How to Reduce Friction in Your Online Giving Experience

Picture this: someone lands on your donation page, inspired and ready to give. But then they encounter a clunky form, too many fields, or a confusing checkout process. They hesitate, close the browser, and your opportunity evaporates. Sound familiar?

If you’re a nonprofit marketer working with a small team, every lost donation stings. The good news? Reducing friction in your online giving experience can transform those near-misses into actual gifts without adding to your workload or burning out your team.

What Exactly Is Friction in Online Giving?

Friction refers to any obstacle that makes giving harder than it should be. We’re talking lengthy forms, confusing navigation, security concerns, or sluggish mobile experiences. These seemingly small issues create massive revenue loss.

The numbers tell a sobering story: donation page bounce rates average 67%, and 81% of users abandon forms they’ve already started (Insiteful). Why? 27% cite form length as the culprit, while 29% worry about security (Gobigriver). For US nonprofits, this means 60% of potential donors drop off before completing their gift (Bloomerang).

Here’s the thing: every abandoned donation represents someone who cared enough to start giving but couldn’t finish. That’s not a failure of generosity. It’s a failure of user experience.

Common Challenges We See Every Day

Before nonprofits switch to Funraise, we hear similar frustrations:

“Our board member donated on his phone and couldn’t tap the submit button. It was too small.” Mobile issues alone lose nearly half of potential gifts when forms aren’t optimized.

“We added a ‘phone number’ field because our major gifts officer wanted it, and our conversion rate tanked.” One well-meaning addition can spike abandonment by 5% or more.

“Donors keep telling us they started giving but got distracted by our navigation menu and ended up reading blog posts instead.” When your donation page competes with other site elements, giving loses.

“Our recurring donors’ cards expire, and we lose them forever.” Without auto-updating payment methods, you’re hemorrhaging monthly revenue.

These aren’t edge cases. They’re daily realities for nonprofits juggling limited resources and outdated technology.

Streamline Your Donation Form (Seriously)

The fastest way to reduce friction? Minimize form fields ruthlessly. Ask only for essentials: name, email, and payment information. Every additional field costs you donors.

Consider these streamlining tactics:

• skip unnecessary fields: phone numbers decrease conversions by 5%, and addresses aren’t needed unless you’re mailing receipts (Insiteful),
• use single-page designs: multi-step forms lose roughly 50% of donors at each transition point (Somedoing),
• offer suggested donation amounts: present 3-4 preset options with a custom field to guide decisions without overwhelming choices,
• enable autofill: let browsers remember donor information for faster completion.

Protip: Funraise achieves a 50% donation form conversion rate (far exceeding industry norms) by embedding machine learning that personalizes suggested amounts based on donor behavior and device type.

Mobile Optimization Isn’t Optional Anymore

Look, 97% of Americans own mobile devices, and 45% of donations come from smartphones (Rallyup). Your mobile experience directly impacts your bottom line.

Here’s what device-specific optimization looks like in practice:

Device Type	% of Donations	Avg Gift Size	Your Focus Area
Desktop	55%	$118	Full navigation, detailed impact stories
Mobile	45%	$79	One-tap payments, minimal scrolling

Mobile friction killers include tiny buttons, fields requiring zoom, pop-ups blocking screens, and forms that don’t support Apple Pay or Google Pay. Test your donation experience on actual smartphones weekly, not just in a browser’s mobile simulator.

And add express checkout options like Apple Pay and Venmo. These reduce steps dramatically, lifting completion rates because donors authenticate with a fingerprint instead of typing card numbers.

Payment Options and Security Signals

Protip: Display trust badges prominently throughout your donation page. Missing security indicators increases abandonment by 12% (AMRA and Elma).

Diversify payment methods beyond credit cards. Today’s donors expect options:

• digital wallets: PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay,
• modern assets: cryptocurrency, donor-advised funds, stock donations,
• traditional: credit/debit cards, ACH transfers.

Each additional payment method captures donors who prefer that channel. But here’s the crucial part: 29% of people abandon forms due to security concerns (Gobigriver). Combat this by:

• using HTTPS and displaying SSL certificates,
• adding PCI compliance badges near payment fields,
• including reassuring copy like “Your information is encrypted and secure”,
• showing recognized security logos (Norton, McAfee, etc.).

