9 Key Elements to Include on Your Monthly Donation Forms
Your donation form is often the crucial moment when a supporter chooses how deeply they want to engage with your mission as a nonprofit organization—and where you can encourage monthly giving from the start.
1 in 10 organizations don’t have an online recurring donation option on their forms, and
75% of nonprofits studied don’t have a separate call-to-action for recurring donations on their homepage.
Yikes. However, by incorporating a few small changes to your donation forms, you can maximize monthly donations, strengthen your online fundraising, and create a sustainable source of funding for your organization.
In this post, we’ll highlight 9 thoughtful elements that make donation forms more intuitive and donor-centered, helping turn one-time gifts into lasting support and strengthening the foundation of your organization’s work.
Let’s dive into the 9 key features your monthly donation page needs:
Your nonprofit’s brand consists of a combination of your unique mission, values, and visual identity. It is the essence of what your organization stands for and aims to achieve.
Strong visual identity and custom branding help donors trust your cause.
When individuals are presented with a donation page that features a recognizable brand, they are more likely to feel confident in the legitimacy and impact of your organization.
This increased trust often leads to larger contributions, sometimes 6 times larger, as donors are more willing to invest their money in a cause they believe in.
On a donation page, your branding is typically represented by the organization’s logo, colors, and images that demonstrate the work of the nonprofit.
Images that feature smiling faces of real people you’re impacting with your programs are a great addition to your donation page. This combined with a logo and a color scheme your donors will recognize will make them more inclined to make long-term investments in your cause such as a recurring monthly gift.
Branded donation forms also provide a consistent and professional user experience, enhancing the overall perception of the organization and further motivating individuals to give generously.
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4aGoodCause is an intuitive platform for both our team and our donors. The donor experience is seamless, and the reporting tools give us the insights we need without being overwhelming. The customer support has also been exceptional — quick, personal, and genuinely invested in our success.
Lily Lombardi
Donor Relations, Manos de Cristo
2. A compelling message
When potential donors encounter a well-crafted message that communicates the importance and impact of their contribution, they’re more likely to feel motivated to give.
On the other hand, when donors land on a donation form without clear messaging, they lose momentum. They forget the reasons that led them to the donation form and are more likely to abandon the gift. Copy that drives the donation forward should also be on the form itself.
💡Learn how 4aGoodCause’s personalized monthly donor upgrade links help donors easily increase their monthly support.
Your donation form message starts in the headline. It should clearly convey the purpose and urgency of the call to action (CTA), compelling individuals to sign up for recurring donations.
One of my favorite donation page headlines is from Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star. This action-oriented CTA helps donors understand exactly how their donation will make an impact.
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Become a Defender of Potential
Another good example is the headline from the Doctors Without Borders donation page. It is a simple CTA that ties the giving directly to the charity’s work.
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Donate monthly to save lives.
You’ll want to combine your headline with a few sentences that reinforce it; this supporting copy should convey:
How the gift will be used
Why a gift is needed now
The convenience and benefits of the recurring gift for the donor
The long-term impact of a monthly gift
A great example of a monthly donation page appeal is from Save the Children.
This appeal makes a strong case for monthly support by outlining the benefit for the donor and the impact on the nonprofit’s work.
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You can help save babies and newborns from preventable deaths due to malnutrition, dehydration, disease and more. Your monthly support will help provide urgent maternal care, a healthy start for babies, as well as educational opportunities and protection for children in the U.S. and around the world. With your recurring gift of $10 or more, you’ll get a Save the Children tote, welcome kit and regular updates on the babies and children you’re helping.
A compelling message keeps donors connected to the purpose of your fundraising campaign.
Use your giving form not just to collect their donor information, but to reinforce why their gift matters.
3. Proof of security
Trust logos, such as security seals and protection guarantees, provide tangible evidence of the organization’s reliability.
In a digital landscape where skepticism is rampant, trust logos are a powerful tool for establishing credibility and inspiring confidence in your donors.
