How to include a “Donate”/ “Donate Now” Button on your charity organisation’s website?

Today in the digital world, the website is one of the key tools for fundraising. All other digital tools like emailer, social media posts, etc. direct the donor to the website where the final step of ‘donating’ actually takes place; and in fundraising, this step is indeed the key.

“Donate”/ “Donate Now” button on the website is where the donation process is initiated and thus, it is important that this is appropriately included in the website. Everyone visiting the website is a prospect. It is this button that initiates the process of converting a prospective donor into a confirmed donor.

What to call?

Usually, “Donate Now” or “Donate” is the text used on the button that initiates the donation process. Few other preferred words include- “Make a Difference”, “Support” and “Give”. Whatever be the word you select to use, one needs to ensure that it communicates, it is short and that it leads to the form that captures details of the donor, followed by the payment gateway page.

Button Placement

As per an estimate, the average time span of an individual on the digital platform is very short (around 8 seconds). It is, therefore, crucial to place the “Donate”/ “Donate Now” button in a manner that it catches the visitor’s eye movement rather early!

A study shows human eyes on digital platforms, read in “Z” or “Y” form. Thus, it would be ideal to place the logo on the top left corner and the “Donate”/ “Donate Now” button on the top right corner. Preferably, the donate now button should be part of the ‘fixed header menu bar’, so that even if a visitor changes the page of the website, the “Donate Now” button continues to stay visible to her/him. The button should also be included in all the relevant pages to ensure, you don’t miss out any donation

Brand consistency

Since this is the key call to action, it’s important that the branding is also taken care for the button so that there is an overall consistency in the branding and the donor doesn’t get the impression that they are on some other website; this will include the choice of font and colours used, and also the patterns, if any, etc.

Most organisations highlight this button—some use a red colour shade; while some organisations get this designed in a manner that the base of the colour changes on clicking. The font, colour and all other branding details that you use must be aligned to your organisation’s brand identity. Prospect donors should not get confused that they are visiting some other organisation’s website. The button must be clearly visible and readable.

How to make and place the button on the website?

If you have a website designer who is preparing your website, request the designer to make the button and place it appropriately.

There is some basic web design software which does give the provision of making the button and placing it correctly.

Some others, like few crowdfunding platforms, already have inbuilt fixed button that one can use.