How small donation form tests can help you raise more

Most fundraisers feel the pressure to launch campaigns fast. The leadership wants results, and it’s tempting to push your donation form live at full blast.

But moving too quickly can backfire. Even a confusing button or field on your form can quietly drain potential gifts.

Slowing down to run small tests feels almost counterintuitive when urgency is high. Why tinker with a few words or colors when you need donations today? Yet those tiny adjustments can compound into significant gains.

In this blog, we’ll explore how small donation form tests can help you raise more and how to strike the right balance between speed and strategy.

How to get started with donation form tests

You don’t need to redesign your entire donation experience to start improving results. Some of the most valuable insights come from small, simple tests.

At BetterWorld, for instance, we saw a nonprofit double its conversions, just by moving its donation form from the top of a landing page to the bottom.

Step 1: Define your goal

Before running any test, be clear about what you’re trying to improve. Is the priority to increase overall conversion rates or encourage more recurring gifts?

Here are some optimization goals and what tests to run for them:

Step 2: Choose one variable to test at a time

The biggest mistake nonprofits make with testing is changing too many things at once. If you tweak multiple elements, you won’t know which change actually made the difference.

Start with the elements most likely to influence donor behavior:

• Form placement: Sometimes donors prefer to learn about your cause before giving, so placing the form lower can actually increase conversions.
• Recurring gift default (monthly vs. one-time): Simply setting the monthly option as the default can dramatically increase recurring donations.
• Suggested amounts or preset buttons: Experiment with different donation tiers. For instance, try $25 / $50 / $100 vs. $30 / $60 / $120 to see which set resonates.
• Form field order: Even small details, like asking for an email address before or after payment info, can change completion rates.
• A/B testing headlines, button text, or colors: “Donate Now” vs. “Make a Difference Today” might feel small, but those words can shift donor action.
• Testing form length (short vs. detailed): A short form may reduce friction, but a slightly longer form could gather valuable data without hurting conversions.

Step 3: Run the test with enough traffic to be meaningful

To avoid making decisions based on noise, give your test enough time and traffic to produce reliable data.

Some practical guidelines:

• Minimum sample size matters: Aim for at least a few hundred visitors (ideally 1,000+) per variation before calling a winner. Smaller tests may mislead you.
• Run the test long enough: Donor behavior can change by day of the week, campaign type, or even time of day. Keep tests running at least 1–2 weeks to smooth out these fluctuations.
• Avoid stopping too soon: If you see one variation pulling ahead after just a few hours, resist the urge to end it early. Early spikes often balance out.

Step 4: Apply learnings and iterate

Treat testing as an ongoing cycle:

test → learn → apply → test again.

Over time, small, consistent improvements compound into a major lift in donations.

Each test opens the door to another. A shorter form that increases completions can lead you to ask: Would shorter copy above the form amplify that effect? A recurring donation option that works on desktop may spark curiosity about whether mobile donors behave similarly.

Ready to Raise More with Smarter Donation Forms?

You could rush your next campaign live and hope the form performs. Or you could slow down just enough to test, gather proof, and make every donor interaction count. The difference between those two approaches is often thousands of dollars in lost or gained gifts.

Learn more about how smart donation form testing pays off. Download the free BetterWorld Donation Forms Ebook and see exactly how small tweaks lead to bigger results.