Did you know that optimizing your fundraising landing pages can increase conversion rates by up to 300%? For nonprofits, that boost could mean more meals served, more programs funded, and more missions fulfilled. Yet many organizations still rely on generic website pages that lack the focus and persuasive power of a campaign-specific experience.
The best nonprofit website strategies use custom landing pages to turn campaign goals into compelling stories that motivate donors to act. Let’s walk through five strategic steps to build a page that resonates with your audience and drives measurable results.
Step 1: Define your campaign goal and audience.
Successful landing pages have one thing in common: a clear purpose. Who are you trying to reach with your campaign, and what action do you want visitors to take?
Start building your landing page by completing these essential first steps:
- Identify your campaign’s main objective. Whether you’re looking to raise $1 million in a capital campaign, gain 100 new recurring donors through a monthly giving campaign, or rally volunteers for a major fundraising event, define one primary goal to keep your message sharp.
- Determine who you want to reach with your campaign. Are you speaking to long-time supporters, first-time visitors, or a different donor segment? Consider your target audience’s motivations, challenges, and how they’ve supported your mission before. What would inspire them to get involved with your current campaign?
- Align your message with audience members’ specific interests. For example, let’s say you want to engage young donors in your campaign. In the past, you may have noticed that younger donors prefer engaging with social media and video content. With that in mind, you could incorporate a live social media feed and testimonial videos on your landing page to appeal to their interests.
Keep your team on track by writing a brief, audience-focused value proposition to reference as you develop your landing page. The value proposition should demonstrate how audience members will benefit from engaging with your campaign, whether by helping to further your mission or joining a community of like-minded people all focused on a common goal.
Aligning your goal, audience research, and value proposition will allow you to strengthen your landing page with content that resonates with your audience.
Step 2: Build a focused content strategy.
Great landing pages tell a clear story that makes people care and act. The content on your campaign landing page should help donors connect with your mission emotionally and motivate them to get involved.
Optimize the page’s content with these best practices:
- Lead with a bold, compelling headline. Follow it with a subheader that spells out what’s at stake. For example, a webpage for a healthcare organization promoting a charity run might read “Step Up for Health Equity” and “Sign up for our 5K to keep local clinics open and enhance community wellness.”
- Enhance your narrative with impactful visuals. In a healthcare fundraising campaign, this could mean sharing a patient’s recovery story alongside candid photos of care teams in action.
- Incorporate impact statistics. Share hard data to show supporters exactly how their donations will help your organization further its mission. Highlight impact measurements like the number of meals donated, trees planted, or lives impacted.
- Leverage interactive multimedia content. Engage page visitors using a variety of multimedia elements to capture their attention. Include short video testimonials or rotating quotes from donors and beneficiaries to make your landing page more dynamic.
Lastly, stick to one call-to-action (CTA) throughout the page to keep the experience streamlined and decisive. For example, your page may encourage visitors to:
- “Donate Now to Make a Difference”
- “Join Our Mission Today”
- “Sign Up to Support Our Cause”
- “Register to Join the Fun”
Using this type of active language will make your CTAs more enticing and easier to understand. This way, users will know exactly what action they’re taking when they click the CTA.
Step 3: Design for usability and trust.
Design can either build confidence or undermine it. One study even found that 94% of first impressions of a website are based on design. Your landing page needs to be trustworthy, authentic, and simple for your audience to use.
Key design elements include:
- A clean layout with high-contrast colors and legible fonts
- Mobile responsiveness with touch-friendly elements
- Minimal distractions (such as pop-ups, animations, or links to other web pages) to keep users focused on the goal
- Trust signals like secure donation badges, corporate partner logos, and beneficiary testimonials
- Interactive touches such as video snippets or donor maps to boost engagement
Don’t forget about accessibility—all images should include alt text, videos must contain captions, and navigation should follow a logical order.
Step 4: Streamline the donation or signup process.
It doesn’t matter how visually pleasing your landing page looks—it will lose donors if the next step you ask supporters to take is frustrating or complicated. By simplifying your landing page form, you can simplify the path from inspiration to action.
As Qgiv’s donation page guide says, “While it can be tempting to use your form to collect as much information on your donors as possible, keep the required fields and questions to an absolute minimum.” Studies have revealed that reducing the number of form fields from 11 to 4 can boost conversions by 120%.
Follow these tips to keep your landing page forms simple and convenient:
- Use an embedded form. Unnecessary redirects can interrupt momentum. Include a donation or signup form directly within your landing page so supporters don’t have to visit another page to get involved.
- Request essential information. Only ask for supporters’ names, contact information, and payment details if applicable. Save other questions, like their preferred communication methods or how they heard about your organization, for follow-up outreach.
- Prioritize form accessibility. Ensure all form fields have descriptive labels and that your form is simple to use via keyboard navigation or screen reader.
Your form should match the rest of your landing page’s design to create a seamless, polished look. Otherwise, a supporter might think they’ve landed on an entirely different website, potentially leading to distrust and the loss of their support.
Step 5: Launch, monitor, and iterate.
Publishing the page is just the beginning. You’ll need to drive traffic to it using a multi-channel marketing strategy. Use email, social media, blog posts, and even QR codes on direct mail to reach the widest possible audience.
Monitor the page’s performance with metrics like:
- Bounce rate
- Conversion rate
- Average time on page
To optimize your page further, continually test it across different devices like mobile phones, laptops, and tablets. Use tools like Hotjar or Optimizely to conduct A/B testing, evaluate user behavior, and spot pain points. Adjust copy, CTAs, or visuals based on what the data shows.
Keep in mind that if the landing page is for a recurring campaign, you should treat it like a living resource. Maintain the webpage and keep it effective by refreshing testimonials, updating photos, and incorporating feedback.
Kanopi’s website maintenance guide also recommends continually referencing your audience data to ensure your landing pages have clear user pathways from initial contact to taking the next steps to get involved. Adjust your page in response to any changes in audience preferences, interests, or motivations.
Final thoughts
A custom landing page is your campaign’s digital front door. Designed well, it can elevate your fundraising appeal from “please donate” to “here’s exactly how you can make a difference today.”
By focusing on storytelling, design, and data-driven refinement, your nonprofit can create landing pages that inspire and convert.
About the Author
Anne Stefanyk
As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne provides digital strategy to clients and organizations in the nonprofit, higher education, healthcare, and corporate sectors. She opened Kanopi in 2013, upon seeing the untapped opportunities in the market for iterative web design and development. Anne has spent her career at the intersection of business development, marketing, and technology. She specializes in building rapport with clients and converting conversations into tangible results.
Follow Anne:
