How To Use Technology To Increase Donor Trust In Your Nonprofit Organization

If you work for a nonprofit or have experience fundraising, you know how important trust is when it comes to giving. People need to trust an organization before they make a donation; they have to believe without a doubt that the nonprofit will use those funds to further their mission or support a stated goal.

As Classy* found in their recent report on why America gives, how a nonprofit uses technology can play an important role when it comes to impacting donor trust:

“When respondents were asked if they would definitely or likely have less trust in an organization if they can’t donate easily online or via mobile devices, nearly all generations were in agreement. Baby boomers (15%) were least likely to report their trust would decrease based on this factor, but Gen X (38%), millennials (44%), and Gen Z (42%) were largely aligned and indicated they would have less trust in an organization if they can’t donate easily online or through mobile devices—emphasizing the important for nonprofits to provide a seamless online giving experience.”

We’ve talked before about the importance of donation pages, donation buttons, making it easy to give online, and transparency. These things are even more important when you consider, as shared in Classy’s report, that more than half of Americans find making donations digitally the easiest way to give.

If you want to appear trustworthy, evaluate your website via the following questions.

• When a potential donor lands on your website, is it immediately clear where they can go to make a donation? For example, do you have a donation button in the upper right corner or in the menu bar? What about when they navigate to other pages on the site?
• Are you giving them multiple reminders of how they can donate?
• When they actually make it to the donation page, are you reassuring them that the process will be simple and safe?

If the answer to any of those questions isn’t a resounding yes, then you need to make some updates.

Remember: Your job is to make it as easy as possible for donors to support your cause. There are so many organizations out there serving similar causes; you don’t want something like your use of technology to present a barrier to donating. By creating a platform that effortlessly facilitates giving, you’re setting your organization up for financial success.

*indicates the organization is an integration partner.