Anatomy of a successful giving day website
Giving days — also known as days of giving — are a fundamental digital fundraising strategy for colleges, universities and nonprofit organizations to raise a substantial amount of money in a short period of time, contributing richly to an institution’s annual fund. And giving days work: nearly 20% of alumni donors first give via a giving day campaign. A recent Gravyty report found that a third of alumni who have given to their alma mater say they did so via a giving day or crowdfunding campaign.
To reach today’s donors, a well-optimized giving day website is essential to drive and maximize dollars raised. In fact, it’s not unlikely for a university to raise 90% or more of its giving day donations via their giving day platform, versus more traditional methods like phone calls and direct mail.
In this blog, we’ll cover best practices of a high-performing giving day website and dive into key features you can leverage in Gravyty’s digital fundraising platform essential to a winning digital giving day strategy.
5 best practices for building an optimized giving day website
The first impression a donor gets when they land on your giving day site is critical. How are you capturing their attention right off the bat? Does the branding and messaging accurately convey your institution and campaign theme? Is the giving process frictionless and secure?
Here are five important best practices to consider when building your giving day site.
1. Focus on user experience (UX)
A clean, intuitive design is key to guiding donors effortlessly through the giving process. Prioritizing mobile responsiveness ensures a seamless experience on any device, while optimizing images and code helps achieve faster load times for better engagement.
2. Clear and compelling calls-to-action (CTAs)
Effective CTAs motivate donors to take action, such as “Donate Now” or “Double Your Impact.” Positioning these CTAs in prominent places, like above the fold or directly on donation buttons, maximizes visibility and conversions.
3. Personalization and storytelling
Storytelling creates an emotional connection with potential donors, making them feel more involved in your cause. Personalized messaging, such as recognizing donors by name or sharing campaign updates, combined with compelling visuals or videos, can significantly boost engagement.
4. Simplified donation process
A short, user-friendly donation form makes it easy for supporters to complete their gifts quickly. Offering multiple payment options—like credit cards, PayPal, digital wallets, and DAF payment acceptance —ensures convenience, while a secure and streamlined checkout process minimizes drop-offs.
5. Use of urgency and social proof
Leverage countdown timers and progress bars to create urgency and encourage donations before time runs out. Displaying recent donors and fundraising milestones adds credibility and motivates others to contribute, while matching gifts or challenges can inspire larger donations.
“Everyone is still talking about it”: How Gravyty’s powerful giving day platform helps you raise more & drive engagement
Real-time reporting and fundraising analytics
To run a successful giving day strategy, it’s crucial to have the right data at your fingertips. Collecting and reviewing fundraising analytics in real time lets you monitor progress and make day-of adjustments if needed. You can also review data post-giving day to understand more about donor behavior and curate a follow-up strategy.
With Gravyty’s digital fundraising platform, you can track essential metrics, analyze donor behavior, and fine-tune your strategies in real-time through integrated and customizable dashboards. Automate report distribution to ensure the right people get the data they need when they need it.
Built-in video messaging
In an era of robocalls and mass emails, donors need to feel a personal connection to your cause to feel compelled to give. Enter personal video messages: sending a donor a personal video to say thank you, invite them to participate in your giving day, or even encourage them to advocate as an ambassador are great ways to engage donors more effectively and meaningfully. Video makes a proven impact: video boosts email open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%. Further, 57% of people who watch nonprofit videos go on to make a donation.
Gravyty’s digital fundraising platform has built-in video messaging, making it easy to engage, solicit and thank donors all in one place. Record – or task faculty, students, or even local celebs – a video appeal with clear call to action buttons and an embedded giving form that motivates donors to take action at the point of inspiration. Follow up with donors instantly by automating thank-you video messages, making an impact and reinforcing donors’ decision to support your cause.
Success story: Salt Lake Community College saw 2x alumni donors on giving day
The development team at SLCC had big goals for their giving day campaign.
With one of their strategic priorities being engaging new alumni donors, the team knew they needed to find a platform that would power an engagement and giving strategy that was measurable, cross-channel, and easy for alumni to not only give but also spread the word through ambassadorship. A critical element to their campaign success was the integrated video messaging tool. The team tapped key campus leaders of various programs like the food pantry, child care program, and scholarship fund — as well as students — to record personal thank-yous to each donor who gave on giving day, segmented by the cause they gave to.
With the help of Gravyty, SLCC achieved big results on their giving day: over $237,000 raised, including gifts from more than double the number of alumni donors as previous years, and a 95% open rate for personalized video messages.
