Zeffy is the only donation form builder in this UK shortlist where £100 in equals £100 out: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee, ever.
- JustGiving's default ~17% suggested tip prompt is the most-criticised pricing pattern in UK fundraising; a well-chosen form removes it entirely.
- A good UK donation form captures a Gift Aid declaration in the same one-page checkout, letting your charity reclaim 25p for every £1 donated by UK taxpayers.
- Short forms, strong branding, and mobile-first design raise completion rates; every extra field costs you donors at checkout.
- Zeffy gives UK charities a free, embeddable donation form with no platform fee, no transaction fee, and Gift Aid handling built in.
About 60% of potential donors leave donation forms because of poor design and complicated processes. So the donation form you pick, and how you set it up, is one of the highest-leverage choices a charity makes online.
But there is a second floor on impact most "best donation form" guides skip: the fee structure. JustGiving carries a 0% platform fee headline, but defaults to a ~17% suggested donor tip at checkout, plus 1.9% and 20p card processing, plus a 5% fee on any Gift Aid value you reclaim. That "free" form can quietly cost your charity several hundred pounds on a modest annual campaign, before you even count processing fees. Zeffy is the only donation form builder in this UK shortlist where £100 in equals £100 out: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee.
This guide is built for that decision. You get 10 tips for higher-converting donation forms, a four-way feature and fee comparison (Zeffy vs JustGiving vs CAF Donate vs Enthuse), real UK charity examples by vertical, and a templates gallery to use as a starting point.
In this article:
10 tips to get the most out of your online donation form
- 1. Use strong branding and engaging visuals
- 2. Customise donation amounts and frequency
- 3. Make it easy to share your donation form
- 4. Accept a variety of payment options
- 5. Keep your donation form short
- 6. Use social proof and testimonials
- 7. Optimise your donation form for mobile giving
- 8. Send automatic thank-you emails and Gift Aid confirmations
- 9. Create a sense of urgency on your donation page
- 10. Use data to optimise your campaign
1. Use strong branding and engaging visuals
When your donation form reflects your charity's identity, logo, colours, tone of voice, and a hero image of your mission in action, donors feel they are still on your site, not handed off to a stranger. That trust is what closes the gift.
A few ways to layer branding beyond logo and colour:
- Personalised messaging: Acknowledge a returning donor by name or reference the campaign they last supported.
- Donor recognition: A "donor wall" or "donor of the day" callout shows appreciation and motivates new gifts.
- Interactive elements: A short quiz that matches a donor to a programme, or a time-bound challenge, adds energy.
Use images and short videos that show the people behind the mission, including beneficiaries, your team, and the work itself. Compress assets so the form still loads fast, especially on mobile.
2. Customise donation amounts and frequency
Suggested amounts, say £10, £25, £50 with an "Other" field, anchor donors toward a meaningful gift while leaving room to give what feels right. Pair this with a frequency toggle (one-time, monthly, yearly) inside the same form so monthly giving never requires a second flow.
What good customisation looks like:
- Donation amounts: 3 to 5 preset tiers plus a custom field.
- Donation details: Optional tribute and in-memory fields, and an anonymous-gift checkbox.
3. Make it easy to share your donation form
Donors who share your form drive a meaningful share of new traffic. Build the share path in: a copy-link button, native social share to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and X, and an email-to-friend option.
QR codes turn print, signage, and in-person events into a path back to your form, which is useful for galas, services, and direct mail. Read our guide on QR codes for donations for setup tips.
4. Accept a variety of payment options
The payment method a donor reaches for has changed. Apple Pay and Google Pay let a returning donor confirm a gift in two taps. Direct Debit is the dominant regular-giving rail for UK charities, and donors who plan to give monthly expect it as an option. Open Banking (Pay by Bank) is a rising alternative with no card network fee, used by platforms such as Wonderful.org. Credit and debit card stays the default for one-off gifts. Include cheques as a fallback for donors who prefer to post a gift.
Tap-to-pay at events also matters. If your charity runs fetes, quiz nights, or village-hall fundraisers, supporters arriving without cash need a quick card or phone payment at the door. A mobile-ready form or tap-to-pay integration removes that barrier at exactly the moment someone is ready to give.
For online giving, the smoother the checkout on mobile, the higher your completion rate. A donor who has to find a physical card is a donor you might lose.
5. Keep your donation form short
Every extra field is a chance to lose a donor. Ask for what you need to process the gift and follow up: name, email, and payment. Put anything else, including communication preferences or employer-match details, behind a follow-up email after the gift clears.
A few rules of thumb:
- One page, no multi-step flows unless your gift complexity demands it.
- Use bullets and headings, not paragraphs, to communicate impact.
- Autofill for repeat donors so a second gift takes seconds.
6. Use social proof and testimonials
A donation form sits at a moment of hesitation. A quote from another supporter, a photo of beneficiaries, or a real-time donations ticker showing a recent gift quietly answers the donor's "is this real?" question.
Prompts that produce usable testimonials:
- What inspired you to support our cause?
- How has our work affected your community?
- What would you tell someone considering a gift?
A short video clip, even one filmed on a phone, outperforms a written quote on most donation forms.
7. Optimise your donation form for mobile giving
More than half of online donations now start on a phone. If your form requires pinch-to-zoom, has small tap targets, or splits across multiple screens, you lose gifts at checkout.
What a mobile-first donation form looks like:
- Responsive design: Fields and buttons scale to the screen.
- Simplified layout: Essential fields only.
- Large tap targets: Donation tier and Donate buttons easy to tap.
- Autofill: Name and address pre-populate from the device.
- One-page flow: No page hops between gift, payment, and confirmation.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay: Two-tap completion for returning donors.
- Instant confirmation: A thank-you message the moment the gift goes through.
8. Send automatic thank-you emails and Gift Aid confirmations
The moment a donor gives is the moment your relationship starts. An instant, branded thank-you email is the standard for any UK charity. But for UK donors, the most important thing your form can do is capture a Gift Aid declaration in the same one-page flow.
Gift Aid lets your charity reclaim 25p from HMRC for every £1 a UK taxpayer donates, at no extra cost to the donor. To claim, your charity needs a Gift Aid declaration from the donor: their full name, home address, the charity name, and confirmation they want their donation treated as Gift Aid and have paid enough UK Income or Capital Gains Tax to cover the claim. Capture this on the form itself, not in a follow-up email. (HMRC Gift Aid guidance ; Charity Tax Group)
Note that Gift Aid does not apply to raffle ticket purchases, event tickets sold at fair value, or gifts from donors who have not paid enough UK tax. Your charity must be HMRC-recognised (a separate registration from your charity regulator) to submit Gift Aid claims. Keep records of declarations for at least six years.
Beyond the declaration, the best thank-you emails do three things: thank by name, restate what the gift will do, and invite a next step (follow on social, share with a friend, opt in to monthly giving). A short video from a beneficiary or staff member, embedded in the email, is the highest-impact upgrade you can make.
Higher-rate and additional-rate taxpayers can claim the difference between their rate and the basic rate through Self Assessment; a clear confirmation email helps them keep their own records.
Trust signals matter. UK donors look for a registered charity number (from the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR for Scotland, or CCNI for Northern Ireland), a Fundraising Regulator badge, and clear Gift Aid handling before they complete a gift. Display these on your donation form and in your thank-you email. A form that hides them loses trust before a gift is even made.
9. Create a sense of urgency on your donation page
People give when they have a reason to give now. Urgency without manufactured pressure looks like:
- Countdown timers on time-bound matching campaigns ("Every gift doubled until midnight").
- Milestone callouts: "50% of target," "100 donors," "£10,000 to go."
- Flash drives: 24-hour pushes tied to a specific outcome.
- Outcome framing: "Today's gift feeds five families this week" beats "Donate now."
The best urgency is honest urgency, tied to a real deadline, a real match, or a real outcome. Donors notice when a "limited-time" appeal runs every month.
10. Use data to optimise your campaign
Once your form is live, the numbers tell you where to fix things. The metrics that matter:
- Conversion rate: Visitors who complete a gift, divided by total visitors.
- Average donation amount: Watch what donors actually pick from your suggested tiers.
- Donation frequency: Share of one-time vs recurring.
- Drop-off field: Which field do donors abandon at? That is your fix list.
- Mobile vs desktop split: If mobile is 60% of traffic but 30% of gifts, your mobile flow needs work.
- Payment method mix: Drop methods nobody uses; surface the ones donors prefer.