💡Pro-tip:Always make sure you use a donation form from a PCI-compliant vendor. 4aGoodCause’s nonprofit payment processing does this automatically, making online giving secure and simple for you and your donors.
By having a PCI-compliant donation page, you guarantee that your organization is following the necessary protocols to protect your donors’ sensitive data. A secure payment experience directly impacts your conversion rates.
This compliance provides peace of mind to your donors, knowing that their payment information is being handled securely and reduces the risk of fraudulent activities.
4. Prominent and emphasized monthly gift option
To obtain the highest number of recurring donors, your donation forms should direct the donor’s attention towards the monthly gift option.
Ensure that your donation form is designed in a way that emphasizes and encourages a monthly donation as the most prominent and desirable gift.
Make the monthly donation option the default choice
This shows that your nonprofit values recurring gifts and that those gifts are the best gift a donor can give.
If you’re currently running a special campaign to collect monthly donations, consider designing a specific donation page where this is the only option available. (With 4aGoodCause, you can create unlimited fundraising pages.)
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Working with 4aGC has been great! I would highly recommend. Our online monthly donations have gone up 300% since we started working with them.
Dave Andrews
KJOL
Utilize icons or colors to attract donors toward the monthly gift option
At 4aGoodCause, we place a small heart next to the monthly giving option and highlight the default suggested option in a color of the nonprofit’s brand.
This visually captures the donor’s attention and can encourage more recurring gifts. A clear, user-friendly donate button makes the choice intuitive.
Provide suggested giving levels specifically for recurring gifts
Use suggested donation amounts to guide donors toward impactful recurring gifts.
A good range could include $10, $25, $35, $50, and $100 per month.
Provide a range that offers both small amounts that offer an easy starting gift and large amounts where donors can make a huge impact.
Decision fatigue is the mental exhaustion that occurs when individuals are faced with too many choices.
To combat it on your forms for monthly donations, it’s essential to streamline the process, minimize the number of choices, and provide clear guidance to users.
94% of recurring donors in the USA and Canada give on a monthly basis. Focus your form on the most popular recurring option.
Start the monthly gift from the day of enrollment and have the gift continue until the donor decides to quit.
Free expert-created Nonprofit Growth Kit
Sign up to receive your fundraising growth toolkit—complete with donation page optimization checklists, impact story templates, and ready-made slides.
5. Impact statements
Link the donation levels on your donation form to specific results with impact statements.
Impact statements provide tangible evidence of the difference their monthly support can make and create a sense of urgency to take action. Including these statements on your donation page can significantly increase donor engagement and conversion rates.
For example, mention that a donation could provide 10 backpacks or feed 1 family for a year.
By doing this, it adds concrete meaning to financial gifts and can encourage larger donations.
One of our clients who does a great job of using impact statements is the Minnesota Transportation Museum, working to preserve Minnesota’s transportation legacy.
Their donation page uses impact statements to describe how monthly gifts in various amounts will impact their mission:
$20/month gift can provide craft supplies for our Tot’s & Trains Children.
$40/month gift can provide valuable support and appreciation for our MTM Volunteers. We strive to be a place to gives back to those who volunteer at MTM.
$75/month gift can help keep our Museum displays updated and technology functioning correctly.
$100/month gift can help offset costs for school field trips at MTM. By keeping our cost low, we break down barriers for our schools and communities.
$250/month gift provides much needed financial support to our museum restoration projects. These projects are essential to our mission and allow our exhibits to rotate, bringing in our guests more often.
Include a checkbox on your online donation form that offers donors the opportunity to contribute an extra gift (i.e., a “donor tip”) to help cover processing fees.
By adding this optional checkbox, you communicate you give donors the choice to give more. As an organization, you can utilize these “additional gifts” to offset the costs associated with processing fees.
Many fundraising platforms that nonprofits use to take online donations siphon this add-on gift for themselves and often charge donors 5-20% for the privilege of processing their donation.
Imagine a donor that decided to make a $100 monthly gift. They then don’t opt out of a 20% processing fee. Every month the nonprofit will receive $100 and the platform will receive $20.
