Fundraising online has never been easier. A key element to having a successful campaign is to have a great fundraising site. With a few easy tricks, you can increase the effectiveness of your site by driving more traffic and better conversion.
Let’s take a look at 4 characteristics of the best online fundraising sites that can teach us the best practices for building your fundraising site.
They’re Visual
It’s been said that if a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a thousand pictures. In fact, videos have been shown to increase conversion by as much as 80%. This means that when someone visits your site, that person is 80% more likely to become a donor! Including a video on your fundraising site is a great way to engage your visitors and bring them to support your cause.
Check out this example from the World Bicycle Relief. The 4-minutes video showcases the impact World Bicycle Relief brings to the world and the impact of each fundraiser.
What you can do with this tip: You can easily embed a video on your page as a media element. Select a video that showcases how you are making an impact in the community. If you are raising funds for a future project, use the video to communicate how you intend to make an impact or to show your passion for the cause.
They Incorporate Stories
We have discussed the importance of stories often on this blog. Why do stories work so well? Numbers and data engage your visitors logically and rationally. Stories, however, engage your visitors emotionally. A university study showed that when we read a story, it is as if we are living it and experiencing it for real.
Well Aware leverages the power of stories to showcase the impact of clean water in communities across Kenya.
What you can do with this tip: Include more stories in the additional content areas of your site. Do you have success stories to share? One easy way to add stories on a regular basis is by maintaining a blog on your site.
They’re Personal
The most impactful stories are the ones that feature a hero – someone who overcame significant challenges. Stories have the power to make people care about the hero, even if that hero is a complete stranger. Research even shows that people are more likely to donate after being exposed to a story featuring a hero’s journey. Personal fundraisers are the nature heros for your campaign. Each of them has a personal story to share, making them the perfect ambassadors for your cause.
Neverthirst gives every visitor to their site an opportunity to join their cause and to be a fundraising hero.
What you can do with this tip: Incorporate personal pages into your fundraising campaigns, and encourage your fundraisers to share their own stories, their own journeys. Personal pages make our fundraisers heroes. Personal pages build trust and connection with donors. We have seen that campaigns with personal pages raise twice as much money as those without.
They’re Easy To Share
Donors are more likely to donate if they trust that their dollars are going to a good cause. The fundraising site needs to build that trust and credibility. Sharing your fundraising site on social media contributes to the credibility of your site in the form of social proof.
Social proof is that positive feeling that someone gets when they know others are doing the same thing. It is the same idea as someone is more likely to go to a nightclub that has a super long line than a club that has no one inside. Creating buzz on social media for your campaign is a concrete way to show social proof.
When someone lands on your site, he or she sees that others are such believers of your cause that they are sharing your fundraising site on their own social networks. Besides making your online fundraising site more credible, social sharing is also a great way to drive traffic! Each time someone shares your site, your site is promoted to their social network, unlocking a whole new audience.
Check out how Well Aware integrated social share functions right onto their fundraising site, easily amplifying their reach and validating their impact. 
What you can do with this tip: Social sharing functions are easily included in the CauseVox template. Be sure to encourage your team members to share the site on their social networks, and watch those share numbers go up!
The above tips are easy to implement and will make an impact on the success of your campaign. However, the truth is there is no one-size-fits-all formula for building a successful fundraising site. The best tip is to keep an open mind on what may work best for your specific effort and test out your options and see what works best for your community
You can easily change out the different features of your site in the CauseVox template. Test what content resonates most with your audience. Test which video may be driving more donations. Incorporate what you learn into your fundraising site as your campaign progress.
As you build your fundraising site, make sure to incorporate the above tips. With minimal effort, you can greatly improve the effectiveness of your site and increase the likelihood of success for your fundraising campaign.
