Online fundraising sites are powerful tools to help you fundraise.
With a dedicated fundraising website, you can enhance your campaign, providing a central hub to help you raise more money; it’s the rallying point for all of your planning and messaging.
These days, you don’t have to be tech-savvy to have a professional-looking campaign but you want to be sure that it makes a lasting impression and is effective at getting people to take action.
We know it’s daunting, so we put together a guide on the most important elements of a high-performing fundraising website.
Download our free Complete Guide to Fundraising Campaigns today and start building a winning campaign!
1) Visual Storytelling
The best weapon against apathy is a compelling story. But it’s one thing to tell someone a story and another to show them.
Consider this.
Our brains are wired for visual information; people process images 60,000 times faster than words. Also, our collective attention span is evolving. For the average person, it’s less than 8 seconds.
When you put these two statements together, it’s a no-brainer. In order to maximize a short attention span, it makes sense to marry visual and written content.
Visual storytelling does exactly that. It allows you to win over your audience on an emotional level, which inspires them to take meaningful action. In fact, 80% of the top grossing campaigns through CauseVox use visual storytelling to showcase their cause and crush their fundraising goal.
Need some inspiration? Take a look at this article on 10 Powerful Nonprofit Videos that are sure to spark some ideas.
2) Personal & Team Fundraising Pages
Nonprofit development teams come in all shapes and sizes. Regardless of how small (or large) your team is, fundraising can be a beast of a task. More often than not, you’re swamped and spread thin.
To lighten your load, rally your support base to set up personal and team fundraising pages as part of a peer-to-peer fundraiser.
Peer-to-peer (p2p) is one of the best fundraising mechanisms with an even better ROI. Walkathons, marathons, and fundraising challenge campaigns are all common p2p types.
By recruiting a pool of passionate individuals to advocate on behalf of your cause, you’re able to meet new networks of donors and quickly scale your impact.
At CauseVox, we see that organizations that use peer-to-peer fundraising tend to raise twice as much as those that don’t, so peer-to-peer fundraising offers you a huge advantage to raise more with less effort.
(Peer-to-Peer fundraising participants)
3) Engaging Content and Social Media Integration
Creating and sharing engaging content is a powerful way to connect with donors and keep the momentum going throughout your campaign. It’s all about using the content you produce—like blog posts, photos, and testimonials—to attract attention, educate your audience, and encourage donations.
To amplify your content’s reach, it’s crucial that your fundraising website integrates seamlessly with popular social media platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). This allows your supporters to easily share your updates, expanding your campaign’s visibility to their extended networks.
As your campaign progresses, it’s common to experience a mid-campaign lull. Don’t worry—it’s normal and happens to even the most well-run campaigns. One of the best ways to combat this is by consistently sharing fresh, relevant content. Keeping your campaign in front of donors’ minds is essential, and varied content helps prevent donor fatigue.
If you’re looking for ideas, here are a few to get you started:
- Emotionally-Driven Stories: Never underestimate the impact of a story that resonates on a personal level. While stats are important, stories that focus on an individual and their journey can be much more relatable. Not sure where to start? Consider using the Pixar Storytelling Framework to craft a narrative that tugs at the heartstrings.
- Updates and News: Did you hit a fundraising milestone? Are you hosting an event? Making progress on your campaign goals? Share these victories, big or small! Regular updates highlighting your campaign’s achievements help keep supporters engaged and motivated to continue their support.
Distribute these updates through email, social media, and your organization’s website to maximize reach. Just remember to strike a balance—keep your supporters informed without overwhelming them.
At CauseVox, we’ve found that improving the way you share and promote your campaign content can lead to a 20% increase in donations! For more tips on how to effectively create and share content, check this out.
4) Branding & Customization
Your brand and personality matter online. In fact, 76% of donors are more likely to donate on a professional and branded donation page.
To start off, we recommend personalizing the colors, logo, content, call to action, and URL of your fundraising website to fit with your organization’s identity.
