public information about cryptocurrency, we recommend including a few sentences on why your organization has chosen to accept crypto donations. Even better if you can tie the innovation or ease of cryptocurrency back to your org mission!
Bonus!
After the page is created, you can also set up a Google Ad Grant campaign to send traffic to your page using keywords associated with crypto philanthropy. Learn more about utilizing Ad Grants.
A final thought…
In modern times, fiat money (we didn’t forget about that!) is any money that is not backed by a commodity (like gold or silver) and generally established by government regulation. Cryptocurrency is a digital form of money that uses cryptography within a decentralized digital ledger called the blockchain to encrypt, secure, and verify transactions.
It takes time and resources to better understand cryptocurrency, but setting your organization up to accept cryptocurrency donations now is an investment in the financial well-being of your nonprofit for the decade to come.
A little over a decade ago, nonprofits were slowly struggling to convert donation pages to mobile-friendly options. The thinking was that donors would ‘never feel comfortable’ giving over mobile devices, in hindsight this change was inevitable. What’s more, early adopters were able to yield much better returns from mobile donors. Currently 22% of U.S. adults hold crypto (How Many People Own Bitcoin? 95 Blockchain Statistics (2022) ), skewing toward under 50 year-olds. Once again, early nonprofit adopters are likely to yield much better results if they are able to get started now.