Written by Encouraging more people to visit your charity’s website is only part of the fundraising challenge.
Once someone clicks donate, the journey that follows can determine whether they complete their gift or leave before making a payment.
A good online donation form should make giving feel simple, relevant and reassuring. It should help supporters understand the difference their gift could make while removing unnecessary barriers.
Here are eight practical ways you can optimise your online donation form, with good-practice examples by charities using goDonate.
1. Keep the donation journey focused
A donation page has one main purpose: to help someone complete their gift.
Too many links, menu options or competing calls to action on the page can distract supporters at the point when they are ready to give. The donation journey should instead guide them clearly from selecting an amount through to payment.
Useful information still has a place… supporters do need reassurance about security, Gift Aid, data use and how their donation will be spent. The important thing is to present this information without overwhelming the page.
A focused donation journey should:
- Explain the purpose or impact of the gift
- Remove unnecessary navigation
- Only show relevant questions
Cruse Bereavement Support, for example, allows supporters to select which area of the charity they would like to support without making the overall journey feel complicated.
Best-practice takeaway: Review every field, link and message. When it does not help someone donate or provide essential reassurance, consider removing it.
2. Design for mobile supporters
Many supporters now reach donation forms through mobile. Our latest online donation report shows that 58% of one-off donations are made on mobile, accounting for 40% of online one-off income. For regular gifts, mobile use is even higher, with 67% of donations made on mobile and generating 48% of online regular giving income.
A form that looks acceptable on desktop can still be difficult to use on a smaller screen. Small buttons, closely spaced fields, long paragraphs and excessive scrolling all create friction.
A mobile-friendly donation form should include:
- Short sections of copy
- Minimal manual data entry
- Digital wallet payment options
When ShelterBox introduced its goDonate journey, it recorded a 129% increase in completed donations during the measured period compared with the previous year. The proportion of people moving from the start of the journey through to completion also increased by 31%.
The improvement was not simply about appearance. The journey was designed to make donating easier across different devices.
Best-practice takeaway: Test the full journey on real mobile phones.
3. Connect donation amounts with impact
Supporters are not just choosing an amount, they are deciding whether their money will make a meaningful difference.
Suggested donation amounts can make that decision easier, especially when they are linked to clear examples of impact.
| Instead of displaying only: | a charity could explain: |
| £10 | £10 could provide essential supplies |
| £25 | £25 could help fund specialist support |
| £50 | £50 could help a family access urgent assistance |
The wording must be credible and accurate and it should illustrate what a donation could help achieve, rather than make guarantees the charity cannot support.
Impact statements should also be tailored for different campaigns. A monthly giving journey, for example, may explain what an ongoing gift can help make possible over time.
Best-practice takeaway: Give suggested amounts a clear purpose so supporters can understand why their chosen gift matters.
4. Make one-off and regular giving clear
Regular giving can provide charities with more predictable income, but supporters should be able to make their choice without feeling pressured.
The wording, order and design of these options can affect supporter behaviour. There is no single approach that will work for every charity, which is why testing is valuable.
Charities should test:
- Whether one-off or monthly giving appears first
- Suggested monthly amounts
- The wording used to describe regular gifts
- Impact statements beside each option
- Prompts inviting one-off donors to consider monthly giving
Best-practice takeaway: Give regular giving its own clear proposition rather than treating it as a secondary option hidden within a general form.
5. Ask only for the information you need
Every additional field creates another opportunity for a supporter to abandon the form.
Charities understandably want to collect useful information, but the donation journey should not become a detailed supporter survey. Ask only what you need to process the payment, acknowledge the gift, manage Gift Aid and meet operational or legal requirements.
Other information can often be collected later via the thank you page, through welcome journeys, preference centres or future engagement.
Conditional fields can help keep the journey shorter by showing additional questions only when they are relevant.
For example, the dynamic form that goDonate charities use only shows further detail asks when someone:
- Makes a donation in memory
- Gives on behalf of an organisation
- Selects a particular campaign or branch
- Wants someone to be notified about the gift
This provides a more personalised experience without showing every possible question to every donor.
Best-practice takeaway: For each field, ask what you will do with that information, and whether you genuinely need it at the time of donation, or at all!
6. Offer familiar payment methods
Supporters are more likely to complete their donation when they can use a payment method they recognise and trust.