Enable auto-updating cards for recurring donors. Funraise prevents 20% recurring loss from expired cards through automatic bank syncs that update payment information without donor action.

“The best fundraising technology doesn’t just process transactions. It anticipates why donors hesitate and removes those barriers before they become reasons to quit.”

Funraise CEO Justin Wheeler

AI-Powered Prompt for Your Donation Page Audit

Ready to identify friction points on your own donation page? Copy this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or your preferred AI tool:

I need to audit my nonprofit's donation page for friction points. Please create a comprehensive checklist based on these details:

[VARIABLE 1: Your donation page URL or describe your current form fields]
[VARIABLE 2: Your primary donor demographic - age range and tech comfort level]
[VARIABLE 3: Devices your donors most commonly use - desktop, mobile, or tablet]
[VARIABLE 4: Your current average gift size]

Prioritize recommendations that will have the highest impact on conversion rates. Include specific mobile optimization suggestions and payment method recommendations appropriate for my donor base.

Simply replace the bracketed variables with your specific information and let AI generate actionable insights.

In your daily work, consider platforms like Funraise that have AI components built directly into the fundraising workflow, providing contextual suggestions right where you’re working. This beats copying data between tools and ensures recommendations account for your full operational context.

Accessibility Opens Doors (and Wallets)

Accessible design isn’t just ethical. It’s profitable. 88% of users won’t return to a website after a bad experience (GiveCampus), and accessibility issues create terrible experiences for significant donor segments.

Implement these accessibility essentials:

• alt text on all images so screen readers describe visuals,
• high contrast text (dark on light or vice versa) for visual clarity,
• keyboard navigation support allowing tab-through of all form fields,
• clear, bold CTAs with “Donate Now” buttons above the fold, maximum one click from your homepage.

Remove distractions during the giving process. Controversial but effective: hide navigation bars and sidebar links on donation pages. NextAfter studies show this approach generates 200% donation lifts because donors focus solely on completing their gift without tempting exit routes (FundraiseUp).

The Thank You Experience Matters

Your relationship with donors shouldn’t end when they click “submit.” The post-donation experience reduces friction for future gifts.

Immediate confirmation with branded, personalized thank-you pages creates delight. Include:

• specific impact statements showing what their gift accomplishes,
• social sharing options to amplify your campaign,
• options to upgrade one-time gifts to monthly (for gifts under $100),
• automated, personalized email receipts.

Enable donor self-service portals where supporters manage their own recurring gifts, update payment methods, and view giving history. Funraise clients grow online revenue 73% year-over-year (3x the industry average) partly because seamless donor portals reduce friction for repeat giving.

Measure, Test, Iterate (The Unglamorous Truth)

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Track these critical metrics:

• bounce rate: percentage leaving without interacting,
• form abandonment rate: started but didn’t complete,
• time-to-complete: how long donation takes (shorter is better),
• device-specific conversion rates: desktop vs. mobile performance.

A/B test one change weekly, not monthly. Small teams worry they lack bandwidth for testing, but single-variable tests (like removing phone number fields or changing button colors) take minutes to implement and reveal conversion gold.

Organizations using Funraise see 52% year-over-year growth in recurring giving and peer-to-peer fundraising at 2x industry rates because low-friction technology compounds over time.

Why This Matters for Your Small Team

Here’s the beautiful part: reducing friction scales your impact without scaling your team. Every percentage point improvement in conversion means more revenue from the same traffic, same ads, same email list.

Funraise users achieve double the monthly gift average ($40 compared to the industry’s $21) not because their donors are wealthier, but because the giving experience removes obstacles.

Start small. Audit your donation form today:

1. Pull it up on your phone right now
2. Try completing a test donation
3. Note every moment of hesitation or confusion
4. Fix the top three friction points this week

You don’t need a complete platform overhaul to see results. But if you’re ready for technology that handles friction reduction automatically (from AI-personalized asks to mobile optimization to abandoned cart recovery), Funraise offers a free tier perfect for testing without commitment.

Your donors want to give. Your job is simply making it effortless for them to do so. Remove the barriers, and watch what happens.