Pave the Way for Supporters: How to Optimize Your Online Donation Form

Speaker 1 0:00
Use some housekeeping items, and then I step away, and I’ll only interject if we’re running close on time. Hello, hello. Welcome everybody. My name is Sean Patero. I am a training specialist here at DonorPerfect. Welcome to Josh’s session. Pave the way Read More

Speaker 1 0:00
Use some housekeeping items, and then I step away, and I’ll only interject if we’re running close on time. Hello, hello. Welcome everybody. My name is Sean Patero. I am a training specialist here at DonorPerfect. Welcome to Josh’s session. Pave the way for supporters: how to optimize your online donation form. Before we start the session, let me introduce Josh Bloomfield, who is the founder of GiveCloud and a mission-driven innovator with 20 plus years in technology design and donor engagement, a self-taught coder and award-winning leader, he holds multiple patents in digital giving and impact stewardship. Josh began his career building tech solutions for government and under-resourced entrepreneurs. Motivated by personal adversity, he launched GiveCloud in 2010 to help nonprofits build deeper digital connections with donors today. His 35 plus team supports nonprofits globally. Josh is also a designer, a musician, an advisor, an Oregon donor. I didn’t know this. This is very cool, and a husband and proud father of two. Before we welcome Josh, a couple housekeeping items. Please submit your questions in the Q and A tab, so that we can address them during the session. And all sessions are being recorded and will be available on the DonorPerfect website after the conference. Help me in welcoming Josh Bloomfield. Take it away, Josh.

Speaker 2 1:38
Hey, welcome everyone. I’m so glad you’re here today. I’m going to share more about maximizing your online donation form. As you already heard, I’m Josh. I got my start in high school making music, designing programming. I was fortunate enough to get an early start by making software applications for the US government, which is really strange, because I grew up in Canada, I’ve been able to take that experience with me and build multiple software businesses and projects, but most proudly, Give Cloud. At Give Cloud, we believe a delighted donor becomes a devoted donor, and that’s what so many of us are after, devoted donors, devoted donors who give more, give faster, give more frequently, and tell their friends about it. That’s why we at Give Cloud focus on delighting the donor. This is my crazy, gorgeous family. It’s my wife, Chelsea, my oldest daughter, Poppy, my baby girl, Penny Lane. We’re not busy working, homeschooling, traveling, going to the beach. We spend most of our time driving our kids to dance and cheerleading. These are my people, and really, that’s actually what this session is about. People behind every click of your donation form is a human a person who cares, a daughter, a son, a brother, a coworker, a parent, a loved one, people just like you and I who saw a need, felt something in their heart, and decided, even if only for a moment, I gotta help our job as fundraisers is to honor and protect that moment, not bury it under friction, not make the donor prove their generosity by navigating a confusing website or a long exhausting form. Our job is to protect the generosity that’s already there today. I want to encourage you and equip you. We’re going to look at the science, the website experience, and the form itself. My hope is that you’re going to leave energized, not overwhelmed, with a clear path to help more donors say yes to the impact they already want to make. Who’s in? Let me see you. Me, some emoji reactions. You in for this? There we go. Thank you. I see you, I see you, I see you. Yes. Okay, I want you to imagine that every single person that lands on your website arrives with a spark. They aren’t some cold, neutral analytical user. They arrive because something has already moved them: a story, a crisis, a friend, a sermon, a school campaign, a patient, a rescue animal, a meal, a child, a community need. There’s already some spark of generosity, and sparks are fragile. The digital experience has the power to either protect that spark or blow. That spark out, for example, if your website feels outdated, the donor wonders if the organization’s trustworthy, and that spark flickers. If the donate button is hard to find, they hesitate, spark dims. If the form is long, clunky, or impersonal, their momentum drops, and that spark fizzles out. And this is the heart of the work we’re going to do today. We’re not trying to manufacture generosity with clever clicks and tricks. We’re trying to remove the obstacles that choke the spark that prevent generosity from becoming action. We’re going to move through protecting the spark in three parts. I don’t want you memorizing mindless best practices. I want you to understand the deeper psychology behind digital giving. It’s real. When you understand why something works, you’re going to apply it with wisdom instead of just copying everything I share today, so we’ll start with the science behind why we do what we do to delight donors and protect the spark. Okay, second, we’re going to talk about your website, because the uncomfortable truth is great forms start before the form opens. We’ll get to that. Third, we’re going to talk about delighting donors through the form itself. The form is the giving moment, where we’re either gently blowing oxygen onto the spark or we’re blowing it out entirely, and it is a delicate balance. The science, the website, the form, that’s our path, and underneath it all is one mission: to honor this moment of generosity and protect the spark. Let’s begin with the science. It’s easy to talk about form optimization in a way that feels mechanical.

