Designing Your Donation Page for Conversations

Cosmic aims to help organizations cultivate a holistic approach to donations, from the first interaction through every level of the engagement pyramid. Digital Marketing Therapy host Sami Bedell-Mulhern sits down with Eric for a conversation about Cosmic’s approach to crafting a donations page that will build trust and engagement and inspire donors to come back again and again. They examine the elements of a frictionless donation page, tactics for integrating elements into your donation websites, and the importance of creating different donation pages for different campaigns.

“Donations are really about people having a passion for the work that you're doing, feeling compelled, and having a spark of generosity and wanting to take action.”

Episode Highlights:

• Eric highlights the powerful intersection of art, design, purpose and social impact. [3:34]
• Key steps to creating a clear and frictionless donation page. [7:04]
• Best practices utilized by Cosmic result in successful engagement with your donation page. [9:58]
• Customization tools and practices for a tailored donation form. [15:15]
• Graphic elements that allow for more donations. [17:02]
• The importance of creating different donation forms for different campaigns. [20:17]
• The biggest donor request mistake, and what Cosmic advises organizations to do instead. [24:23]
• What you should find on an effective donation thank you landing page. [26:55]
• Cosmic’s approach to both small and large scale donations. [30:30]
• The importance of highly polished branding in all donor communications. [33:37]

Quotes:

“What really moves people at the end of the day is still creative thinking, emotionally driven impact storytelling, and human connection over everything else.”

“Anything that you can do as an organization to educate your donors and your supporters, or potential donors or supporters, around your credibility, the impact that you've had your expertise as an organization, your approach - all of that's really just nurturing your donor in a way that is helpful to empower them to become more effective supporters for your organization.”

“Looking at people and valuing your supporters based on how much they're giving is an intrinsically wrong way to think about your supporters.”

“As you build the relationship and show your proof of impact, and continue to connect with them at a more emotional level, and they really start to believe in the work that you're doing and see that it has value, then they're much more likely to come back and make a bigger gift.”

Resources:

The First Click