Let’s be real: most donation pages still ask too much, say too little, and take too long to complete.
This is a problem—especially when you’re trying to convert a nearly-new supporter who’s sitting in the dermatologist's waiting room and could be called up at any moment.
The good news? With a few intentional changes, you can reduce friction, giving people a faster and more emotionally fulfilling donation experience.
Let’s walk through a few quick fixes, along with some bigger changes to consider.
Friction is anything that slows down or disrupts a donor’s momentum. It could be:
Friction doesn’t just cause people to abandon your donation page—it creates a less satisfying experience for the donors who do complete their gift.
Removing friction is about paving the clearest path between your impact and a person’s intent to support it. You don’t have to aim for perfection. But you do want to eliminate the biggest barriers between “I want to give” and “Thank you for your gift!”
Start by calculating the conversion rates on your most prominent web pages that include a donation form or pop-up. Of all the unique visitors who have landed on those pages or forms, how many have donated in the same timeframe? 10% is a standard goal in the nonprofit world.
You can also look at the average time spent on those pages. If most people are bouncing in 20, 10, or even a few seconds, the page might be taking too long to load, the content might not be displaying correctly, or there may simply be a disconnect between what people are expecting and the content at the top of the page.
Pull these numbers together to set your starting point, then implement some friction reduction techniques and check back a few weeks later—or after running a campaign—to see if bounce rates have gone down and conversion rates have gone up.
If you have the bandwidth to A/B test any of the changes you make, this will give you even clearer answers.
✅ Ask for less info
Every field you add to your donation form reduces conversion rates. Do you really need the donor’s last name, full address, phone number, and birthday up front? If you’re not going to use this info right away, skip it for now and collect it later. You can embed more questions right on the thank you page, and link to a brief survey in your new donor email series to capture additional information.
✅ Optimize for mobile
Your donation form needs to be fast and frictionless on any device. A single-second delay in page load time (from 2 seconds to 3 seconds) can drop conversions by a whopping 50%. Most prospective donors are visiting your site on their phones during busy moments; every second counts.
Modern fundraising platforms auto-optimize donation forms to look great on a device of any size, but sometimes your website design or other elements on the page can muck this up. It’s a good habit to test your donation experience on both mobile and desktop whenever you launch a new form.
✅ Choose a form that matches your content
If you’re using a modular fundraising platform like iDonate, you have options for how to display your donation ask—as a modal, a full page, a pop-up, an embedded button, etc.
On each key page of your site, think about why people are landing there, where they’re coming from, and how familiar they are with your organization. Do they want to give quickly, or do they still need to be sold?
Use this information to decide which format best meets them where they’re at.
✅ Use pop-ups strategically
This one may be counterintuitive because many people think of pop-ups as a nuisance, but fundraising pop-ups can reduce friction when they *pop* at the right time. I’ve seen pop-ups work well for my clients, especially when promoting special, time-sensitive campaigns like Giving Tuesday or a match.
There’s no universal perfect timing for a pop-up, but one study found that pop-ups had the best conversion rate with a 4-second delay, then performed similarly well with a 20-30 second delay.
Want more ideas? This iDonate guide is packed with even more specific tips to reduce friction and boost conversions.
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As we head into year-end campaign planning season, I want to share one more friction reduction tip that may be counterintuitive:
Don’t assume less copy = less friction. Sometimes, more emotionally resonant written content is what someone needs to be persuaded. Often, a lack of context and clarity—the absence of a dialed case for support—is what creates the most friction for prospective donors.
Most people need to see a compelling value proposition, vivid storytelling, and social proof in some form (like a video or written testimonials), especially to donate for the first time.
You owe visitors content that proves your trustworthiness and specifies how their dollars will be used. Within this content, the donation experience itself should be easy.
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My final piece of advice on the friction front: Ask people outside your organization to review your content and test your donation forms on their phones and laptops. Offer to pay them back for their test donations, and invite their unfiltered feedback. Ask them…
How long did the page take to load?
Was the content compelling right away? Did it leave you with any unanswered questions?
Did you hit any snags when filling out the form?
Is there anything that would have boosted your motivation to give?
Did you feel celebrated right away after making your gift?
This process will always uncover something you can improve, because you interact with your website and donation forms every day—and friction is deepest felt by the newbies.