We use cookies to improve your experience on our platform. By clicking “Accept all cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage and assist in our marketing efforts.
Cookies required for basic website functionality.
Cookies used to deliver content most relevant to you and your needs.
Cookies used to deliver content most relevant to you and your needs.
Cookies that help understand the performance of the website, how users interact with it and to identify bugs.
How is Zeffy free?
How is Zeffy free?
Zeffy relies entirely on optional contributions from donors. At the payment confirmation step - we ask donors to leave an optional contribution to Zeffy.
8 Donation Page Examples That Convert (+ Design Tips to Steal)
June 8, 2026
⚡TL;DR — The Short Answer
Verdict: Eight donation pages worth copying, from nationally recognized nonprofits and small organizations using Zeffy, with a specific design move to steal from each one.
What works: Leading with emotional imagery, impact-tied suggested amounts, prominent recurring toggles, and trust signals placed beside the form field.
What doesn't: Long forms, generic impact language, hidden monthly options, and fee structures that quietly reduce every gift.
Best for: Nonprofits ready to audit or rebuild their donation page and want proven moves, not theory.
Worth considering if: Your current page has low conversion, no recurring toggle above the fold, or a platform that charges 3% to 10% per gift.
You can copy a great donation page in an afternoon. The hero image, the suggested amounts, the recurring toggle, the trust signals: every move on a high-converting page is visible to anyone who looks. The harder question is what happens after the donor hits "Give." If the platform behind the form charges 3% to 10% in platform and credit card fees, a $100 gift only delivers $90 to $97 to your mission.
This guide shows you 8 donation pages worth copying: 4 from nationally recognized nonprofits and 4 from small organizations using Zeffy's free donation page builder. For each one, you get the design move that makes it work and a "steal this" takeaway you can apply today. Then we'll cover the design elements that drive giving, walk through a 5-minute build, flag the mistakes that quietly kill conversions, and answer the questions most fundraisers ask.
Copy the design, not the fee structure.
What Makes a Donation Page Convert?
A donation page is where intent becomes action. A visitor who clicked "Donate" has already said yes; the page either confirms that decision in under a minute or quietly loses them to a long form, an unclear ask, or a platform that takes a cut.
Two things have to ship together. The front end has to get out of the way: a clear ask, an emotional image, suggested amounts that match real donor segments, a recurring toggle, and a mobile experience that works on a phone in transit. The back end has to deliver the full gift to your mission, not skim a fee off the top.
The examples below get both halves right. Start with what they do, then steal what fits your cause.
8 Donation Page Examples Worth Copying
We picked these 8 pages because each one nails a specific move you can copy. The first four come from nationally recognized nonprofits with big design teams. The next four come from small nonprofits using Zeffy's free donation page builder, proving the same moves work without a designer or a six-figure budget.
Donation page examples from large national nonprofits
1. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude leads with a single child's face and a one-line promise: families never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing, or food. The donation form sits to the right of the hero image with monthly giving pre-selected and suggested amounts tied to recognizable units of care.
Steal this: default the recurring toggle to "monthly." Pre-selecting monthly giving lifts the share of donors who choose it without forcing the choice.
2. charity: water
charity: water's donation page is famous for one promise: 100% of public donations fund water projects. The page repeats that promise above the form, beside the form, and in the confirmation. The visual style is clean, with a full-bleed photo of someone using a water point and almost no body copy competing for attention.
Steal this: pick one number or one promise and repeat it three times on the page. The hero, the form header, and the confirmation should all say the same thing.
3. Feeding America
Feeding America's donation form uses item-based tiers tied directly to meals. Donors don't think in dollars, they think in meals: $1 helps provide at least 10 meals. The suggested amounts read as meal counts, not currency, which makes the impact concrete before the donor types a number.
Steal this: translate your suggested amounts into the unit your mission actually delivers (meals, nights of shelter, hours of tutoring, vaccines). Dollars are abstract; outcomes aren't.
4. ASPCA
The ASPCA page opens with a rescue animal photo, a short emotional headline, and a form with a prominent monthly toggle. Trust signals (Charity Navigator, BBB Wise Giving) sit just under the form. The page reads as a single visual story: animal, ask, proof, give.
Steal this: place third-party trust badges directly beside the donation amount field, not buried in the footer. They do the most work where the donor is about to type a card number.
Donation page examples from small nonprofits using Zeffy
These four organizations get the same design moves right as the nationals above, on a free platform where 100% of every gift reaches the mission. Each one is a live Zeffy donation page you can open, study, and clone the pattern from.
5. Hospice Society of the Columbia Valley
Hospice Society of the Columbia Valley supports patients, families, and caregivers through the end-of-life and grieving process. Their donation form does something most pages skip: it asks one optional question about volunteering, with checkboxes for the specific roles they need (Bereavement Visitor, End of Life Visitor, Events, Board, Nav-CARE).