Speaker 2 6:48
We use phrases like conversion rates, abandonment, form fields, testing, performance, and these are useful words, but if we’re not careful, we can make digital giving sound less human than it really is. The only reason the science works is because donors are people just like you and I, and you and I respond to clarity, we respond to trust, we respond to familiar patterns, we respond to ease, we respond to social signals, we respond when we can see that our gift is joining something meaningful. Best practices don’t just come out of nowhere, they come from what we know about digital behavior, donor psychology, and the way people make decisions when emotion, trust, and action all happen in one place, according to MNR Benchmarks. 2026 online revenue for the average nonprofit increased 15% in 2025 Monthly giving accounted for 27% of online revenue, and 37% of annual revenue online came in December. What’s this mean for you guys? Your online experience is no longer simply a convenience. Digital giving is no longer a side door. It is one of the main relationship channels your nonprofit owns, your online experience is now a major part of how donors discover you, evaluate you, trust you, and support you. A donor who gives online is not asking for a lesser relationship with you, they’re still looking for meaning, they still want to feel connected, they still want to know their gift mattered. When we work hard to improve the online giving experience, we’re not just improving a transaction, we’re improving one of the primary ways donors experience our mission in a digital first world. This number is going to humble us and encourage us. And when our benchmarks reports that nonprofits received donations from only 1.6% of all website visitors, that means 98.4% of the people who come to your website do not give during that visit. Now, some of that’s normal. Not every visitor comes to donate. They want program information, they want event details, volunteer opportunities, resources, maybe even a phone number, but it still tells us something important. The margin for error is razor thin. A confusing donate path matters. A slow or crowded page matters deeply. A form that asks too much, a missing mobile payment, all. These matter. These aren’t tiny design preferences. They are small moments when a donor’s intention can either keep moving or start to fade. The encouraging part is that small improvements do matter. We don’t need to rebuild our organization to make the donor journey more generous, clear, and effective. Your donors have been trained all day by the digital world around them. They order groceries, they buy tickets, they use Apple Pay, they subscribe to streaming services, they check out with Amazon, they renew memberships, they bank online, and whether they realize it or not, each of those experiences teaches their brain what easy, safe, and familiar feels like, and then they stumble across your donation form. How many of you believe your donors say to themselves, “Hey, this is a nonprofit, I’ll lower my expectations listen. It’s insane and entirely unreasonable. We all know the donor’s brain is simply saying, hey, does this feel clear? Does this feel safe? Do I know what to do next? The Nielsen Norman Group puts it plainly, forms of any kind are mental work. The Emerge checkout research suggests that better checkout design can produce major improvements in completion, and that’s the point. Every field, every label, every option, every click adds work. Our job is to make the donor’s generosity easier to act on, rather than abandon. We need to protect the spark, and the spark is more than just simply, can I give the donors subconsciously processing? Is it safe? Is this real? Is this organization competent? Will my gift matter? Do other people trust this mission? Will I regret putting my card information here? And much of that is answered before they even read a paragraph of copy. It’s answered through design by the professionalism of your website, by whether the form feels like it belongs to your organization, by whether there’s a lock icon, modern payment methods, familiar visual patterns, clear impact language, social proof that others are giving to Stanford’s web credibility research has shown that design quality and usability dramatically influence credibility. It influences trust, and as fundraisers, we need to take that seriously.

Speaker 2 12:58
Beauty isn’t vanity, beauty in a digital world, in digital design, is actually a trust signal. It tells us this brand’s legit, this mission is cared for, this experience is safe, and I can keep going. In a digital world, beauty often can power trust, and trust is what will fan a spark into a flame. There’s one more reality I want to be really honest about. All organizations need to apply best practices to improve the donor experience for everyone. However, there’s a magic that happens with higher traffic organizations, organizations with meaningful views on their website each week, where the most measurable lift happens. The data sets large enough for very small improvements to become way more obvious. Imagine 100 people visit your form in a month, and eight people donate. A move from eight to 10 donors is meaningful. It’s real money, it’s real ministry, it’s real meals, it’s real rescue, real scholarships, real impact, but it’s really hard to prove the source of the increase statistically, because the sample size is so small. One unusually generous donor, one staff email, one snowstorm, one local news story can swing the numbers. Now imagine 1000 or even 10,000 people visiting your form. If the rate improves from 8% to 10% that’s not two more donors, that’s 200 more donors. Now the pattern is easier to trust, and the revenue impact is much more visible. So best practices truly are for everyone, and the more traffic you drive to your website, drive to your form, the bigger the impact these updates will have. Lastly, before we move on to the best practices themselves, I really want to encourage you. At times, I know best practices and optimizations, this stuff can feel gimmicky or even a little like manipulation, but optimize. Is not manipulation when it helps the donor complete a generous act they came to your website to do. You’re fanning a spark into a flame. You are stewarding a moment of generosity. Generosity deserves a clear path. We reduce friction because attention is so, so precious. That spark is fragile. We’re going to use social proof, because donors need reassurance that they’re not alone. We improve design because trust is felt. It’s felt before it is explained, and we test because our opinions should serve the donor and not the other way around. Truthfully, we aren’t even in the fundraising business, we’re in the trust raising business, focusing on the heart before the wallet, connection before conversion, delight before data, and that delighted donor becomes a devoted donor, and devoted donors give more, they give more often, and they invite others into the mission. The science is not cold, the science is one of the ways we practice care at scale. The science is how we, the science is how we protect the spark with love and intention. Okay, we’ve covered the science. Now, on to a tough truth. By the time someone opens your donation form, the donor has already begun collecting signals, they’ve looked at your homepage, they’ve scanned your navigation, they’ve judged, sometimes unfairly, but very quickly, whether your organization looks current, looks credible, and even looks active, they’ve asked whether they understand your mission. They wonder what their gift is going to do. Your form matters deeply, but your form inherits the emotional state created by your website. Trust begins before the donor clicks donate. If the website creates confidence, the form can protect that momentum, but if the website creates doubt, your donation form is fighting an uphill battle, fighting against this negative momentum from your website. So, how can we prepare your donor to give before they click donate, and make sure we protect that spark? Here’s a simple test. Could a first-time donor visitor on your website understand three things in under about 10 seconds? What you do, why it matters, how will giving help, what do you do? What’s the problem you’re solving? Why does it matter? Why does it matter now? How is this relevant to me? And how will giving help? This is such a common mistake I see across so many nonprofit websites. Too often we lead with our internal organizational language program names internal categories long histories and committee approved copy and listen all of it might be true and fine but it’s often not clear and clarity creates confidence when adult donor lands on your website, they shouldn’t need to decode your mission.

