There is no such thing as a “small” nonprofit. Whether your cause is caring for just one refugee family or managing an entire displacement camp, running a rescue shelter for cats or saving an endangered species, to you — and those affected by your cause — your nonprofit is anything but small.

Whether your charity has the reach of a multinational or yours is restricted to your local neighbourhood, you still need to engage your supporters, fans and friends in conversations about who you are, what you do and why you need their support. This is the foundation of your fundraising mix. Ideally, it will include online and offline strategies to communicate your message and create opportunities for people to engage easily and make a donation to your cause. But it’s this last step, the “engage” portion, and securing that online donation, where charities face some of their greatest challenges.

There is good news: there are easy and affordable ways to drive donations online, reduce overhead and dramatically increase your organization’s funding. The bad news is many organizations are using the wrong platform, are paying too much for it, or are not fully tapping into their opportunities for support because of mixed messaging.

If you are accepting donations online currently, you are using one of four types of products:

• A fully customized donation portal powered by a third party
• A generic third-party unbranded portal where donors go to a separate site and make a donation
• A semi-custom hosted online donation process (you don’t host it, but it looks like your site)
• A self-hosted and custom-made process created by your in-house developers

 

Each of these possibilities could work, depending on your particular needs. But how do you go about deciding which one is right for you? Here are five key considerations when you are deciding how you will accept donations online.

Start with your brand

It’s important to consider everything you do as reflecting the heart and mission behind your organization. All fundraising is storytelling, so the better you are at engaging donors in your nonprofit’s story, the more likely they are to support you. This includes how you receive, process and encourage online donations.

Think of having a conversation with someone about a topic you are passionate about. If in mid-conversation you switch subjects, or even start talking about a peripheral idea, chances are you will lose much of the momentum you worked hard to gain.

The same is true in the online world. While full branding (down to the most minuscule detail) is not always essential or necessary for the donation portal, achieving a consistent message through a consistent look and feel will allow you to drive home the same message and help inspire people to give.

The walled garden

Just as important as staying on topic in a conversation is the question of where you have that conversation. If I am making a passionate case about a topic I care for while there are many external, unrelated distractions circling around me, chances are my voice will be muted.

Likewise, in the online world, sending individuals to third-party sites, sites that have ads for things unrelated to your message, or those that have a separate brand and feel may weaken your ability to zero in on the donor and make sure they understand the importance of what you are doing.

By keeping a client within your “walled garden”, you will get that same message across within a more controlled and less distracting environment. Certainly there are some reputable third-party sites, and depending on your circumstances, they may be the most affordable option. However, the walled garden effect can be an important factor to consider in your decision-making, particularly when you are still building your brand.

Cost

When determining cost, consider the ongoing monthly costs, implementation fees, and the individual transaction fees. It’s critical, however, that you also assess the forecasted return on investment of each product. While one product may appear to be less expensive than the other, looking at design, ease of use for donors and other factors may affect your ultimate decision. Whichever provider you do select, you’ll likely be with them for a while. It’s worthwhile to inquire about the costs involved in upgrading the system, should you decide to do so down the road.

Generally, services without recurring fees are advisable, simply because if you do not use them, you do not pay. Consider paying upfront for the implementation cost in exchange for ongoing regular monthly expenses, for example.

Also make sure that the fee you are quoted is the final fee. Get clarity about any possible add-ons, such as fees for electronic fund transfers (EFT) to your organization, additional charges to get a third-party processor, conversion fees if you’re accepting donations in different currencies, or charges for anything else after the portal is set up.

Have access to good information

It may seem like a cliché, but information is power. If you are not receiving full donor reporting, e-receipting and access to all the information you need in order to carry out a conversation with your donors, you will not know your donors well enough to make a good ask. Donors need instant acknowledgement, you need instant access. What information is being collected through your online donation portal, who is accessing it, and how?

Ease of use

Ideally, a donor will be able to visit your site and make a donation to your cause in less than one minute. Any more than that and you are wasting their time. Similarly, in terms of ease of use, the platform has to be easy for you! If it’s not, you will not be able to utilize its full potential. Poorly designed user interfaces only lead to ineffective use of the platform. In today’s online environment, it is highly advisable to pick something that has a clean front and back end that are straightforward and streamlined for anyone to use.

Lastly, with respect to ease of use, if you want to engage your donors and fans in a peer-to-peer platform, thinking through how easy it is for them to create accounts and get the word out there is critical. Your donors and fans want to support you, but their patience with a long application process will be limited. Selecting options that allow them to start fundraising easily is key.

Choose a cause driven platform

Your nonprofit’s work may be compelling, but to maintain the conversation from the homepage to the donation page and beyond can be a challenge. In today’s increasingly noisy online environment, the choice of tools and their implementation strategy need to be well thought out, so as to drive your donors to give. Thinking critically about your online donation portal is the first step toward improving the success of your online giving program.

As COO for Global Currents, Jeff gets to spend time everyday engaging and empowering nonprofits of all shapes and sizes to amplify what they do online. For more of Jeff’s writing, check out his blog at www.globalcurrents.org/blog.