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Donation Forms: Fields to Include and Best Practices

Your organization needs an easy way to collect donations—after all, donors’ gifts drive your nonprofit’s mission. To entice them to give, the process should be easy for donors, too. Donation forms are the key to accomplishing both of these goals, especially when you make them accessible on your nonprofit’s website and share the link across your supporter base. 

Whether you’re optimizing your existing form or creating one for the first time, you may be wondering what your donation form should include. It’ll require a delicate balance between being easy to complete and comprehensive enough to collect donor information. Let’s explore the exact fields your donation forms should include and how to make them more likely to be filled out.

Required Fields

There are a few essential components that your donation form must include to be able to collect donations and gather donor data for future use. 

Name: Asking for a donor’s name may be obvious, but don’t forget to ask for their preferred name on the form. This way, you’ll know how to address donors more personally, such as by using “Jim” instead of “James.”
Contact information: Ask for donors’ email addresses and phone numbers, and allow them to select which is their preferred communication method. This way, you’ll know how to engage them in the future, such as through email newsletters or a mobile giving campaign. 
Billing address: Enable auto-population so that the donor’s device can automatically fill in their billing address.
Payment information: Offer flexible giving options so that donors can pay with the method that’s most convenient for them. 
Donation details: Allow donors to customize their donations quickly and easily. This might include a dropdown menu of suggested donation amounts or a checkbox to sign up for recurring donations. 

Wherever possible, use checkboxes, drop menus, auto-population, and other features to reduce the amount of custom answers a donor has to provide. Also, clearly mark required fields to ensure donors know exactly what information is needed. Making these required fields as simple as possible is the key to keeping donors engaged rather than losing their interest.

Optional Questions

While concise donation forms may increase a donor’s willingness to complete them, thorough prompts are a perfect opportunity to learn more about your nonprofit’s supporters. The details collected in your donation form provide context for urging donors to pursue other involvement opportunities. 

Some additional questions you might ask include:

How did you find us? Identify which channel a new donor used to find your organization for insight into which channels most effectively draw in new supporters.
Is your gift match eligible? Don’t miss out on extra fundraising dollars—remind donors to check their matching gift eligibility before submitting their donation. 
Would you like to dedicate this gift? Offering the option to make a tribute gift adds meaning to a donor’s contribution. This way, they’ll be more excited about clicking “Submit.”

Consider asking these questions after the donation has been submitted so that donors don’t stop short of completing their gift. Remember, the required fields on your donation form are all that should be necessary to ensure donors don’t become tired of answering so many prompts.

Donation Form Best Practices

Aside from the fields it includes, your donation form can benefit from the following practices: 

Use your organization’s branding. Include your nonprofit’s brand to remind donors of your mission as they donate.
Promote data security. Add any relevant badges or disclaimers about the measures you take to protect donor data.
Make it mobile-friendly. Make sure your donation form is accessible on mobile devices by using clear buttons and properly sized text. 

Snowball’s auction software guide recommends creating donation pages with a comprehensive fundraising solution. This way, you can craft a donation page that’s cohesive with the rest of your fundraising initiatives.

Don’t forget to confirm a donation has been received and thank donors for their contributions with automated donation receipts. Donation forms are most effective when they ask the right questions, but they can go further by engaging supporters with their prompts. Decide what to include on your donation form and design a donation experience that donors will want to repeat.