With CauseVox’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can effortlessly create and customize your fundraising site to tell your story exactly how you want. From eye-catching hero images to dynamic elements like fundraising thermometers and leaderboards, you can build an engaging and effective campaign page in minutes. See how Well Aware personalized their ShowerStrike campaign using CauseVox’s easy-to-use tools:
Tip: If you want to share or track your campaign across social media, try incorporating a hashtag. Make it short, easy to remember, and encourage your followers to use it!
5) Fundraising Metrics
Data derived from key fundraising metrics is great for driving decisions at an organizational level, but for the sake of simplicity here are two metrics you should include on any public-facing fundraising page:
Funds Raised
The most straightforward performance metric is the dollar amount raised, which should include both online and offline donations, ideally updated in real-time.
With CauseVox, you can also display a donation counter that shows the number of donations received, allowing donors to track the progress of your campaign and further motivating them to contribute. This visibility helps you gauge your campaign’s success and adjust your fundraising strategy accordingly.
Impact Created
The second metric is the impact created by donors as part of the campaign. This is the true measure of success that ties tangible impact back to individual donations.
To create an impact metric, think about what the impact is per donation unit. What can $50 do? What can $100 do? Will it feed a family for a week or provide clean water to a village?
(CauseVox’s automated impact metric quantifies your campaign’s impact in real-time as donations trickle in.)
By shifting your focus from the dollar amount raised to the real impact of the donations, you’ll inspire, engage, and retain supporters (beyond just a single campaign).
These days, people don’t want to just make a donation, they want to join a movement. This is especially true for younger generations. For Gen Z, the biggest hurdle to giving is knowing exactly where their money is going and how it will make an impact. That’s why it’s crucial to clearly show them the difference their donation will make.
(Thanks to generous donations, over 15,000 people now have clean water through Shower Strike’s campaign)
Set S.M.A.R.T Goals
If you’re wondering how to set yourself up for success, use S.M.A.R.T. goals. The S.M.A.R.T method is a tried-and-true goal setting acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound. It’s probably not a new term for you, but if you’re a little lost on where to start, here’s some guiding questions to consider:
- Specific – What do you want to accomplish? How much are you looking to raise? How many fundraisers are you looking to participate?
- Measurable – How do you plan to track your progress and milestones?
- Attainable – Is this doable? Make it challenging, not impossible.
- Relevant – How does this align with your mission? Who’s impacted? Why’s it important?
- Timebound – When do you plan to start and end your campaign?
A realistic S.M.A.R.T fundraising goal will depend and incorporate the answers to those questions.
Tip: Set a goal for the minimum amount of fundraisers you want to participate in your event. Then, set an amount you want each fundraiser to raise. Multiply the number of fundraisers by the individual fundraising goal from each to arrive at your attainable campaign goal (i.e. 20 fundraisers x $2,000 minimum raise = $40,000 fundraising goal).
S.M.A.R.T goals help donors better understand how their donation makes an impact and ensures that donors aren’t intimidated – they want to feel like they play a part in achieving your goals!
On CauseVox, you’re able to edit your fundraising goal and end date anytime. So, if you happen to set a goal that is fulfilled quickly, you can always raise the goal and rally your community to keep going.
6) Gamification
Gamification is the use of game mechanics to influence your audience’s actions in non game-related situations. At its core, gamification is a strategy to engage more people.
Progress Bars
Progress bars are one of the most effective gamification tools, serving as powerful visual motivators that show donors exactly how their contributions are moving the needle toward your overall campaign goal. They create a sense of urgency and achievement, especially for those who are goal-driven.
(Volo City Kids Campaign with 76 days remaining)
To amplify this effect, consider pairing your progress bar with a countdown timer. The timer adds an extra layer of urgency, encouraging supporters to act quickly before time runs out. As a best practice, we recommend including both the progress bar and countdown timer on every page of your fundraising website to keep the momentum strong.
Prize Incentives
Another fun and effective gamification technique appeals to our competitive nature. Try incorporating a leaderboard, raffle, gift package, badge, and other selective communication to encourage friendly competition and to recognize a job well done.
Take Spur Local’s power hour as an example of gamification in action. During their campaign, they introduced a “power hour” four times a day, where the nonprofit with the most donors within that hour won a $1,000 prize. This added an exciting, competitive edge to the fundraising process. CauseVox’s system automatically tracked and displayed donor tallies in real time, fueling enthusiasm and encouraging donations to specific organization pages.