Steal this: add one optional, well-targeted custom question to your form. Not five. One. The donors who say yes become your highest-intent prospects for everything else you do.
6. Hudson County Complete Streets
Hudson County Complete Streets ran a Giving Tuesday campaign with a thermometer at the top of the page and a leaderboard of peer fundraisers below the form. Donors saw, in real time, exactly how their gift moved the dial and where it placed their team.
Steal this: for any time-bound campaign, add a fundraising thermometer to your page and place it above the fold. Visible progress is the cheapest urgency lever you have.
7. Global Albanians Foundation
Global Albanians Foundation built its Find Your Roots campaign as a peer-to-peer donation page. Each supporter creates their own version of the page with a personal story about why the cause matters to them, and shares it with their network.
Steal this: when your audience is a diaspora, an alumni base, or any community connected by identity, give them the donation page itself as a tool. People give when someone they know asks.
8. Belknap Mill Society / Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative
The Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative provides theatre programming in New Hampshire's Lakes Region. Their form offers suggested amounts from $25 to $250 with both one-time and monthly options, and ties each tier to a concrete production cost (sets, costumes, scripts, lighting, sound).
Steal this: offer the monthly option on every tier, not as a separate page. A donor weighing a $100 one-time gift will sometimes turn into a recurring giver at $25 a month if the toggle is right there.
Donation Page Design Elements That Drive Giving
Across the 8 examples above, the same seven elements keep showing up. If you only have time to fix a few things on your current page, fix these.
1. A hero image or video that does the work in one second
Pick one image that tells the story without a caption: a beneficiary's face, a place, a moment of impact. Avoid stock photography. Avoid collages. One image, full width, above the fold.
2. An impact statement tied to a specific number
"Your gift helps" does nothing. "$25 provides one night of shelter" does the work. Tie at least one suggested amount to a concrete unit of outcome the way Feeding America ties dollars to meals.
3. A prominent recurring giving option
The monthly toggle should be visible without scrolling and, where it fits your model, pre-selected. Monthly donors give more over time and cost less to retain. If you can turn one-time donors into recurring givers at the form, you compound every campaign you run.
4. Mobile-first layout
A large share of donors will land on your page from a phone, often from a social link. Test the form on a real device, not a desktop simulator. Buttons should be thumb-sized. The form should not require pinch-zoom.
5. Trust signals beside the form
Security badges (PCI compliance, SSL), third-party ratings (Charity Navigator, BBB), and a short donor testimonial belong within sight of the card-number field. That's where doubt lives.
6. A short form
Name, email, amount, payment. Everything else is optional and should be marked as such. Each required field you add costs you donors.
7. Urgency that's honest
A thermometer showing real progress, a match deadline, a giving day, an event countdown. Fake urgency ("Donate now!") doesn't work. Add a fundraising thermometer to your page and let real numbers create the pull.
How to Create Your Donation Page With Zeffy in 5 Minutes
Trusted by 100K+ nonprofits, $2B+ raised, $0 in fees.
Zeffy is the only fundraising platform that charges nonprofits nothing at all. Every dollar donors give reaches your mission. Here is how to build a page that looks like the examples above in about five minutes.
1.Sign up free. Create an account at zeffy.com/register. No credit card, no trial clock.
2.Add your logo and branding. Upload your logo, set your brand color, and add a hero image or short video. Pick the language and currency that match your donor base.
3.Write your impact statement. One sentence at the top of the form. Tie it to a number if you can ("$25 provides one night of shelter").
4.Set suggested donation amounts. Use three to five tiers. Offer one-time, monthly, and annual options on the same form so donors can pick the cadence that fits.
5.Add a campaign thermometer. Set your goal and turn on the progress meter. The thermometer appears on the page automatically and updates in real time.
The form ships with free automated tax receipts, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and a lightweight donor contact and tagging system built into the form so you can track who gave and why without a separate tool.
The examples above succeed in part because they avoid these five mistakes. Audit your current page against each one.
1. Too many form fields
Every field past name, email, amount, and payment is a tax on conversion. If you need volunteer interest, mailing address, or how-they-heard-about-you data, mark those fields optional and put them after the payment fields, not before.
2. No mobile optimization
If donors have to pinch-zoom to read your impact statement or tap precisely to select an amount, you lose them. Test the form on the device your donors actually use.
3. Generic impact language
"Your donation helps us continue our important work" is the default for pages that haven't been audited in a year. Replace it with the same specificity Feeding America uses: a dollar amount tied to a concrete outcome.
4. Hidden recurring giving
If the monthly option lives on a separate page or hides behind a "see more options" link, almost no one finds it. Put the toggle on the main form, in view, on every tier.
