Get More Value From Your Website and Generate More Customers and Qualified Leads With a Value Proposition.

How to Use Your Website as A Tool to Connect with Donors

Raising funds or getting donations for your nonprofit organization requires hard work and the adoption of modern fundraising strategies. With the right tools, data, and plan, you can achieve your organization’s goals and make strides towards your mission.

Online fundraising can be effective, especially when done through a website dedicated to the non-profit, its mission and connecting with donors. To maximize the usefulness of your website, you have to understand how to manage the website and the features that grow your donations.

We’ll show you how to use your website to connect with donors and increase funds for your organization.

Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience for Donations

To get donations through your website, you have to know who you’re targeting to help you achieve your organization’s goals. Identifying your target audience can be challenging at first. To make it easier, establish and share your goals so that the target audience can connect with you.

After setting your goals, you can start identifying your target audience. To understand and identify your target audience, you can conduct research. Start by interviewing donors and ask about their motivations and values in relation to your organization. Record the information and interviews to refer to the data later and collect insights after multiple donor interviews.

Once you gather all this information from donor interviews, you can find patterns in what inspires them to donate, their values, and demographic information.

Step 2: Tailor Your Value Proposition to Your Target Donors

Getting donors who are willing to commit to your organization’s efforts through donations is challenging. Donors must understand the mission and benefits of making a donation. A clear value proposition tells donors why they should commit resources to your organization’s mission. It should also answer what benefits the donors and the community will get by working with your nonprofit organization.

A clear value proposition will distinguish your nonprofit and be used on your marketing materials and website. Your value proposition should explain how their contributions impact and create opportunities that are only possible by working with your organization.

To make your value proposition effective, consider:

• Your goals and mission: Consider the short-term and long-term goals of your organization. These should connect directly to your mission and have clear, measurable objectives. Make sure your community and supporters clearly understand your goals as they relate to your organization’s mission.
• Track record of success and impact: Tell the story of your organization and its impact. Make sure potential donors can easily understand what an impact your organization has had to date, so they can have confidence you have the right team and leadership to achieve the goals.
• Clear, concise messaging: Speak your audience’s language. Make sure the copy you choose to communicate the mission, goals, and track record resonate with your target audience.

Step 3: Present Your Mission on Your Site

Website visitors quickly scan web pages to find the information or action they want to take on the site. Your value proposition should have a clear presentation on the homepage and any other pages you direct traffic to from social media or email. These pages are typically referred to as “landing pages.”

To increase your donation rate, use persuasive language to explain to the donors how working with you will benefit them and the broader community. Include information that makes you stand out from other organizations with similar missions.

Below you can find content ideas to include on your website to help inspire and attract donors:

• Your value proposition
• Content or graphics that clearly show what your organization does, whom you serve, and its importance to the community.
• Your location and the community you impact.
• Use messaging to explain your nonprofit’s achievements and how your organization operates.

How you share your value proposition on your website and marketing materials will influence potential donors to take action. Take time to research and create your value proposition and refine your nonprofit website’s messaging. If you spend time researching and writing a clear value proposition, your nonprofit can connect with target donors and create a trustworthy reputation. A focused and impactful value proposition on your website will increase your donations.

Step 4: Understand If Your Value Proposition and Mission are Resonating

You’ve identified your target audience and shared your value proposition on your website. How can you measure if these changes resonate with your audience? You can test and measure the changes you’ve made to the site.

One method you can use to test the changes you’ve made is called usability testing. Usability testing gives you the chance to observe website visitors complete tasks on the website, such as signing up for a newsletter or completing a donation. You can start with one task you want to test with people to keep it simple.

There are a few helpful tools and resources to help you set up a usability test with people. A couple tools we recommend are UserTesting and TryMyUI.com. You can also run a quick usability test with people within your non-profit, called “hallway testing.” Or, you can recruit donors or volunteers for a usability test.

Another way to understand how to connect with your donors or target audience is to create A/B tests. For example, if you want to test your new mission statement on your website, you can set up a test comparing your new mission statement to the old statement on the site. Based on the A/B test, you’ll know which message performs better with website visitors. You can start A/B testing with a tool such as Optimizely.

Last, you can carry out surveys on your website by asking donors what inspired them to donate. Through the surveys, you’ll know the donor’s interests, and their responses will help you package new content for your website.

Conclusion

Use your website to connect with donors by having a unique value proposition. Ensure you have identified your organization’s goals and target audience to build a lasting, impactful value proposition.

Once you create your organization’s value proposition, check that your value proposition resonates with the intended audience. If you follow the above process and share your value proposition on your nonprofit website, then you will connect with donors and inspire them to join your cause.

If you want to learn more about creating a website that attracts and converts donors, then you can reach out to Experiment Zone for a UX website audit. Our UX audit will identify opportunities to expand your reach and inspire more people to give toward your nonprofit’s mission.