A/B test one variable at a time, including suggested-amount tiers, button colour, headline copy, and hero image, and let two weeks pass before you call a winner. Donor behaviour is noisy on short windows.
Donation form examples that convert
Every UK charity form on Zeffy shares the same backbone: the "100% of your donation goes to our cause" statement, a Gift Aid declaration option built into the one-page checkout, and an instant branded thank-you email sent the moment a gift goes through.
The lesson from high-performing forms is not elaborate UX. It is a clean, fast form with strong mission copy, an easy mobile checkout, and Gift Aid handled automatically. Ship that, then iterate. You can see Zeffy's free donation form builder to start your own or explore live forms from charities already using the platform.
Donation form templates by vertical
If you want a head start instead of a blank page, the list below maps Zeffy donation form patterns to common charity verticals. Each one is built on the same fee-free Zeffy form. The difference is which fields, frequency options, and copy work best for that audience.
- General charity: Classic donation page with branding, suggested amounts, and a one-time and recurring toggle.
- Church and faith-based: Tithing and special offerings; recurring toggle prominent.
- School and PTA: Booster-style form with simple fields for a parent and alumni donor base.
- Village hall and community group: Minimal fields, easy mobile checkout, tap-to-pay integration for in-person events.
- Animal shelter and rescue: Hero image, mission-led copy, recurring giving for monthly food and shelter sponsorships.
- Emergency, crisis, and disaster relief: Urgency-friendly layout, fast checkout, single page.
- Recurring and monthly giving: Monthly preselected, framed around sustained impact.
- Event or gala: Donate-plus-ticket combination flow.
- Peer-to-peer fundraiser: Individual fundraiser pages tied to a parent campaign.
- Membership and dues: Annual recurring, member-tier amounts.
- In-memory and tribute gift: Tribute name plus optional notification email to the family.
- Foodbank collection: Simple single-purpose form for a campaign-specific donation drive.
Compare donation form tools: Zeffy vs JustGiving vs CAF Donate vs Enthuse
The shortlist a small UK charity typically lands on is Zeffy, JustGiving, CAF Donate, and Enthuse. They are all embeddable, they all process card payments, but they price very differently, and one of them (Enthuse) is effectively mandatory if your charity has London Marathon Events or Great Run places. Here is how the four compare on the criteria that decide how much of every gift actually reaches your cause.
|
| Platform fee | 0% | 0% headline | Low staggered fee by donation type | 0% on donations |
| Suggested donor tip | None | Default ~17% at checkout | None | Optional |
| Card processing fee | 0% | 1.9% + 20p | Varies by payment type | 1.9% + 30p |
| Gift Aid processing fee | 0% | 5% of Gift Aid value | Included | 5% of Gift Aid value |
| Monthly subscription | None | From £15 on some plans | None | Optional £29.99 + VAT/month |
| Event ticketing | Yes, free | Limited | No | Yes, 3.5% + 75p per ticket |
| Memberships | Yes, free | No | No | No |
| Recurring giving and Direct Debit | Yes | Yes | Yes (Direct Debit) | Yes |
| Positioning | Any UK charity wanting 0% fees and Gift Aid built in | Charities needing recognised brand for cold donors | Small charities wanting a low-cost, trusted donation page | Charities running LME or Great Run events; optional subscription for all others |
The fee picture, plainly. JustGiving's "free" headline is accurate on platform fees, but the default ~17% suggested tip is added on top of a donor's intended gift: a supporter planning to give £50 may see a suggested £58.50 total, with the extra amount noted as a voluntary contribution to JustGiving. That prompt is the most-criticised pattern in UK fundraising press. Add the 1.9% + 20p card processing and 5% Gift Aid fee, and a charity's net receipt from a £100 gift falls noticeably short of £100 before Gift Aid uplift is applied. Zeffy removes every one of those layers: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee, no Gift Aid processing fee.
CAF Donate is genuinely low-cost and carries strong sector trust, particularly with trustees who recognise the Charities Aid Foundation name. Its feature set is limited though: no event ticketing, no memberships, and its reporting is basic compared to a modern fundraising platform.
