Choosing the right donation form to boost your fundraising

This is why it’s so important to get donation forms right. Charities have done the really hard part of engaging them, raising awareness of their mission, but the donation form is where the magic happens. If it looks complicated, outdated, or untrustworthy, donors may easily be switched off. Re-engaging them later will be harder. 

There are different types of donation forms that will suit different situations. Charities use a wide range of channels to meet the needs of different types of donors, including those who are typically reached through social media, email, or search engine results. Each approach will require different tactics. Those who are arriving at your website through social media are most likely to be doing so via mobile, for example, so you need to ensure your donation form is mobile-friendly.  

Fundraising platform provider iRaiser offers three key types of donation form for charities: Native, Pop-in, and Dedicated pages. Each has a unique way of helping charities boost their fundraising and tailor their campaigns to their donor groups, which we’ll explore in more detail below.

What is common to all three types of donation form is that they are designed to make fundraising easier for both charities and their donors. Charities have long known that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work for fundraising – flexibility and adaptability is the key to boosting funds.  

With that in mind, we explore each donation form in more detail and gauge what fundraising situations they are best suited to.  

Charities unsure about which donation form best fits their needs can take iRaiser’s quick quiz to find the ideal donation form for their next campaign.

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Different types of donation forms, explained 

Native donation forms: integrate seamlessly into your website 

Native donation forms are your website-embedded donation forms. Native donation forms are a catch-all approach, replacing the age-old “Donate” button. Instead of your traditional donate button taking users to the donation form away from your home page, with native forms, giving all happens in one place. They can sit on your home page, feature charity branding, and allow donors to give as and when they want, once or often. It’s the donation form charity donors expect on your site made easier – but charities still need to make it stand out.  

Remember, this donation form may be a donor’s first engagement with your charity so it should offer them the chance to keep in touch and a choice of channels to do so.  Use videos or visual content to connect them to the cause and tread softly – don’t ask for loads of data and slow the donation process down. 

Native donation forms should reflect the charity’s branding to reinforce its trustworthiness and credibility and offer multiple payment options and accommodate both one-time and monthly donations, giving power to donors to give as they prefer.  

With a native donation form, donors donate through your site – all steps occur on one screen for a seamless experience so no being taken away to a third-party site. It’s faster, simpler, improves brand recall, and gives donors no reason to abandon their donation plans. 

The more seamless the donation experience, the more likely donors are to return to go through the process again.  

Best suited to: The first donation, website homepages, converting direct traffic 

Pop-in donation form: engage donors at the right moment 

A Pop-in Donation form is a great opportunity for charities to capture donations at a time when potential donors are most engaged with your web content. As fitting its name, the donation form simply pops in at key touch points on your site, like your About Us page or blog posts. It keeps donors on your site but doesn’t disrupt their experience by taking them away from the page they’re reading.  

They are great for targeting donors when they are engaging with a specific area of your website: So you want to support our educational efforts? Here’s how. For example, if someone is looking up a specific area of your cause, your pop-in donation form can reflect that. Charities can create a specific ask targeted to that area and show how donations will have an impact.

Charities can also link donation amounts to tangible outcomes with a pop-in donation form, making it as relevant as it can possibly be to the donor engaging with your content.  

Best suited to: Converting SEO traffic into donations, complementing your content 

Dedicated donation form: customised forms for tailored campaigns 

Dedicated donation forms are great options for charities with multiple fundraising streams to keep track of. With dedicated donation forms, charities can tailor their donation ask to different needs, such as emergency or seasonal appeals, and different audiences. 

For example, charities can use dedicated donation pages to reach out to previous donors to encourage them to sign up for regular giving. Charities can remove the one-time giving choice to reinforce the impact of ongoing donations, include equivalences to help donors visualise that impact, and create an exclusive thank-you experience to make donors feel part of a community. 

Charities can also use dedicated donation forms to offer their donors flexibility, which is increasingly important in an uncertain economic climate. Donors can choose the date they would like their donation to be taken in a month, giving them control over their giving.  

Dedicated donation forms can also be really helpful for in-person fundraising. Equipped with a tablet, fundraisers can use special, suitably brief donation forms to capture only essential details that then go directly into your CRM. Fundraisers don’t miss out on converting potential donors, and donors aren’t pushed for time – win-win.  

Best suited to: Appeals, monthly giving, face-to-face fundraising, personalised donor experiences 

A great donation form isn’t just a technical tool, it’s a bridge between your cause and your donors. By choosing the right form, you create a frictionless giving experience that turns interest into action and one-time gifts into lasting support.  

Ready to optimise your fundraising? Take the quiz below and find the donation form that fits your fundraising goals.