Tipping on Your Donation Form: How to Get Donors to Give More
Fundraising can be challenging work, particularly in a world of increasing options and noise. Fundraisers work diligently to leverage the donations they do get for the most impact, but there’s one area that many organizations are not currently following best practices—online donation form tipping.
What is tipping?
Tipping is a more recent development in online donations where donors are given the option to cover processing fees for your organization. Rather than donating $50 and paying the $1.40 or so in fees to the card processing company, the donor contributes $51.40 and knows that your organization receives the $50 they intended!
Originally something only used by a few organizations, tipping has become more and more popular.
Why should we promote tipping?
Simply, tipping on your donation forms help you to raise more money. When donors cover your fees for you, they take on that financial burden rather than leaving it on your organization. If you raise $10,000 in a month, you could save more than $200 through tipping!
And, since many donors are concerned that their money is actually going towards your cause, tipping gives them piece of mind. It even helps them connect more with your organization! Small additional asks build your relationship with your donors and allow them to feel like they are essential and helpful.
Does it work?
Statistics are hard to come by, but some nonprofits have seen up to 75% of donors practice tipping on their donation form! The reality is that any donors beginning to cover processing fees will help your bottom line—meaning there is little risk to test it with your consituents, and a lot of potential benefit!
How do we set up tipping?
There are many different platforms that allow tipping, like CharityGiving! And while there are many important features for a donation form (read more at in our recent article, this is an easy one to implement with the right tools.
Find out more here or contact us today!
