Check step-by-step journeys first
Multi-step donation journeys are common – but it’s important to ensure that the steps are intuitive and clearly signposted.
If a visitor lands on your donation page and cannot immediately see how many steps they are going to be completing, or what will happen on each step, you risk losing them at the first hurdle. A donor that is willing to give will not spend time working out the mechanics of your donation page – they want to get to the point. A few questions are appropriate, but it’s worth asking yourself if you’ve made it easy for a supporter to complete the journey.
As you walk through the form, keep an eye out for:
- Are all steps clearly explained?
- Can visitors see how far they are through the journey?
- Is it always apparent what will happen next?
- Are there any fields that appear without context?
- Does the back button behave as expected?
If you have more than one step to the form, it is worth ensuring language is intuitive for the visitor. “Your details”, “payment” and “review” might make sense to you as a team – but a supporter often needs more guidance. Even “step 2/3: payment details” can help prevent a donation page from feeling inaccessible.
We often see organisations prioritising the aesthetic of the form over the practicalities of the journey. It can be helpful to step back and look at the whole thing as a visitor would. If the steps or language of the journey are confusing, a complete redesign will not fix this.
Cut fields ruthlessly
There is always one field that you can cut. Supporters tend not to mind giving the information that is necessary to make a donation, but they will be put off by fields that seem irrelevant, repetitive, or only useful to the organisation’s own systems. On mobile, extra fields add friction and more opportunity to drop off.
When walking through your donation form, ask yourself if you could cut any fields. A good rule of thumb is to only ask for information that is necessary to process the donation, or that the donor will want to provide for segmentation, stewardship or personalisation purposes. This might include cutting out fields that ask the same information twice, or fields that are not relevant to the donor such as secondary address lines and certain titles.
This rule also applies to post-donation fields. If you want to capture additional information about the donor for later use, it is unlikely to be essential to processing the gift.
This does not mean that you should not capture this information – but it should be done elsewhere in the journey, not on the donation form itself. If you need to segment or personalise based on this information, consider whether it can be captured before the donation, or at another point such as a survey or newsletter signup.
Reassurance before payment
Even a beautifully-designed donation page can fail to inspire confidence in the visitor’s ability to make a donation successfully.
The main issue here is that potential donors do not feel reassured about what their money is being used for, or the security of the website, until the payment step.
This creates friction at the point of donation, particularly if the handoff to the payment provider occurs at the final step.
This is not necessarily a problem with external payment providers, but rather a usability issue for the visitor. If the payment page looks markedly different to the rest of the organisation’s website, it can come as a surprise and cause confusion. This is also true for redirect pages that appear after a visitor has made a donation.
A few ways to reassure donors and reduce drop off at the point of payment are:
- Making sure that the purpose of the donation is clearly stated
- Using trust badges such as payment logos and security statements where appropriate
- Ensuring that it is clear when a visitor is leaving your site
- Always having a clear confirmation or thank you page after payment
- Having appropriate error messages in the case of failed payments
Charities such as Target Ovarian Cancer make it easy for visitors to find a telephone number and understand the kind of support available, with a clearly-stated purpose and focus. Reassurance is a vital part of any donation page – it helps a visitor feel secure in their decision to donate. If the visitor is unsure what their money will go towards, or if their card details will be safe, they are likely to abandon the donation.
Mobile and load time are part of the donation journey
What works on desktop in the office sometimes fails spectacularly on mobile in the field.
Donors are likely to come to the site on whichever device they are using at the moment, not on a desktop computer in a donor-focused environment. This means that usability issues that only affect mobile will reduce donations without you realising.
If a mobile user finds that buttons are too close together, fields are unresponsive, or the page constantly scrolls as it loads, they are unlikely to be patient enough to wait. The same goes for pages that take a long time to load – a visitor will not wait for the images to appear if they have already decided to give. If the visitor has to use a mouse to click a small button, you are adding extra friction to an otherwise simple action.
Load time is also part of this – slow pages interrupt the flow of a mobile visitor who is trying to make a donation. They tend not to notice the technical difficulties, instead focussing on their task. A donation form that takes too long to load is likely to put them off donating completely, particularly if they have already waited for the page to appear. For this reason, mobile optimisation is always worth reviewing as part of a donation page audit, rather than waiting for a full redesign to address it.
Testing on mobile should always be part of a standard review, and should not be overlooked in the pursuit of page performance. Accessibility should be considered as part of that testing too, particularly around accessible form labels, field instructions and error handling. Wherever possible, mobile tests should be conducted on a phone (rather than a desktop browser) to ensure that the visitor gets the same experience as a real user. It is also worth testing on both portrait and landscape views, and on slow connections if possible. You may be surprised at how many usability issues become apparent when you try to navigate a page this way.
Do not overlook the return path
While it might seem odd to talk about the end of the donation journey, it is important to consider it when reviewing the donor’s experience.
If a visitor is sent to an external platform to make a payment, it is important to ensure that the return journey is as smooth as the arrival. This includes ensuring that the visitor knows they have returned to your site, and what to expect once they arrive. A clear thank you page or confirmation of payment is essential to reassure the donor that their gift has gone through, and can reduce queries and dissatisfaction.
This is particularly important in the case of recurring donations, particularly if the visitor is redirected away from your organisation’s website in order to set up a regular gift. If the visitor has spent a significant amount of time entering their details, it is vital to reassure them that the process has completed successfully once they return to your website. If the return path appears broken, it opens the door to donor concern and dissatisfaction at the worst possible time.
It is also worth considering the complete journey when reviewing the donation page. If you are reviewing the whole process, test it end-to-end to see how the donor will experience it. If the visitor reaches a blank page, a login prompt, or an unrelated error message after making a donation, it is worth prioritising this as a fix.
What to review before you commission a redesign
Most fundraising teams should be able to identify at least a few quick wins before embarking on a full redesign of their donation pages. That’s usually the best place to start, as it ensures that the organisation is getting value for money and avoids wasting time redesigning unproblematic pages. In many cases, a simple redesign of the form and/or a review of the payment handoff can be sufficient to resolve the majority of issues on a donation page. That said, it is always worth walking through the whole journey to identify any major flaws.
When reviewing the donation journey for potential issues, we recommend that you test it with a number of people who are not familiar with the process. Ask them to complete the journey on both mobile and desktop, and ask them to note down any pain points as they go. You should also review the page as a non-specialist would, focussing on practical considerations rather than brand and design. The primary areas of concern are outlined below:
- Can users intuitively understand the step-by-step journey?
- Are there any fields that can be cut?
- Does the page clearly state what the donor’s money will be used for?
- Is the handoff to the payment provider clear and easy to understand?
- Does the page perform well on mobile?
- Is the page fast enough to encourage donations?
If you can answer these questions honestly, you should be able to identify whether a quick fix is sufficient, or whether a full redesign is necessary. In some cases, a small tweak to the form or a review of the payment handoff might be all that is needed. In others, a more comprehensive review of usability, accessibility and integration might be necessary.
If you think that your organisation’s donation journey needs a review but are unsure what the issues are, we can help. A focused audit is often the best way to identify potential issues before embarking on a full redesign.
Published on 18th September 2026