From our 2026 online donation report we’ve seen that 49% of one-off donations in 2025 were made via digital wallets, compared to 45% in 2024. This shows how digital wallets are becoming increasingly important for donor experience and ease of giving.
The options such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal are now vital as they reduce the amount of information someone needs to enter manually. This is especially significant for mobile supporters.
The payment stage should feel secure and consistent with the charity’s wider brand. Familiar payment logos, clear messaging and a professionally designed journey all provide reassurance.
Surfers Against Sewage saw total donations increase by 101% following the introduction of their goDonate journey, and overall donation conversion increased by 143%!
This illustrates why charities should look beyond website traffic alone.
Improving the donation experience can help more of the people who already visit the website go on to give.
Best-practice takeaway: Make preferred payment options easy to find and reduce unnecessary manual data entry wherever possible.
7. Recognise the reason for giving
People will have different motivations for donating.
Someone may be responding to an appeal, supporting a specific service, remembering someone special, celebrating an occasion or simply making a general gift.
Recognising that motivation makes the journey feel more relevant and gives the charity useful information for future stewardship.
In-memory giving is one important example. A suitable donation journey might allow supporters to:
- Give in memory of someone
- Include the person’s name and their relationship to the donor
- Notify a relative or friend
The wording should be sensitive and appropriate. Language that works for a general appeal may feel unsuitable when someone is giving following a bereavement.
Capturing motivation can also improve future communications. A supporter who gives in memory should have a different thank-you and stewardship journey from someone responding to an emergency appeal.
Remember point 5 – Only ask a question if you’re going to do something with the answer!
Best-practice takeaway: Ask why someone is giving when it adds genuine value, then use that information to communicate more thoughtfully.
8. Test and continually improve
Donation form optimisation should not be treated as a one-off project. Supporter expectations, campaigns, traffic sources and payment habits change over time.
A/B testing allows charities to compare different versions of an element and measure which one performs more effectively.
Elements worth testing include:
- Suggested donation amounts
- Impact statements
- Images
- Content and signposting
- Capturing consent
- Gift Aid messaging
Only test one change at a time, otherwise, it will be difficult to identify what caused the difference in performance. goDonate has a built in A/B testing tool to help fundraisers easily test campaign elements.
Charities should also measure the full donation funnel, including:
• Journey starts
• Conversion by device, campaign
• Average donation value
• The stages where supporters leave
This can reveal whether there are any barriers via the website or during payment too.
Best-practice takeaway: Base decisions on supporter behaviour and evidence rather than internal preference.
What makes a good online donation form?
The best donation form provides the clearest and most relevant route to completing a gift.
That usually means combining:
- Fully branded journey
- Appeal or audience specific journeys
- Mobile-first design
- Clear impact messaging
- One-off and regular giving options
- Relevant suggested amounts
- Minimal form fields
- Familiar payment methods
- Effective Gift Aid presentation
- Reliable analytics and testing
Technology supports each of these areas, but the starting point should always be the supporter.
What do they need to understand? What might stop them from continuing? How can the experience make donating feel easier?
Final thoughts
Charities often invest significant time and budget in attracting people to their websites. The donation journey deserves the same attention. When someone clicks donate, they have already shown an intention to support the cause. A confusing, generic or unnecessarily lengthy donation process risks losing that moment.
The most effective improvements are not always dramatic. Removing one unnecessary field, adding a more convenient payment option or explaining impact more clearly can all help more supporters complete their gift.
By making the donation journey focused, mobile-friendly and relevant, you can provide a better supporter experience while generating more value from the audiences you already reach.
Want to know more how goDonate can help? Drop us a line: hello@godonate.digital
Frequently asked questions
It should be only as long as necessary to process and manage the gift. Remove questions that do not need to be answered immediately and use conditional fields so supporters see only relevant options.
Simplify your donation journey; optimise it for mobile, offer familiar payment methods, reduce unnecessary fields, clearly explain impact and regularly test different content and layouts.
Definitely! Digital wallets make giving faster by reducing manual data entry, particularly on mobile devices. Offer them alongside cards and other payment methods to give donors greater choice.
A/B testing allows you to compare variations of a donation page and identify which encourages more supporters to complete their gift. It replaces assumptions with measurable evidence.