10 Proven Ways to Get More Donations (2023)

Tip 1: Social Media - asking for money

Most charitable organisations will have accounts with some social networks, so this may seem an obvious tip, however, how you use your social media has a huge impact in getting new donors and recurring donations.

Most charities use social media to convey 3 messages:

1. What they have done (pictures of events, achievements etc)
2. What they are going to do (planned events such as fairs etc)
3. To ask for money (donations)

None of the above address the (potential) donors motivation(s) to hand over their money, and so fail to maximise incoming donations. Consider this scenario for 2 charities that helps the homeless:

1. Charity 1 posts a picture of a man in a comfortable room, with the caption "this is Joe, after 5 years on the streets we helped feed him and find him a place to live. Your support will enable us to help others like him"
2. Charity 2 posts a picture of an old man in a tattered sleeping bag, huddled in a doorway with snow all around. They follow this with the caption "This is Joe, he's freezing cold and hungry and may die of exposure like other homeless people who have died from the cold this year. We desperately need your support so that we can find Joe, and people like him, somewhere warm to sleep with a hot meal to eat"

Whilst the core of both messages are the same, the message from charity 1 does not convey urgency. This leaves the reader to conclude "these people do good work, maybe I should give them some money some time". The message given by Charity 2 however, says "This man needs help immediately. if I give them money right now I will be helping this man".

Charity 2 makes it both urgent and personal. The only way charity 2 could make it stronger would be to base the post on a picture of a young person, to strengthen the vulnerability factor.

When creating a post seeking donations you need to think of your potential donor as only able to donate to one charity. They are surrounded by several asking for money, so your message has to both grab attention, and convey an urgent need in order to get that donation.

Tip 4: Making your website attract donations

There is a statistic which says that 92% of new visitors to a website won’t make a purchase or a donation before leaving. Another statistic is that most people spend under 15 seconds before deciding whether to leave your website or not.

The most successful websites are those that are built for the user, rather than to showcase your achievements. You can always talk about your charity/achievements, but make sure this is on a separate page so it does not detract from your message.

Your website should:

1. Have a fast loading landing page that quickly engages with your audience. A visitor to a sales website will be looking for a solution to a need they have. A visitor to a charity website does not have a need as such, so you need to both create one and provide a solution.
2. Your landing (home) page should aim to create an emotional response in your visitor (creating the “need”) and then to draw them in. This means your page should be clear and concise with limited distractions, history, aims, objectives, about etc belong on other pages.
3. Pictures should be there to draw an emotional response, and possibly to draw visitors further in. for example, a dog rescue charity could use a picture of a mistreated dog on the landing page. With a short paragraph or two against this and a link to “find out more about…” which leads to a small gallery of pictures showing it’s road to recovery. In this they would then have 2-3 donate buttons and calls to action, thereby generating both the emotional “need” and the solution (donating to the charity)
4. You should also provide a link to each social network that your charity uses. A quick link to your latest fundraising campaign is also very useful.

You also need to remember readability. When visiting a website we tend to scan the information rather than read it like a book, so we need a good reason to read on. This means that short sentences and paragraphs are absorbed more efficiently than longer ones. In addition to this many people will view your website on a mobile device, so you need to optimise your website for this

As a general rule, keep sentences around 20 words and paragraphs to 2-3 sentences. If you use bullet points, break these up into separate blocks if there are more than 6.

SEO bonus tip: If posting images make sure they are in .jpg format and not .png. Jpg format is easier to compress and will help your page load faster. You should also ensure they are given an alt description (alternative text) as this will help visitors relying on visual aid readers.

Tip 6: Marketing – to pay or not to pay

There is no doubt that paying for some sort of advertising is likely to get more attention and possibly donors. However, most charities have a limited budget for this, so what’s best?

Your posts on social media, with some limited exceptions, are likely to be seen by a tiny 1-2% of your followers. This because the social media company wants you to spend money advertising and some, like Facebook will give you two options for this. These are post boosts, and general advertising.

Our advice on post boosts is… don’t bother. Paying to boost a post simply means that some more of your existing followers will see your post. Your aim is to attract new visitors to your website, where you can encourage them to donate.

Existing followers will almost certainly know of your website already, so you need to get in front of new people. You can do this for free by joining groups related to your charity. For example, a dog rescue charity could join groups for animal lovers.

Posts to groups will be seen by more people and have better results. Be sure to use posts that drive people to your website, not ones asking for donations. Converting visitors to donors is best done via your website.

If you have a limited budget you will get better results by spending that money on optimising your website. Any left over can be spent on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)