Using your livery company website to drive online donations

Whilst the modern-day livery company has evolved significantly over the centuries, the commitment to philanthropy and continued contribution to charity has been unfaltering.

The continued focus on giving back to the community, even in spite of the challenges faced by the industry is admirable.

Afterall, livery companies have not only had to adapt their craft to ensure their relevance in the current day, but have also had to embrace the digital realm to communicate with those beyond their membership pool.

But something that many have failed to adopt, to the potential detriment of their fundraising efforts, is the facility for people to donate to their causes online.

With that in mind, this blog post outlines the value of having such a feature on the livery company website, and how to approach it.

The importance of online giving

A study by Barclays called, Giving: a new landscape, delves into the world of online giving in the wake of the covid pandemic.

Citing that technology is rewiring the future of giving, figures show that digital channels have overtaken cash in popularity, with charities seeing a 78% increase in donations made via their website.

So whilst the traditional methods of making donations is important, having the facility on your website to adhere to digital giving preferences, is integral to the success of your fundraising efforts.

What are the benefits of online fundraising?

There are a number of benefits of implementing an online donations platform on your website.

Not only does it give you the ability to reach a wider audience, but it also offers the flexibility to accept donations from anywhere at any time.

Many donation platforms also have the capability to integrate with a CRM and allow for outbound marketing.

From a user’s perspective, it’s convenient and secure, especially for sizeable donations that would benefit from the increased privacy and fraud prevention that an online platform could offer.

If done well, you could even increase the likelihood of repeat donations and improve donor retention.

So what should be considered before implementing online donations on the website?

There are many things to consider when looking to implement an online donation experience on a livery company website. We’ve delved deeper into some considerations below.

What does the online donation platform need to do?

Before making a decision about how to implement online donations on a livery company website, it’s important to understand how the donation process needs to function.

Namely, it’s important to understand the need for any specialist features, such as the ability to set up recurring donations, multi-channel donation options and automated notifications and reminders for more personalised donor communication.

Knowing how advanced this has to be, will help to identify how it has to be implemented on the website to meet the exact specifications.

How does it need to work?

Once it is understood what is expected from the platform, how to achieve it can be identified.

For more intricate and personalised features, an intuitive third-party donation engine such as Raiser’s Edge, Donorbox or Donately, which includes the option to create and embed donation forms seamlessly, would be recommended.

An embed is essentially the act of integrating external content onto a website site. It means that users get the benefit of a more frictionless donation process, whereby they’re not directed to an external site to make a donation.

Why is this important?

Well ultimately it’s because users will likely view the website as a trusted source and subsequently a redirect to an external site that hasn’t gained their trust could be of detriment to them finalising a donation.

Embeds also mean that the organisation can benefit from the security and PCI compliance that these platforms offer, as the donors’ sensitive payment data isn’t stored on the website.

If opting for a third-party, be sure to research on what fees they charge (if any) and ensure that their privacy policy is agreeable too.

Similarly, if the website is on WordPress, why not create a donation form using Gravity Forms and include an integration with a reputable payment gateway such as Stripe?

Once again there wouldn’t be any storing of sensitive data and it can prove more cost effective as fees are only paid for the payment gateway.

The flexibility of managing and editing the form via WordPress, and the scalability of the platform provides the opportunity to evolve the feature if required too.

Making the most of fundraising efforts

Embracing digital to create an accessible, efficient online donation process can elevate any livery company’s fundraising efforts to better accomplish the mission.

But whilst it is important to diversify fundraising with innovative new features, remember that it’s equally important that this complements the narrative.

It’s essential that livery companies continue to promote fundraising campaigns and outlining who they support, as well as the positive impact upon the community and the trust built with donors, by being transparent about finances and the wider operation.

Once trust has been established and the users are inspired to donate, the new online donation facility is there to address user intent, culminating in donations that allow any livery company to continue to be a philanthropic force for good in the community.