5 Tools for Increasing Donations to Your Organization

Your donation page – the face of the organization

As with any other social or business platform, the first important thing is to invest in your organization’s donation page on the platform and to ensure that it includes all the relevant details for the potential donor. Your page is the face of your organization, and this is your opportunity to awaken donors’ interest and curiosity by featuring relevant and interesting information about your organization.  To upgrade your organization’s visibility and generate more interest, we recommend using different kinds of media, such as photographs and short, focused videos, that enable you to convey your message authentically and concretely.

To round out the picture and create the full impact, it’s important to learn another word – categories. To help donors get directly to your campaign or organization page, we have created different categories that are segmented according to interest areas. Thus, for example, if your organization deals with education and welfare, you can add these categories to your organization page and thus create more focused exposure to potential donors who are looking for precisely these interests. 

Raise donations directly from your organization’s website or through a separate donation page 

Your organization page is a kind of calling card for the organization on the platform. However, sometimes the donor has difficulty finding the organization they would like to donate to. Therefore, to create a customized experience for each donor, we have decided to create a unique donation page URL on the platform for each organization, with additional information about the organization’s activities. This page is built automatically by JGive and tagged under the “collect” tag on the campaigns tab in the organization’s account. The donation page functions as a kind of independent digital asset, so that from the donor’s perspective, it’s not another page on the donation platform, but rather a direct tool for unmediated interaction with the organization, which can significantly improve the donor’s donation experience. 

Already have a website? You can embed a payment window on your organization website through a special feature we have developed. This option allows your organization to fundraise directly through your website and thus maintain a uniform, consistent client experience without users having to move to a separate page to make their donation. 

Clearing through your donation page with JGive Collect Suggested donation amounts

On the face of it, this is another technical element to be incorporated into the campaign, but the decision regarding the amounts offered for donation requires considerable strategic thinking. On the one hand, it is advisable to present the donor with sufficient options. On the other hand, sometimes many choices can confuse the donor, so it is important to plan in advance and agree on a number of options that span a relatively wide range of amounts.

In addition, to create greater transparency on the part of the organization, we always recommend writing alongside each donation amount a specific goal for which the donation is intended, so that donors know in advance the specific activity their donation will be invested in. The more you carefully craft direct messages about your organization’s activities and the goal of donations, the more you will strengthen the relationship of trust between the organization and your donors, based on more positive and deeper interactions. 

Ongoing communication with donors

Speaking of interactions, communication with donors does not end after the donor makes their donation. Most donors expect updates and ongoing information about the campaign’s progress, which gives value to their donation. Therefore, to deepen connections with donors and to reflect the importance of their donations for the organization, it’s a good idea to maintain ongoing contact, whether through an email list or through specific targeting of donors for activities that are relevant to them, based on the details they have shared. Ongoing connection and follow-up with donors may increase their curiosity about the organization and assist in increasing donations to the organization, both from donors and indirectly through recommendations they may make to others. 

However, not all donors want to receive ongoing updates about the organization’s activities. To avoid situations where donors remove themselves from your email list, it’s desirable to find out this information in advance. Through the JGive platform, we have added a feature that allows donors to choose in advance whether they are interested in receiving ongoing updates from the nonprofit. To check this, open the area on your organization page called “analytics,” and download the Excel file that includes all donor details. In this report, you can see whether the client agrees to share their personal information for receiving marketing information. 

Thus, for example, it is possible maintain ongoing connections with donors to the Ilan Day Camp run by the Bnei Akiva organization, to update them about preparations for the camp, share activities that are planned during the camp, and emphasize the social importance of the project for the children and youth who take part in it. 

Dedications – An important tool for strengthening the personal connection between donors and the organization

As noted in the paragraph above, positive, ongoing interaction with donors increases donors’ trust in the organization and can lead to additional partnerships. However, sometimes receiving updates by email and specific details about the organization’s activities is not enough to create added value among donors and to create a closer personal connection between the two sides. This is precisely the reason we created the “dedication” feature where the donor can add a specific dedication for the organization or people who are active in it and honor their activities. Dedications offer a higher level of interaction between the organization and the donor, so it is important to follow up regularly with donations that are made in the campaign and respond personally to the donors who make them. 

However, to create more authenticity, it is desirable that the response to the donor should come from the person who is honored in the dedication. Thus, for example, in the Hatzalah team campaign, Partners in Saving Lives, the donor can add a special dedication to a dedicated volunteer. In a case like this, it’s good for that volunteer to respond to the donor and thank them personally for the kind words and the dedication. The immediate, personal connection with the donor is likely to increase a strong feeling of trust on the part of the donor and create a basis for long term connection between the donor and the organization. 

Conclusion – Use technology and create personal relationships with donors

Many donations today are made digitally, without involving a face-to-face interaction between the organization and the donor. But it’s not enough to use only various automated online tools to create commitment and value for donors and to increase donations. Therefore, it’s important to make wise use of different tools and features to deepen interactions with donors, to express appreciation for donations and let donors know the immense value of their contributions to the organization. 

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