Care2's Digital Engagement Blog

For many people, mobile has become the default channel for accessing the internet, reading emails, watching videos and using social media. As of early 2018, 77% of the American population owns a smartphone.

Mobility has blazed a path across nearly all sectors. It has forever changed the way people consume media, shop for goods, bank, communicate and much, much more.

But nonprofits haven’t adapted to the mobile revolution as quickly as the rest of the world.  

We are thrilled to announce that Care2, hjc, NTEN, and Resource Alliance have just released the 2018 Digital Outlook Report.

Yesterday on the Care2 Engagement Blog we discussed 20 of our favorite email fundraising tips that nonprofits should be leveraging. But what about your website? Is it effectively converting donors and subscribers? Here's four website tips to start generating those conversions. 

1. Incorporate a Prominent Donation Ask into Your Header

Add a prominent “Donate” button to the navigation or header area. Consider making it a different color to stand out. We’ve tested this strategy over the years at Rad Campaign for nonprofit website redesigns and have seen this increase donations.

You can also add a prominent callout at the top of the page that allows donors to start the process by entering a gift amount. See example on the right. 

2. Incorporate a Prominent Email Subscription Button/Field into Your Header

Don't bury your email signup form on your website. Incorporate a short signup form in your header. Keep it simple. Ask for name and email only. The more form fields you add the less converstions you will get on the signup form. By having the signup form in the header, it will show up across your website, allowing users to signup no matter what page they are on.

You should expect at least 2% of all website visitors to signup and provide email addresses. 
 

3 Leverage Popups

Popups introduce important calls-to-action such as subscribing to your email list or donating money to a specific campaign. They offer an easy way for website visitors to complete an action on the spot.

Is your nonprofit struggling to raise money online? You’re not alone. Even some of the largest organizations have a lot of low hanging fruit and aren’t leveraging the best email fundraising practices. If your nonprofit falls into that category or if you're looking for a fundraising refresher here’s 20 of our favorite email fundraising tips that we adapted for you from a recent online fundraising audit.

Snapchat is taking the social media world by storm, and it’s time that nonprofits embrace the growing trend. You may write it off right now, but if you want to gain new audiences interested in your nonprofit, it is absolutely crucial that you’re staying on top of new audiences and meeting them on the platforms they’re on. 

Facebook recently changed its algorithm again. This can have a major impact on your work if you run a nonprofits Facebook page.  TechCrunch has been studying these changes over time and shared some useful tips on how to keep your nonprofit's Facebook page engagement up. 

Does your nonprofit rely one type of fundraising to bring in revenue or is it diversified? For example, a diverse fundraising program would include direct mail, telemarketing, foundation grants, online fundraising through email appeals, your website, social media, etc. Crowdfunding and Giving Days can be helpful too. In fact, we just shared 12 Giving Day tips you should know. 

If you feel that your nonprofit can do a better job of disversifying its fundraising check out this infographic, which digs into where money is coming from, how it's being donated, and the importance of providing a variety of options for people to give.

We've pulled out 4 key points that will help your nonprofit to fundraise even better: