A nonprofit donation page has one job: turn a person who already decided to give into a completed gift. Gifts get lost on phones and in forms that ask for too much. The fixes are mostly unglamorous, and most of them cost nothing.
This guide covers what to change on the page, what the major donation platforms charge, and the point where an off-the-shelf tool stops being enough.
One honest framing first. Fees are real, but they are rarely your biggest leak. The page is.
Already know what you need? Request an estimate and we will reply with scope and a price range for a sensible first phase.
What the benchmarks say about giving online
A useful yearly yardstick is the 2026 M+R Benchmarks Study. Its website chapter reports that 11% of desktop users who landed on a primary donation page completed a gift, compared with 8% of mobile users, and 4% on mobile for small nonprofits. It also reports that mobile made up 52% of traffic but only 28% of revenue, and that the average gift was $168 on desktop and $88 on mobile.
Read that as a warning, not a target: more than half your visitors are on phones, and phones are where your page is most likely to lose them. The same chapter says adding payment options is one of the most common ways nonprofits try to improve conversion, and that PayPal (79%), Google Pay (58%), Apple Pay (57%) and Venmo (44%) are the alternatives most often offered. It does not say those options raised conversion, so treat them as table stakes, not a proven lever.
Then test your own page on a real phone, on cellular data, with one hand. A donor should be able to pick an amount, tap Apple Pay or Google Pay, and finish without typing a card number.
Fewer fields, one screen, one decision
Every field you add is a reason to stop. Start from the minimum you need to take a gift and send a receipt, then justify anything beyond it.
- Required: amount, payment details, name, email. A mailing address only if you mail receipts or acknowledgments.
- Optional, after the gift: phone, employer match, communication preferences, “how did you hear about us.” Ask on the thank-you page, when the gift is already safe.
- Remove: account creation, newsletter checkboxes that are pre-ticked, and any second page that makes the donor wonder if they are done.
The tax side is simple to get right. For any single gift of $250 or more, the donor needs a written acknowledgment from you that includes your organization’s name, the amount of a cash gift, and either a statement that you provided no goods or services in return or a good-faith estimate of their value, per the IRS guidance on written acknowledgments. An automatic receipt email that always includes those lines handles it without asking the donor for anything extra.
Recurring giving and suggested amounts
Monthly giving deserves a prominent place on the page. According to the fundraising chapter of the same M+R study, monthly giving was 27% of all online revenue in 2025 (22% for small nonprofits under $1 million in online revenue). It also reports that 71% of monthly donors are still giving after a year and that a little more than half of monthly gifts are still active after two full years. Those are the study’s participants, not a promise for your organization.
Practical rules for the page:
- Offer one-time and monthly on the same screen, with the toggle visible without scrolling. Do not bury recurring behind a separate “Become a sustainer” page.
- Show three or four suggested amounts, each tied to something your organization really does with that money (a meal, a week of rent help). Include an “other” field.
- Make monthly easy to pause or cancel. Say how on the page.
- Send a short, personal welcome email to every new monthly donor. The M+R study reports that 10% of sustainers stop within two months, so the early weeks matter.
Covering fees and trust signals
A “cover the processing fee” checkbox lets willing donors absorb the card fee. Leave it unticked by default and word it honestly. Givebutter’s pricing page says processing fees are “covered by 92% of donors” on its platform; that is the vendor’s claim about its own users, not an independent figure.
Trust signals that matter:
- Your legal name, EIN and a clear statement that gifts are tax-deductible (if they are).
- A plain description of where the money goes, written by someone who knows.
- A real contact email or phone number on the page itself.
- The padlock, a recognizable payment brand, and no surprise redirects to a domain the donor has never seen.
That last point is also a security issue. Public donation forms are a common target for card testing, where scripts run lists of stolen card numbers through small gifts to see which ones work. Stripe’s documentation lists the consequences: disputes, higher decline rates that can hurt legitimate payments, extra fees, and strain on your infrastructure. It recommends a current Stripe-integrated checkout, CAPTCHA, and rate limits. Ask any vendor how they handle it before you launch.
Donation platform fees, compared (as of October 2026)
The biggest difference between these platforms is who pays: you, or your donors through an optional tip. Figures are what each vendor lists as of October 2026; check the linked page before you decide.
