When you’re a new nonprofit, you’re like a baby taking its first steps, a teen going on their first date, a college grad starting their first adult job, and a first-time dad staring at their newborn kid—all at once. It’s a lot, to be sure. And deciding what to prioritize can be hard.
So here’s a hot take: You should focus on getting donations. Specifically, you should focus on getting online donations.
Why? For a few reasons. Three, to be exact.
Why Online Giving Is Essential for New Nonprofits
First of all, online giving is pretty much the default expectation for many donors, especially younger ones.
Second, when creating a donation process that will encourage people to give again, ease and trust are both top of mind. Doing online donations right will help you do both.
Finally, by pairing a strong online presence with a regular source of revenue, you’re creating a solid foundation that support everything else (grants, events, volunteering, peer-to-peer, etc.).
That’s the reason why we created Neon Launch, a streamlined website and donation form combo pack that gets early-stage nonprofits online and raising money in no time. But more on that in a bit.
First, let’s walk through the three-step process that your organization can follow to start collecting online donations—in a way that foregrounds ease, trust, and inspiration—ASAP.
Ready to Launch Your Mission Online?
Neon Launch gives you a professional website, donation tools, and integrated payment processing—everything you need to start strong and grow support.
Step 1: Build a Website That Converts Visitors Into Donors
The first thing you need to do as a nonprofit is create a website. It’s where people can go to access your mission, learn more about your organization, and join the cause. And in the year 2025, it’s an absolute must-have.
But don’t think that creating any old website will do either. You have to create a good website. Notice we didn’t say “great,” and we might even be talked down to simply “good enough.”
Either way, building a decent website—let’s call this a step one-and-a-half is going to save you a world of hassle down the line.
So what makes for a good nonprofit website?
Easy. Your website is your first impression, so you want it to have three distinct qualities: clarity (here’s what we do), trust (here’s why we’re serious), and inspiration (here’s how you can get involved).
How you go about that is by including elements like these:
- Clear mission and story: Craft a mission statement that doubles as an elevator pitch for who you are, what you do, and why people should get involved. An “About Us” page can expand on this story—and should include information about your staff and board members, including how to contact you.
- Impact examples (photos, testimonials, stats): In order to inspire support, you need to convey the impact that your work is having. Photos and testimonials do a great job of this, and stats can be useful too. But always keep in mind that telling the story of one person is going to be way more powerful than telling the story of many people.
- Easy-to-navigate structure: You want a primary navigation menu running along the top of your site that’s accessible on every page and has a 3-5 item menu with clear categories (e.g., Our Work, About Us, Get Involved). Your site will look different on mobile devices, so keep that in mind (more on that topic in two bullet points from now).
- Donate button: Your donate button should be in the top right corner of your primary navigation menu—which again should be accessible on every page—and use a bold, contrasting color so that it stands out. Use a direct, clear call-to-action (CTA) like “Donate Now” or “Give Today” so people know exactly where they can go to make a gift.
- Optimized for mobile: In 2025, roughly 64% of web traffic is coming from mobile devices. That’s why your site absolutely needs to be optimized for mobile visitors. When you’re testing it prior to launch, test it on phones and tablets as well as on desktops—and test it using different kinds of browsers, too.
Once you’ve completed step one—make a website—and step one-and-a-half—make a good website—it’ll be time to move on to step two: creating your donation form.
Step 2: Use a Donation Form That Makes Giving Simple
If you’re wondering why you need to be concerned about the details of your donation form (once people decide to make a gift, won’t they just follow through with that impulse?), think about the last time you encountered a site that was slow or confusing or buggy.
Did you soldier through to complete whatever action you were trying to take? Did you complete that Real Housewives reaction video, order that 20-pack of tube socks, or leave that incendiary comment on your cousin’s personal newsletter?
The odds are, if you’re like most people, you probably didn’t. You gave up, walked away (or, really, scrolled away), and pretty much forgot about it the second it was no longer on your screen.
That’s why having a good donation form is so important. Once someone makes the decision to give, you need to help them follow through on that decision by making the process as seamless, fast, and easy as possible.