Since recurring donors often give for 5-7 years, that’s a lot of revenue lost that the donor would have been willing to give directly to the nonprofit.
Don’t let your fundraising platform siphon the add-on donation from your mission. Donation pages built on 4aGoodCause can ask donors to give an extra 4% to help cover transaction expenses. This extra amount goes to our clients.
To maximize your monthly donations, consider asking for corporate matching gifts.
Corporate matching gifts are a way for companies to support their employees’ charitable contributions by matching the donations they make.
By taking advantage of this program, you can effectively double the impact of your monthly donations.
Corporate matching can also boost peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding efforts when donors multiply their impact.
Collecting a corporate matching gift is made easier by integrating a matching gift ask right on your donation page.
(4aGoodCause clients can do so easily with our Double the Donation integration that prompts donors to look up their employer to see if a matching gift is available.)
⭐️ Matching gifts and monthly giving go hand in hand.Use 4aGoodCause to convert match donors into long-term supporters—no tech skills needed. Reoccurring monthly giving generates 2.4X more revenue on average than one-time gifts. Check out these Monthly giving program examples to find ways to supercharge your nonprofit’s monthly giving program.
8. ACH / Echeck and PayPal payment methods
Including multiple payment methods on your donation form is crucial for maximizing your fundraising efforts.
By offering extra payment options in addition to credit cards, you’re making it easier for potential donors to contribute. This flexibility ensures donors can use their preferred method, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
There are two payment methods that work very well with monthly giving:
One that lowers your processing fees while retaining donors longer, and
One that online givers often prefer.
E-check processing, also referred to as electronic funds transfer (EFT) or automated clearing house payment (ACH), is a digital payment method that deducts funds directly from a checking account.
On a nonprofit’s donation form, donors are prompted to enter their routing number and checking account number.
The majority of e-check processors, like Authorize.net for example, charge fees of less than 1% for processing, making e-checks a lower cost option than credit cards for nonprofits accepting recurring donations.
Did you know that 10% of donors prefer to donate with Paypal, the second most popular online giving option behind credit cards?
It is a payment option that donors often use with subscription services like Spotify or Netflix and want to use with your subscription offer (aka, your monthly giving program). Consider adding PayPal as an extra payment option on your donation form for this reason.
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Our campaign for a new community concert piano has gone so much better than imagined thanks to the resources available to us as a 4aGC subscriber. The subscription has more than paid for itself and I will be recommending 4aGC to all my colleagues in the not-for-profit sector.
Jonathan Klein
Director of Music, St Gregory the Great Episcopal Church
9. Monthly giving conversion pop-up offer
Provide donors with another monthly giving program opportunity through an upsell pop-up. This pop-up, which appears as a small modal or window, will be shown when the donor selects a one-time gift option at checkout. Within this pop-up, you can present the donor with the option to “Make it Monthly.”
On 4aGoodCause, you have the ability to offer this opportunity for one-time gifts ranging from $5 to $500. We display two monthly gift offers, with the larger offer being highlighted using color and a heart icon. Your donor can then decide whether to switch to a monthly gift or proceed with their original one-time gift.
Currently, on 4aGoodCause, 4.7% of one-time donors who are presented with the “Make it Monthly’” offer are converting their one-time donations to monthly donations.
Imagine earning an extra 4 to 5 recurring donors for every 100 online donors! Since recurring donors give 42% more each year and have higher retention rates, increasing the number of donors who choose a monthly gift can have a huge impact on your revenue goals.
How to upgrade monthly donors over time: This video walks you through how to invite existing monthly donors to increase their support with just one click in 4aGC
How to retain monthly donors: This guide provides actionable strategies—like personal outreach, donor events, and payment automation—to minimize donor dropout.
Ronald is the President and Founder of 4aGoodCause, the fundraising CRM that makes recurring, monthly giving a breeze for small nonprofits.
For over 25 years, Ronald has had the joy of doing what he loves, building online solutions that make a difference in the world. He’s helped raise millions of dollars online for small nonprofits across the country. Connect with Ronald on LinkedIn.
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