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Are You Using the Power of Donation Tiers to Your Campaign’s Advantage?

We work with some amazing nonprofit organizations and are inspired on a daily basis by the great work that our nonprofit friends are doing within their communities.

So when a nonprofit comes to us to start a campaign, we put our whole hearts (& heads) into the process of helping them create a campaign. One thing that we encourage a lot is the use of Donation Tiers. They are an important part of the campaign that shouldn’t be overlooked.

One thing that we always encourage is the use of Donation Tiers. They are an important part of the campaign that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Donation Tiers are the four large “Call to Action” buttons that suggest a donation amount and are a powerful section of a campaign page:  

Donation Tiers

Most individuals that come to your campaign page are there with the intent to donate.

If you send a link to a potential donor, and they take the time to click on the link, then you’ve already sold them!  

The majority of individuals are not coming to your campaign page to read through some lengthy copy…and look at some photos…and watch a video…and THEN after they’ve done all this…THEN they’ll decide if they want to donate. No. If they’re on the campaign page, then they are there to donate.

So how can you influence their donations once they’ve already decided to donate? 

TELL A QUICK & COMPELLING STORY 

The Donation Tiers can tell a quick, compelling story about the campaign and why an individual should give a donation, which gives you an opportunity to upsell them. If you can tie the donation amount back to something specific then you could upsell a potential donor.  For example, perhaps I came to your campaign page with the intent to donate $25…but I see that the Donation Tiers tell me that $50 can purchase a backpack full of school supplies for a school age child in my community. How can I turn down a child who needs school supplies? I can’t! That’s the power of using a quick story that tugs at the heart strings – like the giving levels below:  

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TAKE THE GUESSING GAME OUT OF THE PICTURE

You want to make donating easy. The easier the donation process, the more likely you’ll have donors (and even repeat donors!). If the donor has to hem and haw over how much they should donate, they’re less likely to do so. This ties into the compelling story as well. If I want to donate to your campaign but don’t have any idea of what the value of my money is to you (Is $10 enough? What will that get them? How much of an impact am I making?), I’ll be less likely to donate. If you tell me what you want me to donate, that’s a quick and easy decision!

INCREASE THE AVERAGE DONATION

We’ve found that individuals will usually pick the second donation tier because it makes them feel better about their choice. The second tier feels safe. It feels comfortable. It feels good. We all want to fit in and be liked…even in crowdfunding! If donors are choosing the second tier, it also makes sense that higher donation tiers mean higher average donations. A campaign just ran that had the following Donation Tiers: $10, $25, $50, $100 — the average donation was $40.  Another campaign that just ran had the following Donation Tiers: $25, $50, $100, $200 — the average donation was $89! This is a common story that we see across all campaigns.  

We look forward to the next brainstorming session around Donation Tiers for your next successful campaign. We hope that you’ll join us on GiveGab where we are always thinking of ways to help our Nonprofit friends raise the most money because our success is tied to yours.  

Mention this blog post on Facebook or Twitter, or leave a comment below, OR just send me an email and say “hi!”…and you’ll receive a $100 donation when you start up a new crowdfunding campaign with us!  This offer expires on June 30, 2015.  Talk soon!