Running and maintaining a nonprofit website or blog is hard work. Sometimes, it can even leave you feeling like your labor of love is going unrecognized.
If you find yourself in this situation, you likely want to see some kind of return on your investment and time.
Today, we’ll review whether requesting donations on your site with a Simple Payment Button is appropriate for your situation, and how Jetpack can support your efforts if this is the case.
Understanding when a donation button is right for you
As far as monetizing your site is concerned, this can take on many different forms, including a few of these popular monetization strategies for nonprofits and bloggers:
- Product creation: Creating and selling relevant online courses, eBooks or merchandise
- Sponsored posts: Offering content creation opportunities, promotions, and ad placements for relevant brands on your website
- Affiliate marketing: Sharing trackable links for relevant products or services, and earning a commission whenever someone makes a purchase
- Collecting donations: There doesn’t always have to be a strict reason for collecting money — especially if you’re running a nonprofit organization that serves a good cause
For some, the prospect of pushing products or reaching out to brands for sponsored post opportunities is uncomfortable. Or, the idea of creating even more content like eBooks or online courses is just overwhelming and too time-consuming.
If you’re short on time, resources, know-how, or all of the above, the ideal monetization strategy for your site might be adding a Simple Payment Button to accept payments through PayPal. This might encourage visitors to make donations to your charitable or personal cause directly through their existing PayPal accounts.
Using a donation button to stay afloat
If you’re concerned about how your readers might react to being asked to donate online, consider that many bloggers successfully use this tactic. For example, ProBlogger states that blogger, Jason Kottke, quit his job and relied entirely on donations to sustain his online presence. The average blogger probably won’t find this level of success, but it is possible.
In order to incentivize people to donate to your blog or charitable cause, think about how you’re promoting your cause as well as the placement of your button. Here are a few ideas to inspire you:
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Place a Simple Payment Button at the bottom of every blog post. If someone feels inspired after reading your content, they might be more likely to donate to the cause that you wrote about.
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Place a button in the header or footer (or both) of your WordPress theme so that visitors can make donations through any page.
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On your social media accounts, remind your followers that you accept donations with a direct link to contribute.
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Embed a donation link within your regular emails that are sent to blog subscribers.
Using the Simple Payment Button for your nonprofit
Once you add a Simple Payment Button, those who choose to make donations can use their existing PayPal accounts to submit online payments. They won’t have to take the added step of creating an account with your site in order to submit a payment.
The process of using a this button to accept donations for your nonprofit organization is similar to that of using a PayPal button to monetize a for-profit blog. The primary difference between the two is that bloggers might notice that this tactic is more successful when they offer something tangible in return for a donation: like an eBook or sponsored post.
Nonprofits, on the other hand, must “sell” potential benefactors on the story of donating money to their specific cause, and why someone should care to do so in the first place.
Here are a few different ideas for weaving storytelling into your nonprofit website:
- Use videos, as they engage multiple senses at once. Videos appeal to viewers’ emotions, and introduce them to your worthy cause. They might be more compelled to donate if they become emotionally invested in the mission of your organization.
- Supplement video content with text-based storytelling. Share various perspectives from the people who help your cause — or those who benefit from donor generosity. Make sure to add a payment button at the end of each story!
- Follow up with past donors so that your cause stays top-of-mind. Share photos and updates. You might even feature a collage of your donors on your site to show others that many people already believe that your nonprofit is worth getting involved with.
Make your payment button stand out
If you’re looking for ideas for how to label your Simple Payment Button, consider:
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“Support our cause”
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“Pay what you can”
- “Help keep our organization up and running”
People won’t help if you don’t ask for it
Finding the right monetization strategy for your blog or nonprofit organization can be as easy as adding a button that lets people know you’re accepting contributions. Once it’s implemented, you can ask people to contribute with calls-to-action and compelling messages about your website’s mission.
Are you using a payment button to monetize your website? Tell other readers what works for you in the comments below.
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