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A donation page has a very specific job. By the time somebody reaches it, they have usually moved beyond simply learning about your charity and are actively considering giving. The page should therefore feel different from a normal content page.
It does not need to explain your entire story again; this would have been done on the previous pages in the user journeys. This page needs to help them act on the decision they have already made. I think the biggest mistake charities make here is trying to do too much. The donation page becomes a mixture of a campaign page, impact report, newsletter sign-up, annual report and payment form, all fighting for attention at the same time. The result may contain lots of useful information, but it is not helping the visitor donate. On this page, we are focusing on making this act as simple as possible, removing as much friction as possible.
The best donation pages remind the donors why their gift matters, it then helps them choose an amount and then makes it as easy as possible to process that transaction.
What is the first thing a visitor sees when they load your donation page? Take a look at yours now, both on your mobile phone and your laptop. Is it immediately obvious that this is the place to donate? Do you instantly know how you would, without having to think?
This sounds simple, but it is surprisingly easy to dilute this action, normally by trying to cram in too much supporting information. Large campaign graphics, video, social sharing, newsletter promotions, navigation, statistics and related content can all compete with the actual purpose of the page.
I would ask one very simple question: if somebody looked at the page for three seconds, do they have to search or think about how to donate. If the answer is yes, the design needs simplifying. Even the slightest amount of friction can have a significant negative impact to the success of the page.
Don’t send visitors away
One of the things I see far too often is links and other CTAs on the donation page, essentially advertising and encouraging users to leave and explore something else. If your user journey has brought someone here - that’s brilliant! Don’t then distract them with other ideas, and other places to visit! One of these areas could be “Other ways to give” which in my opinion should appear further down the page, and not get in the way of the main donation form.
The donation page still needs some persuasion, but usually much less than the page that brought someone there. If somebody has clicked through from an appeal, they do not need to read the whole appeal again. What they do need is a short reminder of why their gift matters. A clear headline, one or two sentences and perhaps a strong impact statement are often enough.
The important thing is that the message and the form feel connected. If somebody has been reading about a specific issue and then lands on a generic page saying “Support our work”, some of the momentum has been lost. Keep the context close to the donation controls so the donor can see, in one glance, both the reason to give and the way to do it.
Suggested donation amounts are useful because they reduce the effort involved in deciding what to give. I would normally keep the number of suggested amounts fairly limited and include a clear option to enter a different figure, because too many choices can make something simple feel oddly complicated - again, we want to keep the cognitive load as low as possible.
Choosing the predefined amounts to show might take some thought. They should reflect your real giving patterns and, where useful, can be connected to impact. Knowing how to set the price points might not be obvious to start with, but I would suggest looking at what donors often give already and base them around that. Of course you can test and tweak different points as well.
If your price points have supporting impact statements, keep them short. The donor should not have to read three miniature essays before deciding which button to press. A good amount selector should feel like a helpful prompt, not a pricing table for broadband.
A strong image can help keep the human reason for giving visible, particularly when it shows the people, place or issue connected to the appeal. But imagery on a donation page needs to support the transaction rather than dominate it.
I would usually favour one strong image over a collection of competing photographs. If the donor is constantly being pulled between the form, a gallery, a testimonial and a video, the page begins to lose focus. The image should reinforce the reason for giving, not simply fill space because the design looked a little empty without it.
I would also be careful with emotionally heavy imagery at this stage. The donor has already made it this far, so you do not necessarily need to keep increasing the emotional pressure all the way to the payment button.
There are two common approaches that can both work well. The first is a split layout, with the case for support and imagery on one side and the donation controls on the other. This can work particularly well where the donor needs a little context before acting. The second is a more focused single column layout, where the donor moves naturally from the reason to give into the donation controls below.
I would choose the layout based on the amount of information somebody genuinely needs rather than trying to make every donation page follow the same template. Whatever approach you use, the important thing is that the form should not feel buried inside the page. It should be part of the main composition, not something the donor discovers after scrolling.
The language around the donation action should be simple and consistent. If the page is asking somebody to donate, use language that reflects that. “Donate £30”, “Give monthly” or “Complete my donation” are much clearer than vague labels such as “Continue” when the next action matters.
I would also avoid surrounding the form with several competing calls to action. A donation page is probably not the place to ask somebody to volunteer, download a report, follow you on Instagram and register for an event. This might be something worth adding to your thank you page. There is nothing wrong with offering other ways to engage elsewhere, but the primary action on this page should be unmistakable.
Not every useful piece of information needs to sit above the donation controls. Below the form is a good place for secondary reassurance and supporting content that some donors may want but others will not need. This might include more detailed impact information, frequently asked questions, information about how donations are used, links to financial reports or a short explanation of what happens after somebody gives.
This keeps the top of the page focused while still giving cautious or research driven donors access to the information they need. The key is to separate what everybody needs from what only some people need. A donor should not have to work through every possible reassurance before they are allowed to give.
A strong donation page is therefore less about adding more persuasive elements and more about arranging the right ones in the right order. Keep the purpose clear, keep the reason for giving close to the action, make the important choices easy to understand and allow everything else to take a supporting role.
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