In order to reduce drop-offs, your donation form should have the following:
- Minimal fields: Only ask donors for the information you need to complete the transaction. You can send them a survey later to ask them about the rest.
- Branded look: Your donation form should look like the rest of your website, with the same color scheme, images, and logos. This will instill trust in your users.
- Multi-page layout: A multi-step layout for your form (think: gift amount, donor info, payment details) makes the process feel more manageable by reducing decision fatigue.
- Suggested donation amounts: Highlighting a certain gift size will encourage donors to give a little more (clicking “$25” when they had only intended to give $20).
- Security indicators: Even something as simple as a small padlock icon indicates to donors that their payment details will be safe in your hands.
- Donation page embed: Your donation form should live on your website. If a person clicks “donate” and is redirected to a third-party site, that will throw up red flags for some, and those folks (likely) won’t finish their gift.
Similar to your website, your donation form should be optimized to work on mobile devices. Before you launch your form, test, test, and test again. Get people not involved with your org to use the form—they might see something you’ve missed.
There are a bunch of other elements that go into making a great donation form. Some things, like an integration with your CRM, are important to consider, just maybe not when your nonprofit is getting off the ground.
For more on crafting an ideal donation form, we broke down an example of one in the article below.
Step 3: Say “Thank You” and Build Donor Relationships
When you do something nice for someone, do you like it when they say thank you? If you’re thinking to yourself, “no, not really,” then let’s reframe the question: When you do something nice for someone, how does it make you feel when they don’t say thank you?
Is the answer “not great?” Is it “pretty crummy?” Is it “I feel totally fine,” only you know that deep down you’re lying to yourself because it makes you feel slightly less than fine?
This simple principle—it’s a good idea to say “thank you” when something does you a kindness—holds true for soliciting and accepting donations. When someone makes a gift, say thank you. Every time. No exceptions.
Saying “thank you” starts with your donation receipt. While the primary purpose of this receipt is to serve as a financial document, it should also come with a brief thank-you message.
If you do nothing else, saying thank you on your receipt will go a long way towards making your donors feel good about supporting you.
Beyond that receipt, we recommend that you send them a longer, more formal thank-you message within 72 hours of their gift being received.
An email message will be just fine, but, for first donations, a physical thank-you letter—maybe even one with a handwritten note in the margins—can really feel special.
Once you’ve said “thank you,” you can start building a relationship with your new donor.
Send them a welcome email series; share an impact update on how their gift is being used; ask for their feedback in a donor survey; invite them to your next event. Eventually, you can even ask them to make a second gift.
There’s a name for this kind of relationship-building. It’s called donor stewardship, and it’s a process that takes time, effort, and attention, and it’s going to vary from person to person. But the one place these journeys all begin is the same: with a “thank you.”
Nonprofit Receipt & Thank-You Letter Templates
This package of nonprofit receipts (covering one-time and recurring donations, memberships, events, and pledges) and donor thank-you letters has all the templates you need.
Get Online & Start Getting Donations With Neon Launch
All three of the steps that we’ve laid out above—building a website, creating a donation form, sending thank-you messages—require a fair bit of work. The process from start to finish is pretty clear, but that doesn’t mean that getting there is easy.
Except, here’s the thing: With Neon Launch, this whole thing actually is easy. That’s because Neon Launch was designed with the needs of early-stage nonprofits in mind. It’s a package designed to get you online and collecting donations as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Here’s how it works: In as little as three weeks, our expert team here at Neon One will build you a three-page website, complete with a donation form, an automated receipt/thank-you message, and Neon Pay processing. All that with no additional setup costs, just one monthly subscription, and regular payment fees.
As an added bonus, if you decide to move from Neon Launch to Neon CRM down the line, all your transaction data will be included seamlessly in your new database. No time-consuming imports, frustrating data clean-up, or additional charges.
Starting a nonprofit is hard, but getting your new nonprofit online and collecting donations doesn’t have to be. To learn more about Neon Launch and take a self-guided tour that will show you the system in action, just click the button below.
