The Lean Nonprofit's Playbook for Online Giving and Donor Retention
Practical steps to make giving easy, thank donors properly, keep them giving, and use free tools like Google Ad Grants without extra staff.
This guide is for small and mid-size nonprofits where a few people handle fundraising, communications and the website on top of everything else. It covers the donation page, thank-you and receipt rules, your donor database, getting found online, and keeping donor data safe. Each tip ends with one thing you can do this week, so you can improve a little at a time without a big project.
- Make giving fast, clear and repeatable
- Thank donors well and keep them giving
- Get your donor data into one place
- Get found online with your website and Google Ad Grants
- Email, texting and data security on a lean budget
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Five chapters, written for owners.
- Make giving fast, clear and repeatableMost of your online revenue depends on one page, so make it quick on a phone and make monthly giving the easy choice.
- Thank donors well and keep them givingKeeping the donors you have starts with a fast, specific thank-you, correct receipts and regular proof of impact.
- Get your donor data into one placeA lean team can't afford to re-type gifts or hunt through spreadsheets, so pick one system of record and let it do the work.
- Get found online with your website and Google Ad GrantsYour website tells your impact story, and Google Ad Grants can bring people searching for your cause to it at no cost.
- Email, texting and data security on a lean budgetRespect consent, make sure your emails arrive, and protect the accounts that hold donor data.
A tip from chapter 1
Build one focused donation page on your own website
Your donate page should load quickly on a phone, ask only for what you need to process the gift and thank the donor, and have no menus or links that pull people away. Keep it on your own domain so donors see your name, not a stranger's URL. Whatever tool you use (forms from Bloomerang, DonorPerfect or Little Green Light, a Givebutter page, or Stripe or PayPal), make sure the page matches your site and says plainly what the gift supports. Offer digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay if your processor supports them, since they remove the most typing.
This week: Make a gift to yourself on your phone and count the fields and taps. Remove any field you don't use.
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