Donor recognition is key to building stronger relationships with supporters and ultimately boosting your donor retention rate. When donors feel appreciated, they’ll be more inclined to continue supporting you. That’s why you should pursue a multichannel appreciation strategy using social media, email, direct mail, and website.
Your website, in particular, is a valuable, likely underutilized platform for showing donors your gratitude. It’s your online hub for engaging with supporters, and it likely receives a lot of visibility when you link to it in digital marketing campaigns, making it a powerful platform for ongoing donor recognition.
Whether you’re preparing your website for an upgrade or just looking to make a few changes, incorporating donor recognition into your site is a valuable way to support your online donor stewardship strategy. In this guide, we’ll take a look at these five ideas for promoting donor recognition using your website:
Optimize your online donation page.
Create a virtual donor recognition wall.
Highlight donors in blog posts.
Share transparent progress updates.
Offer an online feedback survey.
Your website should not only tell your organization’s story but also bring your donors into that story by thanking them for their contributions and positioning them as important collaborators in achieving your goals. These strategies will help you do just that.
1. Optimize your online donation page.
Your online donation form can serve as a tool to thank donors for their contributions and lay the groundwork for future engagement. Here are a few ways you can use it to facilitate donor recognition and engagement:
Create a secure donation form. Double the Donation’s nonprofit web design guide recommends storing your donors’ account information using tokenization. Tokenization is the process of replacing sensitive data with non-sensitive data elements that can’t be exploited by malicious actors. This reassures donors that you’re managing their sensitive information responsibly, showing them that you prioritize keeping their data safe.
Ensure your automated thank-you page pops up as soon as donations are submitted. Use this thank-you page to encourage donors to share their donations on social media, sign up for your email newsletter, and check out your upcoming event calendar.
Follow up with a more in-depth thank you note. When donors give online, your donation form should trigger an additional thank you email. This message should tell donors about the impact of their gifts and how exactly they’ll be used to support your mission. You can also highlight upcoming ways to get involved, such as future events or volunteer opportunities.
Donors feeling unappreciated or unacknowledged is one of the main reasons for donor lapse. When you use your online donation form to kick off a longer stewardship strategy, you can make donors feel recognized and appreciated. Continue to communicate with donors and invite them to engage with your organization after their initial online donation.
2. Create a virtual donor recognition wall.
A donor recognition wall is typically a physical installation that lists donors’ names and thanks them for their support. But a donor recognition wall doesn’t have to be tangible. You can create a virtual version of a donor wall for your website to show gratitude for donors.
Virtual donor walls are effective platforms for nonprofits, higher education institutions, healthcare institutions, and other fundraising organizations to thank a large group of donors in an interactive, permanent way.
Your virtual donor wall can be displayed in a number of ways. Many organizations opt for a simple list of names on their fundraising pages, but you can take a more creative approach by adding:
A video embedded on your homepage or donor recognition page that showcases your staff members, volunteers, or community members thanking donors for their support.
A scrolling banner of names that plays on your website’s homepage or in the footer.
A microsite focused on donor recognition that lists donors’ names and contribution levels. This can be effective for recognizing large campaign donors, such as your capital campaign’s major donors.
No matter which option you choose, be sure to brand the virtual wall to your organization. Use your brand colors, logo, and fonts to create cohesion.
3. Highlight donors in blog posts.
Blog posts allow you to go more in-depth into specific topics to give your audience members a deeper understanding of your mission. Asking long-term or major donors if they’d like to be featured on your blog will make them feel special and appreciated.
For instance, you might interview one of your major capital campaign donors that you’re planning to name a new playground after. Or, you might showcase one of your long-term donors who first engaged with your organization as a beneficiary of your disaster recovery services.
Interview these supporters and ask questions about their:
Personal connection to your cause
Fond memories of your organization, such as past events they’ve attended or goals they’ve helped you accomplish
Hopes for the future of your mission
You can increase your audience members’ engagement with these blog posts by including multimedia elements such as a photo slideshow, video clips, or brief sound bites from your interviews.
4. Share transparent progress updates.
Your donors don’t just want to hear that you appreciate their gift. They want specific details about what their contributions helped you achieve. This shows that you’re putting their gifts to effective use and reassures supporters that donating again in the future is a good idea.
Use your website to highlight various progress reports that illustrate the impact of donations on your projects and programs. You can incorporate:
Annual reports. These should offer a broad overview of what you were able to accomplish within a year with the help of donors. Include clear statistics and metrics that depict growth and change within your organization.
Campaign-specific updates. Use your blog, email newsletters, and social media feeds to provide day-to-day updates on different campaigns and projects’ progress.
Testimonials. Show donors exactly who they’re helping by highlighting community members’ stories on your testimonials page. Let community members tell their own stories by incorporating direct quotes.
Kanopi’s roundup of the best nonprofit websites clearly highlights how the most effective nonprofit sites incorporate impact stories and statistics at every turn. For example, the Doctors Without Borders website includes a footer on every page that shows donors the breakdown of how the organization allocates funding. This reassures prospective and existing donors that the majority of funding goes directly to humanitarian aid programs.
In addition, the Ronald McDonald House website features a variety of stories about the families who have stayed at RMH facilities. These stories include compelling photos and direct quotes from the families, giving donors a glimpse of who their donations are helping.
5. Offer an online feedback survey.
Take your appreciation efforts a step further by showing supporters that you value and want to actively incorporate their input. Supporter feedback can also offer beneficial insights into your various marketing and outreach efforts’ effectiveness. The data you gather can help you design more effective campaigns moving forward.
Include a link to a quick survey or poll on your homepage, donation thank-you page, or another high-traffic page on your website. Include questions like:
Did you find the donation process easy to complete?
How could we make the online donation process simpler?
How would you rate our website’s user-friendliness on a scale of 1-10?
How could we improve our website’s usability?
Also, ask a couple of questions that assess the effectiveness of your donor appreciation strategy. These questions might include:
Do you feel like your donation had a positive impact?
How likely are you to donate to our organization again in the future?
Surveys are a great way to encourage supporters to engage with your website and make their voices heard. Make sure to follow up by taking steps to incorporate supporter feedback where possible.
Making your donors feel like important allies in achieving your mission can start with these appreciation tips. Use your website to reinforce the donor recognition and stewardship strategies you pursue in-person and on other digital platforms. This ensures that all donors feel appreciated and valued by your organization.
As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.
Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.