Future Fundraising Now

Secrets to better fundraising call-to-action buttons

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by

Jeff Brooks
in

Getting people to click your call-to-action buttons is one of the more important tasks in online fundraising.

Here’s some help from Daniel Melbye’s blog on this topic, at Creating Call to Action Buttons That Convert:


  • Use actionable language. Try something like “Give food to starving children” rather than “Donate now.”
  • Make it clickable. Make it look like a button — give it depth with gradients, drop-shadows or both.
  • Make it stand out. A contrasting color will draw more eyes and clicks than a nice congruent color.
  • Position it. Put it in a prominent place on the page. You may need to test to know where the best places are.
  • Don’t forget to test. The best practices are still a bit mushy. And they change. Testing is the only way to be sure you’re doing it right.

    Comments

    2 responses to “Secrets to better fundraising call-to-action buttons”

    1. Gregory Warner Avatar
      Gregory Warner

      Good stuff Jeff but I’d be careful about changing the button away from “Donate Now.” That’s a convention. Conventions are things people don’t have to think about because they have become so common.
      The other bullet-points make sense though. Especially the bottom one about testing. So I guess I’m saying, definitely do an A/B test with a “Donate Now” button vs. “Give food to starving children” before deciding which one is truly more effective and “actionable.”

    2. Gregory Warner Avatar
      Gregory Warner

      Good stuff Jeff but I’d be careful about changing the button away from “Donate Now.” That’s a convention. Conventions are things people don’t have to think about because they have become so common.
      The other bullet-points make sense though. Especially the bottom one about testing. So I guess I’m saying, definitely do an A/B test with a “Donate Now” button vs. “Give food to starving children” before deciding which one is truly more effective and “actionable.”

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    The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More.

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    Jeff BrooksJeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. More.

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    The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More.

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    About the blogger

    Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.