Raising funds for a good cause and having the opportunity to earn bragging rights and a trophy? Sounds like a good time to me.
7) Matching Gifts
Having a matching gift is a win-win-win; your donors double their impact, you’re one step closer to your goal, and the population you serve benefits as a result.
Challenge matches are a great way to get new projects funded and off the ground. Here’s how this typically works:
When a major donor (or group of donors) agrees to match all incoming donations dollar for dollar. The nonprofit is then responsible for raising funds in order to get the match. Challenges are generally capped at a certain amount and have a time frame restriction.
Even if you can’t secure a large match that extends throughout the campaign, try adding in a match for a week, a day, or up to a specific dollar amount (ie: the next $5,000 we raise will be matched).
Matching gifts are a fantastic way to encourage donations. In fact, 84% of donors are more likely to give when a match is offered, and 1 in 3 donors say they would give a larger gift if their donation is matched.
There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of knowing your contribution can go twice—or even three times—as far. For more tips on maximizing the impact of matching gifts, check out our complete guide to matching gifts.
8) Call To Action
A fundraising website isn’t complete without a call to action (or CTA). It’s the “now what?” of all of your planning, messaging, and rallying. Effective CTAs are defined and measurable actions designed to convert your target audience into donors.
A successful call to action will do three things:
- Provide a brief, one sentence summary of the fundraising website itself.
- Build in a sense of urgency so people take action now instead of later.
- Use active language such as (“click here”, “donate”, “share now”, “join us today”, etc.)
(Simple yet powerful, these CTA buttons are essential in converting visitors into active supporters, making every click count.)
9) Optimize Your Donation Form
Your donation form is arguably the most critical element of your fundraising campaign—after all, it’s where the actual donations happen! Optimizing this form can make a significant difference in your campaign’s success. Here’s how to ensure your donation form is as effective as possible:
Mobile-Friendly Design
In today’s mobile-driven world, your donation form needs to be accessible on any device. A responsive design ensures that donors can easily contribute whether they’re on their phone, tablet, or computer, making giving on the go simple and hassle-free.
Flexible Payment Options
Donors appreciate options. By offering multiple payment methods, including mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet, you’re meeting them where they are. This flexibility not only enhances the donor experience but also boosts the likelihood of completed donations, particularly among younger, tech-savvy audiences.
Automated Receipts
Instant acknowledgment goes a long way in building trust. Automated receipts save time and provide immediate confirmation to donors, reinforcing their confidence in their decision to give. It’s a small step that makes a big difference in donor satisfaction.
Encourage Generosity with Donation Tiers
Suggested donation tiers are a powerful tool. By linking these amounts to specific impacts (as mentioned in #5 on this list), you guide donors toward higher contributions by showing them exactly how their money will make a difference. It’s a subtle nudge that can significantly increase donation amounts.
Each of these elements works together to create a donation form that’s not just functional, but compelling—turning potential donors into active supporters with ease.
10) Make it Even Better with Dedication & Pledges
Hey, don’t forget—your fundraising website wouldn’t be complete without a few final touches that add that extra layer of personalization and flexibility for your donors. Here’s how to make your donation form even better:
Tribute Dedications
Give your donors the chance to make their gift truly meaningful by allowing them to dedicate it in honor or memory of someone special. Whether it’s for a holiday, a birthday, or a memorial, this feature adds a personal touch that resonates deeply with your supporters, making their contributions feel even more impactful.
Pledges
Sometimes, donors want to give more but need a little time to do it. That’s where pledges come in. Offering a pledge option allows donors to commit to a larger amount and fulfill it over time, making it easier for them to contribute generously without the immediate financial strain. It’s a win-win—donors feel good about their commitment, and your campaign benefits from sustained support.
By integrating these features into your donation form, you’re not just making it easy for people to give—you’re making it personal, thoughtful, and accommodating.
Raise More With Less Effort Through Your Fundraising Website
Whether you’re looking to start a short-term or ongoing crowdfunding campaign, CauseVox helps you raise more donations with less complexity.
Ready to build a fundraising website?
