5 Tips On Where To Put That Donate Button

Photo by tristanf

Last week, we talked about Facebook memes–what works and what may not work. This week, I want to talk a bit about where to put the “donate” button on your website.

As an NPO, this button is all-important, and therefore the decision on where it should go is also extremely important. In order to give you some tips and ideas on where your donate button could go, I pulled five different cause websites.

Let’s look at how they treated their donate buttons and determine what about that placement works.

1. Keep the Button “Above the Fold”

One thing you will see in all five screen captures is that the donate button is visible without you having to scroll. If your donate button is on the lower half or lower third of your site, you are cutting your ability to impact visitors right away with that call-to-action. Now, our first example, charity: water, definitely has the “donate” button above the fold, so that’s good.

The “donate” button is placed on the far left, just next to the charity: water logo. Since people tend to read left-to-right, it’s highly likely the donate button will get some eyeballs. The only thing I’d advise in this case is to make the button “pop” a bit; in this example it blends a bit with the other navigation tabs.

2. Place Near Important, “Must Read” Info

In the screen capture below from the World Wildlife Fund, the donate button is in line with the navigation buttons as it was on the charity: water site. However, in this case the button looks more like a button. The font is bigger and bolder, and it’s right next to the search function, which the WWF may feel gets a lot of attention from people looking for quick information.

This donate button pops a lot more than the one on the charity: water site because the gold background color helps a lot!

3. Give It a Clear Mission

Just as was the case with Facebook memes, where we noted that a clear call-to-action seemed to work best, a clear purpose for the donate button on a website is helpful.

In the screen capture below, which is from an organization called Afghans for Afghans, the donate button makes clear that what they want you to donate is money as opposed to time or in-kind products. The placement of this button also is in line with tip #2. One of the first things a visitor to an NPO website will do is figure out what the organization is about. As you’re reading about Afghans for Afghans, you see a clearly marked donate button.

Against the yellow background, the green, circular button is very easy to see (even in this screen capture). While many people contribute to Afghans for Afghans by donating hand-made items, the donate button is clearly marked for people who want to donate money.

4. Don’t Overcrowd the Button

Even though it’s helpful to situate your donate button near important information that visitors are likely to read, you don’t want your button to be so surrounded with content that it becomes difficult to find.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation isolates its donate button in the right-hand side of the masthead. The button definitely looks like a button and it is located near the search bar and the “Find Your Local Chapter” link, both of which likely see a lot of use. However, the button itself dominates the right corner.

5. Save Space for Calls To Action

My favorite placement of the donate button–and other call-to-action buttons–appears on the Habitat for Humanity website. In this case, the website’s top half is dominated by buttons that give visitors clear calls-to-action. Learn more. Advocate. Volunteer. Donate. The buttons are easy to read, easy to find, and easy to understand.

Where do you currently have your button or buttons situated on your site? Has that worked for you?

We’d love to hear your thoughts, whether you have tried things that didn’t work or whether you’ve tried something that led to a lot of success!

7 thoughts on “5 Tips On Where To Put That Donate Button”

  1. Good post, donate button placement is more important than most NP execs realize. Also, when possible, organizations should make sure those donate buttons keep viewers on the org’s website, rather than pushing them off to some donate portal.

    1. That’s a great point. Often you want your website to be a reflection of the funnel you’re trying to create. Figure out what pages are of the most interest and lead people from there to where you want them ultimately to go.nnGlad you liked the post!u00a0

  2. As there are many companies offering a donate button, which one would you suggest to put on a Facebook page now since ChipIn is discontinuing their service? This would be a donate button for a 501(c)3 charity. Concerned about security, availability, and cost.

  3. Pingback: Fractured Atlas Blog : OkTECHberfest: 5 Tips for using Technology in Fundraising

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