Speaker 2 18:27
They should feel it. They should see the people, places, animals, students, patients, artists, families, communities their gift is touching. Remember what we learned earlier, trust is felt before it’s ever explained. That’s the power of beauty in web design. Clarity isn’t dumbing down your work or oversimplifying things. Clarity is honoring the donor. It’s saying, hey, we will make it easy for you to see the good your generosity can fund someone’s ready to give. We can’t make it hard for them to take the next step. Our donate button should be easy to find on both desktop and mobile devices. It should look like a primary action. It shouldn’t be hidden in a dropdown. It shouldn’t be treated like one of 12 equal navigation items. A great pattern to follow is a donate or a give now button in the top right corner on your website, and you are all so sharp on this call. I know you’re already doing this, you’re crushing this. You want it to be visible on mobile, and you want to make sure you repeat this call to action after every important content area on your website. Think about it this way, How does a hidden donate button make your donor feel? A hidden donate button could subtly ask the donor to prove their generosity, when in reality the donor arrived with what a spark, their hearts already moved. They’re ready. If we make the path hard to find, we introduce a completely unnecessary friction at the precise moment we should be creating momentum. So, let’s make our donate button unmistakable, not pushy, not desperate, just clear, confident, and easy to act on during busy giving seasons. Our website needs to become way more intentional. A year-end campaign, Giving Tuesday, a match deadline, disaster response, a gala, a community crisis – these are moments that create urgency. This is where banners and sticky reminders on your website can be so, so powerful. A good banner doesn’t just simply shout donate now, it orients the user. For example, your gift today helps provide emergency meal emergency meals before the weekend. Your year-end gift will be matched through december 31 A sticky reminder can also help when a donor starts to give, but closes the form or gets distracted. If you do this well, this is not nagging, it’s stewardship of intent. You’re protecting the spark. The donor raised their hand, the reminder offers a gentle way back. The key here is respect. We’re not trying to trap people, trying to help them return to the generous action they already began. Let’s talk about embedding the form. There are two common approaches: inline and modal, an inline form sits directly on your web page, and these form types can work really well when the entire page is built only for giving, and there are very few distractions around it. The modal form opens over the current page after the donor clicks donate, and the advantage here is focus. Watch as the donate button is pressed, the rest of the page moves into the background, and the donor’s attention goes into the giving moments. In many cases, modal experiences perform well because they reduce competing signals, no sidebars, no long copy, no navigation, pulling the eye away. Just the next step, and the bigger principle here is protecting our focus. Sean, you’ve tuned in. I’m wondering if I’m going massively over time here, a couple

Speaker 1 22:37
minutes late. Josh, we could easily talk, but we could listen to you talk for a whole hour. I’m excited for you to be here. I can’t wait. There’s not enough time left for me to sing through all the praises of the Give Cloud fans that are in the chat, and for all the new Give Cloud fans, contact information is in the chat if you’re looking for how to get hooked up, and a lot of our questions have been answered, but Maggie was wondering about your thoughts on employing social proof for sites that don’t receive frequent online donations.

Speaker 2 23:09
Yeah, I mean, there’s creative ways to not fake that social proof, but collect social proof from different channels, so whether it’s things that are happening that you’re doing in the community, meals that have been delivered, or perhaps it’s offline donations that you’ve received, doesn’t always have to be what’s happening on your site. Remember, your donors just don’t want to feel alone, they want to feel like they’re part of something that other people trust, this that it’s safe for me to engage here.

Speaker 1 23:38
Cool, excellent. And that is all the time that we have for today. We are getting to wrap up in just a moment here. Thank you so much, Josh. Thank you, everybody, for attending Josh’s session. Next up on stage one is Julia Patrick with Unlocking Next Gen Donor Behavior, and on stage two we have Scott Rosencrans from Donor Search, discussing beyond using AI, predictive, generative, and agentic in fundraising. We’ll see you in a few. Take care, everybody.

Unknown Speaker 24:08
Bye.