Why Isn’t My Website Driving Donations?

You’ve launched a new fundraising campaign on your website, and you’re ready to see the donations pour in—until they don’t. Why aren’t visitors donating as expected?

It can be frustrating when the reality falls short of the goals you set for a campaign. There isn’t always an easy answer as to why people aren’t donating on your site. The reasons are often complex and may require a strategic reassessment of your audience’s motivations and priorities. However, there are also a few straightforward ways to start understanding why users aren’t donating. This checklist offers some starting points to help improve your donation metrics.

Start with More QA

It may sound obvious, but technical errors on your donation pages could be the culprit. Even if everything else is executed flawlessly, users ready to donate may encounter a technical roadblock that prevents them from completing the process. Any issues missed during the initial QA will obviously have a significant impact on your donations.

The first step is to retest all your key donation points. It’s essential to do this on multiple browsers and devices—what works perfectly on a desktop might not display properly on a mobile device, causing you to lose donations from those users. This is also a great time to bring in someone less familiar with the campaign to perform a hybrid of QA and user testing. Outsider perspectives can offer valuable insights into how your audience experiences the website and may help you identify UX weak spots or technical errors.

If you discover a technical error causing the low donation numbers, you can focus on fixing that specific problem.

Look at Your Analytics

If everything is working from a technical standpoint, something else might be missing the mark with your audience. Figuring out what that is can be challenging, especially if you’ve already crafted your site with your donors in mind. What could you have overlooked?

Before you reconsider your entire approach to your audience, we recommend taking a closer look at certain content performance indicators first. Simple, tactical changes might be all you need, and tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar can provide valuable insights. While these answers may not be as straightforward as discovering a technical error, they can guide you in iterating and increasing your impact with potential donors.

Start by examining basic metrics such as page views, bounce rate, and time on page. While these metrics have limitations, when combined with an understanding of your audience’s expectations, behaviors, and the goals of your campaign, they can serve as a strong baseline.

If your page views are lower than expected, focus on driving more traffic to your donation points. If your engagement metrics like time on page or bounce rate are off, but your impression metrics are healthy, concentrate on what users encounter once they reach your donation page.

Always remember that real people are behind the data in your analytics. If possible, get feedback directly from your audience. Interviewing a few potential donors or sending out a survey can provide a clearer picture of what’s stopping them from completing their donations.

Analytics shouldn’t just measure your results; they should drive improvements to content and strategy.

You’ve Seen the Analytics; Now What?

Increasing Low Page Views
To encourage donations, you need clear and thoughtful user paths leading donors to the right places on your site. The effectiveness of these paths depends on strategically placed information, an understanding of what resonates with your audience, and a technically sound website.

If you try a new messaging approach and still don’t see the donations you want, reconsider your site architecture. The placement and categorization of information may not be intuitive for users, making it hard for them to find what they need to donate. You can start by reviewing your sitemap internally, but gaining a user perspective is always beneficial. If possible, conduct user tests where sample users are asked to find key information related to donations. You may quickly discover they’re struggling to navigate your site.

Decreasing a High Bounce Rate
If your page view metrics look healthy but donations are still lacking, the issue may lie with the content on your site. Something might be failing to connect with users, ending their journey before they make a donation.

To address this, revisit your understanding of your audience. Review any research on their needs, habits, obstacles, and interests. Understanding your audience is crucial to creating compelling messaging. Without a clear picture of what motivates them to donate, it’s difficult to make a connection. If you haven’t conducted a strategic review of your audience, low donation rates signal that it’s time to take a closer look.

Once you’ve gathered insights about your audience, adjust your messaging to increase donations. Conduct a qualitative audit of the key pages in your user journey, focusing on these questions:

• Am I clearly communicating the “why” to potential donors? Is the value of their donation evident?
• Does the content connect with the rest of the site? Is there a clear narrative that leads naturally to the donation page?
• Is the design appealing and easy to navigate? A poor visual experience can deter potential donors.

Mapping out user journeys and refining site architecture are key steps to creating content that drives donations.

Improving Donation Rates Requires a Strategic Approach

Fine-tuning your website to drive donations isn’t an exact science. However, the right strategic steps can help you identify issues and find ways to address them. To summarize:

• Conduct another round of QA to ensure all technical aspects of your site are functioning properly.
• Use analytics to determine where in the donation process you’re losing potential donors.
• Revisit or conduct research on your audience, and audit your site’s architecture, content, and design to ensure they align with your strategic objectives.

With these steps, you can optimize your website to better engage donors and increase your fundraising success.