- Zeffy. Zeffy lists no platform fee and no processing fee for nonprofits. Its revenue comes from an optional contribution that donors are asked to add at checkout. Zeffy says about two in three donors leave one.
- Givebutter. Givebutter lists a free plan, and a Plus plan from $29 per month. With donor tips enabled, platform and processing fees are 0%. With tips disabled, it lists a 3% platform fee plus 2.9% + 30¢ for cards (1.9% + 30¢ for ACH).
- Donorbox. Donorbox lists its Standard plan as free with platform fees of 2.95% to 3.95%, and its Pro plan at $150 per month (it mentions discounted yearly billing) with fees of 1.75% to 2%. Processor fees (Stripe or PayPal) are charged separately.
- PayPal charity rate. PayPal lists 1.99% + 49¢ for domestic charity transactions, subject to application and pre-approval.
- Stripe nonprofit discount. Stripe offers discounted processing to registered nonprofits where at least 80% of volume comes from tax-deductible donations. Ticket sales, memberships and registration fees do not count toward that 80%. Stripe’s page does not state the rate, so get it in writing from Stripe.
A worked example, using only the listed numbers: on a $100 card gift, PayPal’s charity rate comes to $2.48 (1.99% + $0.49), and Givebutter with tips off comes to $6.20 (3% platform plus $3.20 processing). With tips on, Givebutter’s listed fees are $0, but the donor is asked for a tip. Those tips are real money from your supporters, so decide whether you are comfortable with the ask on your page.
One more caution: your website still has to send people to that tool, and a hosted page that looks nothing like your site can cost you trust at the moment it matters most. Plan your nonprofit website design and the giving tool together.
When a custom giving flow beats a hosted tool
For most nonprofits, a hosted tool on a page that matches your site is the right answer. Custom work earns its place in narrower cases: you need giving tied to your own records (cases, programs, members), gifts earmarked to specific people or projects, tight control of fraud defenses, or reporting that no off-the-shelf tool produces. Our Mercy House Ministry case study describes a one-click giving flow with layered fraud defenses, built inside a larger platform for a Washington nonprofit. (Full disclosure, also stated in that case study: our founder started Mercy House.)
If you are weighing that kind of build, our guide to custom software for small business walks the filter we apply before quoting anything, including when the answer is no.
The honest verdict
Use an off-the-shelf tool if you take simple one-time and monthly gifts, your records live in a spreadsheet or a basic CRM, and your volume is modest. Pick the platform whose fee model you can explain to your board, put it on a page that looks like your site, and spend your effort on the form: fewer fields, monthly option, mobile wallets, instant receipts.
Talk to us if giving has to connect to the rest of your operation, if a fraud problem is costing you real money, or if you need the donation experience to be part of a larger site that also handles applications, events or memberships. Our website design packages cover the site around the form; a custom build covers the parts a template can’t.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many fields should a nonprofit donation form have?
As few as you need to take the gift and send a receipt: amount, payment details, name and email. Ask for a mailing address only if you actually mail acknowledgments. Move everything else, such as phone number, employer match and communication preferences, to the thank-you page after the gift is complete. Skip account creation entirely. Every extra field is a reason to stop, and on a phone each one costs more effort than it does on a desktop.
Which donation platform has the lowest fees?
It depends on who pays. Some platforms list no fee to the nonprofit and ask donors for an optional tip. Others charge a platform fee plus card processing, and a few offer lower processing for registered charities after an application. Compare the all-in cost on a typical gift, check each vendor’s current pricing page, and consider whether you are comfortable asking your donors for a tip before choosing a free model.
Should I offer a monthly giving option?
Yes, and show it on the same screen as the one-time option rather than on a separate page. Industry benchmark studies report that monthly giving makes up a meaningful share of online revenue, and most monthly donors are still giving a year later. Make it easy to pause or cancel, send a personal welcome email, and expect some early drop-off. One benchmark study found that 10% of new monthly donors stop within two months.
When does a nonprofit need a custom donation system?
Rarely, but it makes sense when giving has to connect to your own records, such as programs, cases or members, when gifts are earmarked for specific purposes, when you face repeated card-testing fraud that hosted tools do not stop, or when you need reporting no product provides. If you take simple one-time and monthly gifts, a hosted tool on a page that matches your site is the better choice for most organizations.