Customizable branding and theming
Maintaining consistent branding – while also establishing a theme custom to the giving day itself – is an important element to reinforce your institution’s identity and build brand awareness. The best digital fundraising platforms offer customizable themes and templates that allow organizations to create a professional-looking site that aligns with their campaign.
Gravyty’s giving day platform provides easy-to-use tools to quickly and easily build fully branded and personalized giving pages with features like donor wall, challenges, matching gifts, social media toolkits and more.
Integrated peer-to-peer fundraising
Peer fundraising, sometimes known as social fundraising, relies on not only donations themselves but also the power of their supporters’ networks to spread the word and advocate for their cause. And there’s no doubt peer-to-peer fundraising programs are on the rise, reaching $1.1 billion in collective revenue in 2023.
Gravyty’s integrated peer-to-peer fundraising tools let you enable your top supporters to crete their own fundraising pages that extend the reach and maximize fundraising opportunity of your giving day campaign. Drive friendly competition with unique referral links for student and alumni ambassadors, and share those results real-time with built-in leaderboards. Track results internally with an easy-to-use dashboard and reports.
Advertise your fundraiser with automated email & social media tools
It’s simple: donors can’t give to your campaign if they are unaware it’s happening. Email and social media marketing are essential tools for promoting a giving day, as they enable both targeted and widespread engagement with both existing and potential donors.
Email and social media outreach amplifies the reach of the campaign by encouraging sharing among followers, creating buzz, and fostering a sense of community while giving supporters the tools they need to advocate on your behalf. Together, these channels help build excitement, communicate the urgency of the event, and showcase real-time progress, inspiring more people to participate and donate.
The Gravyty platform offers integrated, easy-to-use social media sharing and email outreach tools to help you get the word out about your giving day early, often and at scale. When a donor makes a gift, they can receive an automated email with customized messaging and design confirming receipt. On the other hand, “abandoned cart” donation emails remind donors to come back to the site and complete their gift.
Secure payment processing and data protection
A secure and seamless payment process is key to a positive donor experience. When donors experience a secure giving process through your platform, they are more likely to give again and again, building trust and loyalty. By offering a variety of payment options through reputable digital wallets and credit card processors, you help donors feel comfortable providing their payment information while extending opportunities to give via emerging methods like donor advised fund payments.
Gravyty’s digital fundraising platform integrates with most payment providers like Venmo, Apple Pay, PayPal, Samsung Pay and all major credit cards as well as donor-advised fund payments through DAFpay. Donors can select custom recurring giving payments directly from the giving form, and fundraisers get access to payment method data to gauge donor preferences. Gravyty’s QuickGive delivers a modern, frictionless donor experience in less than 60 seconds by letting donors make a gift in as little as three clicks.
White-glove onboarding and best-in-class support
A giving day campaign is a team effort. From setup to post-campaign analysis, a reliable partner and support team helps ensure a smooth and successful giving day. A reliable support team can assist with technical challenges, platform training, and customization, enabling clients to focus on their fundraising efforts rather than troubleshooting issues. During the high-pressure environment of a giving day where every minute counts, having expert support readily available can address urgent needs, maintain site stability, and optimize donation flows. This guidance ultimately helps maximize participation and fundraising outcomes, providing peace of mind as you navigate the complexities of modern online fundraising.
With Gravyty, you get access to unparalleled support and partnership with live and on-demand training, plus strategy guidance and round-the-clock tech support when you need it most. Gravyty’s team of experts has been in the shoes of our clients, and we know what it’s like to face the pressure of a looming giving day. A dedicated success partner guides our clients through the planning and execution of their giving campaigns, ensuring they are supported each step of the way.
Success story: How Saint Leo University inspired healthy competition through the use of digital gamification & increased giving day donations by 42%
Heading into their 2024 giving day, Saint Leo University’s small and mighty development team faced a challenge familiar to so many advancement professionals: increase participation rates and continue to bolster alumni engagement.
By implementing a few key strategies, the team executed a successful giving day, even raising 51% more gifts through their Gravyty platform.
Christine John,
Director of Development, Saint Leo University
What’s next: Amplify your giving day website
Successful giving days aren’t easy to pull off. With evolving donor preferences, new technology, and a strain on resources or staff, hitting giving day goals can feel like an uphill battle. However, with the right partner and platform, you can inspire more donors to give – and keep those donors engaged well beyond the day itself.
Gravyty’s digital fundraising platform enables you to create fully customizable giving sites and crowdfunding campaigns, enhanced by top-tier texting, email, and video stewardship tools. Features such as retargeting campaigns, recurring giving options, employer matching gifts, donor-advised fund (DAF) payments, and transaction fee coverage are designed to maximize donor conversion across any device. Get a custom walk-through today by booking a demo.
