How to Maximize Your Donations

I’m not sure that the donation model can be considered a business model. After all, you are counting on being able to convince people to give you money in exchange for the warm fuzzy feeling of helping you and not a product or service. Some people, as in the case of Karyn Boznak and Jason Kottke, were very successful with it but the majority of others languish in obscurity.

The trick to maximizing your donations lies in communicating the value of helping you. People have to find your “cause” worthy enough to go through the trouble of completing a Paypal transaction. For example, I am more likely to give money to someone who needs it to feed their family over someone who needs it to pay server costs. The former prods my sympathy for my fellow human being while the latter seems to me more of a business expense that should have been accounted for.

Whatever the cause you are championing, below are a few tips to help increase the likelihood of your web visitor clicking on the donation button.