5. Platform fees that reduce donor trust
Every other fundraising platform charges 3% to 10% in platform and credit card fees. No platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee. Ever. When a donor sees "an optional 5% to help us cover platform costs" prefilled at checkout, they notice. Some give anyway. Some close the tab. On Zeffy, $100 in equals $100 out.
How to Promote Your Donation Page
A great page that no one sees raises nothing. These four channels do most of the work for most nonprofits.
Social media
Post the link with the same hero image you used on the page. Pin it to the top of your profile during a campaign. On Facebook and Instagram, link the donate button on your page directly to your Zeffy form so donors land on the page with the right campaign context.
Email
Email still outperforms most channels for donor conversion. Lead with a short subject line tied to one specific outcome, write three short paragraphs, and link to the donation page from a single clear CTA. Resending to non-openers with a new subject line is the cheapest lift in your toolkit.
QR codes and in-person events
Print a QR code that points to your donation page on event signage, newsletters, business cards, and program inserts. Pair it with Tap to Pay so you can collect donations at in-person events directly from an iPhone, no extra hardware required.
Google Ad Grants
501(c)(3) organizations can apply for Google Ad Grants and receive $10,000 of in-kind search advertising each month. Point the ads at your donation page (or a campaign landing page), use keywords your donor would actually search, and write headlines that match the impact statement on the page they're about to see.
Peer-to-peer
People give when someone they know asks. Set up a peer-to-peer campaign so supporters can create their own versions of your donation page and share with their networks, the way Global Albanians Foundation did with Find Your Roots.
One more way to lift gifts: matching
Many corporations match employee donations, and most employees don't know it. Educate donors about matching through partners like Double the Donation, which maintains an updated database of company matching programs. You can also run a manual matching campaign on Zeffy by finding a major donor or sponsor to underwrite the match and using a one-time or recurring form to track it: Fenimore Chamber Orchestra ran a $25,000 match campaign this way, doubling every gift that came in before the deadline.
Stay up to date with new donation page insights
The Zeffy team partnered with Amber Melanie Smith, a nonprofit founder and former Executive Director, for a free webinar reviewing live donation pages submitted by real nonprofits. We walked through what was working, what was aspirational, and where each page had room to grow.
The best donation page site depends on your needs and how you want to connect with donors. You can be sure you're putting your best foot forward with solid content, visuals, storytelling, and donor experience. Grab a full list of the best donation websites here.
Your donation page doesn't need to be overly complicated, but it should inspire people to give and make it easy for them to do so. Lead with a strong, emotional headline ("Bring Clean Water to 500 Families" or "Every $25 Feeds a Family for a Week"). Briefly explain your mission: why the cause matters and how donations make an impact. Show donors what their contributions will achieve with testimonials, photos, or examples of past results. Then simplify the donation process with a short form and a recurring option for ongoing support.
Zeffy helps you create and maintain your donation page 100% free alongside all your other fundraising. Build a page that fits your needs with templates designed for donor conversion, track analytics, engage donors, and accept payments without paying a platform fee, transaction fee, or credit card fee.
At minimum: a hero image or short video, a one-sentence impact statement tied to a number, three to five suggested amounts with a monthly toggle, a short form (name, email, amount, payment), trust signals beside the form, and an automated tax receipt at confirmation. Anything beyond that is a bonus, not a baseline.
Pick one promise or one number and repeat it three times: in the hero, beside the form, and in the confirmation. Tie at least one suggested amount to a concrete outcome (a meal, a night of shelter, a vaccine). Default the monthly toggle to on where it fits your model. Keep the form short: name, email, amount, payment, and one optional question that actually helps you segment.
Zeffy is the only fundraising platform that charges nonprofits nothing at all. Other platforms advertise a free tier but still charge processing fees on every gift, which means $100 from a donor delivers $90 to $97 to your mission. On Zeffy, $100 in equals $100 out, and the platform includes the donation page builder, recurring donations, peer-to-peer, Tap to Pay, automated tax receipts, and lightweight donor contact tracking and tagging built into every form.
Get weekly fundraising tips from nonprofits experts
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Keep reading :
Nonprofit software
Best Donation Apps for Nonprofits in 2025 (Free & Mobile-Friendly)
Explore 11 top donation apps with free options. Check out our 2025 guide to pick the right one for your nonprofit, as an individual, or for your business.
Simple, flexible, and recognizable online donation forms will help your nonprofit collect more donations. These online donation form best practices can help.
Look for people who attend related events, follow relevant Facebook groups, or subscribe to aligned newsletters.These aren’t just potential donors—they’re your future advocates.
Look for people who attend related events, follow relevant Facebook groups, or subscribe to aligned newsletters.These aren’t just potential donors—they’re your future advocates.
.webp)