Enthuse produces a beautifully branded donor journey and is the official online fundraising platform for TCS London Marathon and the Great Run series (if your charity has those event places, Enthuse is effectively mandatory). Outside those flagship events, the optional monthly subscription adds up for smaller charities. For a full fee breakdown, see the live comparisons: Zeffy vs JustGiving, Zeffy vs Enthuse, and Zeffy vs PayPal.
|
| Effective fee on a £100 gift | £0 — nonprofit keeps the full £100; processing covered by Zeffy. | ~£5.45 — 2.95% platform + 2.2% + £0.30 Stripe (Standard plan, donorbox.org/pricing). | ~£5.10 — 1.9% platform + ~2.9% + £0.30 processing; 2.9% on white-label tier (giveforms.com/pricing). | ~£3.20 processing + monthly subscription on top (£39 to £129/mo, jotform.com/pricing). |
| Recurring giving in the same form | Native one-time / monthly / yearly toggle, free tier. | Native recurring on Standard plan. | Recurring supported on the same form. | No native recurring-giving dashboard; processor-side setup only. |
| HMRC-compliant tax receipt automation | Automatic branded receipt after every gift. | Automatic receipts included. | Automatic receipts for verified 501(c)(3)s. | No native HMRC receipts; manual export or bolt-on automation. |
| Embeddability and mobile / wallet UX | Embed, hosted page, donate button, pop-up; Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, card, cheque, all fees covered. | Embed, hosted page, pop-up; Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH supported. | Embeddable; Stripe / PayPal / Plaid ACH; mobile-optimized. | Embed, hosted page; payment coverage depends on connected processor. |
| Customization without a paid upgrade | Branding, suggested amounts, custom questions, frequency, all on the free (only) tier. | Advanced design + lower fees gated behind Pro (£150/mo) and Premium. | Full white-label requires the 2.9% white-label tier. | Submission limits push active nonprofits onto Silver (£49/mo) or Gold (£129/mo). |
Build your online donation form for free with Zeffy
A donation form is not just a checkout. It is the floor on how much of every gift actually reaches your cause. Optimise the conversion side using the 10 tips above, and also pick a platform where the fee structure does not quietly undo every win.
100,000 charities worldwide have raised over £2 billion on Zeffy without paying a single fee: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee, ever. For UK charities, that means one free platform for donations, ticketing, memberships, raffles, and auctions, with Gift Aid handled properly and a form that embeds cleanly on any website.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest donation form for a small UK charity?
Zeffy is 0% cost for the charity, always: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no Gift Aid processing fee, no subscription. JustGiving has a 0% platform fee headline but defaults to a ~17% suggested donor tip at checkout, plus 1.9% and 20p card processing and a 5% fee on Gift Aid value reclaimed. CAF Donate uses a low staggered fee by donation type and carries strong sector trust, but has no event ticketing or membership features. Enthuse is 0% on donations but adds 1.9% + 30p card processing and a 5% Gift Aid fee; outside London Marathon Events and Great Run event places, the optional monthly subscription adds further cost. If fee-free fundraising is the priority, Zeffy is the only option in this shortlist where the charity keeps 100% of every gift.
Does the form handle Gift Aid?
Yes. Zeffy donation forms include a Gift Aid declaration option in the same one-page checkout, so your charity can reclaim 25p from HMRC for every £1 donated by a UK taxpayer, at no extra cost to the donor. To claim Gift Aid, your charity must be recognised by HMRC as a charity for tax purposes (a separate registration from your charity regulator). Gift Aid does not apply to raffle ticket purchases, event tickets sold at fair value, or gifts from donors who have not paid enough UK Income or Capital Gains Tax in that year. Full guidance is available from HMRC and the Charity Tax Group.
How do I add a Zeffy donation form to my charity website?
Zeffy donation forms are embeddable on any website with a single snippet of code, with no developer required. You can also use a standalone hosted form page, share the direct link via email or social media, or display it via QR code at events. Customisation includes your charity's logo, brand colours, suggested donation amounts, a Gift Aid declaration, and a recurring-giving toggle, all within the same one-page form builder.
Can donors give by Direct Debit through a Zeffy form?
Yes. Recurring giving is built into every Zeffy donation form. Donors can choose a one-time gift or set up a monthly or annual gift in the same checkout flow, with no second screen or separate sign-up. Direct Debit is the dominant regular-giving method for UK charities, and Zeffy's recurring-giving feature is designed to make monthly giving as simple as possible for the donor. You can read more about how to accept donations online and set up recurring giving for your cause.
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