For charities and nonprofits, online donations are a cornerstone of their mission. These contributions fuel your work, allowing you to deliver support where itโs needed most. And increasingly, your website is where those crucial moments happen. Itโs where potential supporters encounter your cause, feel inspired, and decide whether to give.
According to the M+R Benchmarks report, the average nonprofit donation form in 2025 converted just 11% of desktop visitors and 8% of mobile users. That means nearly 9 out of 10 desktop visitors leave the donation page without contributing, representing a huge missed opportunity to fund your impact.
If your traffic is healthy but donations are lagging, the issue may lie in how your website guides people through the giving journey. In this guide, weโll break down what a donation funnel is and how you can optimise it to turn more visitors into supporters.
What Is an Online Donation Funnel?
A donation funnel is the online journey a person takes from learning about your organisation to making a donation. At each step, your website should guide them forward by providing clarity, reassurance, and reasons to give so they can support your mission with confidence.
A donation funnel is similar to a sales funnel, but instead of selling a product, youโre offering people the chance to affect positive change.
Hereโs how it typically breaks down:
Awareness
Visitors learn about your organisation โ who you are, what you do, and the impact you have. This might happen through search, social media, blog content, or word of mouth.
Interest
Compelling content, real stories, and strong messaging help them emotionally connect to your cause and incentivises them to contribute. They start to see why your work matters and why their support does too.
Action
Once theyโre motivated, your site should make it easy for them to take the next step: donating. This means a clear, trustworthy, and friction-free experience on your donation page.
Why it matters: You could have all the right messaging and traffic in place but if your donation funnel isnโt optimised, people will lose momentum before they give. As web designers working with charities and nonprofits, weโve seen how small improvements to the donor journey can make a big difference to conversion rates and, ultimately, impact.
Step-by-Step: How to Improve Your Online Donation Funnel
Improving your donation funnel doesnโt require a full website overhaul. With smart, targeted adjustments at each step of the user journey, you can guide more visitors from curiosity to contribution.
Step 1: Start with Clear Messaging and Purpose
Clarity is the foundation of trust. When people land on your website, they should immediately understand:
- What your organisation does
- Who you help
- Why their support matters right now
Start by aligning your homepage, landing pages, and CTAs with a unified message that reinforces your mission. Avoid vague language or jargon that distances the user, clarity and emotional impact go hand-in-hand.
- Open with a concise mission statement or value proposition.
- Share real-world outcomes your work has achieved (e.g. โยฃ25 provides clean water for a family for a month.โ).
- Tell emotionally resonant stories with a human face. This can mean highlighting one person, one project, or one moment that captures your impact.
The goal is to connect emotionally and inform practically, so visitors feel moved and confident enough to donate.
Step 2: Build Trust and Credibility
Donating money online requires a leap of faith. Supporters want to feel confident that their contribution is going to the right place. Without trust indicators, even the most compelling cause can feel risky.
Make sure your donation funnel includes:
- Accreditation badges (e.g. charity registration number, local or international certification logos)
- Testimonials and donor stories โ hearing from others boosts confidence
- Impact metrics โ how donations are used, what percentage goes to programmes, or recent success stories
- Secure donation messaging โ SSL certificates, padlock icon, โYour payment is safe and encryptedโ
Even a simple line like โWe value your privacy and never share your informationโ can reassure hesitant donors.
Step 3: Improve CTA Placement and Clarity
Your calls-to-action (CTAs) are your most important conversion levers. Donโt hide them, bury them in text, or make people guess what to click.
Best practices for CTAs:
- Use strong, action-driven language like โDonate Now,โ โSupport a Family,โ or โMake a Difference.โ
- Make your donation button visually distinct, contrasting colours and whitespace help it stand out.
- Place CTAs above the fold (visible without scrolling), and repeat them at logical points throughout the page.
Make the path to action obvious and inviting so visitors aren’t confused or hesitant about what step to take next.
Step 4: Make Your Donation Page Fast and Friction-Free
Your donation page should be the simplest part of your website โ not the most complicated. Mobile traffic accounts for 62.5% of the global internet web traffic. And for younger generations, this rate is even higher, yet many donation pages still aren’t designed with mobile users in mind.
If your form is hard to read, slow to load, or difficult to complete on a phone, youโre likely losing supporters before they ever hit โDonate.โ
Simplicity is key:
- Keep forms short and ask only for whatโs essential.
- Avoid multi-step forms or redirects unless absolutely necessary.
- Ensure the form loads quickly โ every second counts.
- Use large touch-friendly buttons for mobile devices, avoid tiny form fields, and test on multiple screen sizes.
Offer fast, flexible payment options:
Even motivated donors will abandon their gift if the process is slow or clunky. Every extra stepโlogging in, creating an account, switching platformsโcan lower your conversion rate:
- Use suggested amounts but allow donors to freely enter any amount.
- Consider recurring donation options (with clear opt-in).
- Integrate fast, familiar payment options like PayPal, Stripe, or Google Pay.
A seamless donation experience increases the chance a supporter will complete their gift and come back next time.
Step 5: Track, Test, and Improve
No donation funnel is perfect. Ongoing optimisation is key to improving performance over time.
Set up measurement tools:
- Use Google Analytics, Matomo, or similar tools to track user behaviour and conversions.
- Set up goals and events for donation form submissions and button clicks.
- Monitor bounce rates and average time on page.
Experiment regularly:
- A/B test different CTA wording, form lengths, or layout styles.
- Use heatmaps to see where users hover, click, or drop off.
- Collect feedback with short on-page surveys (e.g. โWas anything unclear?โ).
Small insights into the user experience on your website can lead to big improvements and ultimately help you achieve goals.
Iterate, iterate, iterate
Improving your online donation funnel isnโt a one-time task, itโs an ongoing process of testing, refining, and responding to how people actually engage with your site. But by applying the steps and best practices weโve covered, youโll be well on your way to turning more visitors into supporters and unlocking the full potential of your website to drive impact.
If youโre unsure how well your donation funnel is performing, or suspect it could be working harder for you, we can help. A professional audit can reveal exactly where drop-offs are happening and how to fix them.
At Circular Design, we specialise in building websites that donโt just look good โ theyโre built to convert. From optimising donation journeys to making your site more accessible and mission-aligned, we help nonprofits turn interest into action.
Letโs make your donation funnel work harder, reach out to us to get started.
