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From Click to Commitment: Elevating Donor Engagement through Branded Experiences

Man in blue jacket discussing donor engagement tactics with woman in denim shirt
Published January 21, 2025 Reading Time: 5 minutes

This blog was written in collaboration with Ashlee Wilhite, Director of Client Strategy, and Ashleigh Lambert, Vice President of Client Strategy, at Allegiance Group

Have you ever felt like Netflix knows you better than your best friend? Or that Amazon predicts what you need before you do? It’s not magic. It’s personalization. Whether it’s custom Spotify playlists or seamless Marriott hotel bookings, today’s consumers expect every interaction to be intuitive, timely, and relevant.

Accustomed to personalized experiences as consumers, donors now expect the same from the nonprofits they support. They seek seamless and tailored giving journeys that reflect the same care and connection they feel toward your organization’s mission.

For nonprofits, donor engagement goes beyond securing a gift. It’s about building relationships through meaningful moments—moments that make donors feel seen, valued, and empowered to drive change.

Why personalization drives donor engagement

Imagine this: A donor clicks on your beautifully designed email, inspired to give. But the landing page they’re directed to feels disconnected from the email they read, with mismatched branding, impersonal messaging, and no clear tie to the campaign.

With the emotional pull and urgency the donor felt moments ago lacking, they hesitate. The connection fades, and they leave without completing their gift.

Or a handful of potential donors visit your website looking for program information and decide to contribute. But they get into a checkout flow that looks nothing like the branded page that inspired them to donate in the first place, disrupting their journey and causing them to second-guess their decision.

This is the risk nonprofits face when personalization and branding aren’t part of the giving journey. Personalization in fundraising isn’t just about sophisticated technology. It’s about building trust. 

Crafting tailored donor journeys

A seamless, branded giving experience, powered by the right tools, helps donors feel connected to your mission. When donors sense that alignment, they’re more likely to complete their gift and remain engaged with your organization for the long term.

Nonprofits like City of Hope understand this deeply. By leveraging personalized, branded donation pages through Classy Studio, the team has turned their campaigns into cohesive, impactful journeys that resonate with their donor base and deliver measurable results.

Personalized giving in action: City of Hope’s success story

City of Hope, a nonprofit leader in cancer care and research, recently adopted Classy Studio to enhance its donor engagement strategies. By harnessing the platform’s personalization and tracking tools, the nonprofit’s team streamlined its process to launch tailored appeals effortlessly. 

They created customized versions of their donation pages to perfect their messaging. Using source code tracking and UTMs, they accurately tracked revenue across various channels, including email, direct mail, and SMS. This strategy ensured a cohesive donor experience while simplifying campaign management, eliminating the need for multiple forms and making it easy to measure each channel’s impact.

For their 2024 “Day of Giving” campaign, City of Hope’s team conducted an A/B test, comparing the newly branded forms they created with Studio to their traditional donation forms. The outcome?

  • 50% more revenue 
  • 25% increase in gift volume
  • 20% higher average gift size

But these results go beyond improved metrics. They signify a stronger connection with donors. By ensuring coordinated visuals, consistent messaging, and a seamless giving experience, City of Hope built trust and inspired greater generosity. 

This success led them to use Studio donation pages across other fundraising campaigns and digital channels, cementing personalization as a cornerstone of their donor engagement plan.

What modern donors want: Seamless, easy, and tailored experiences

Modern donors, like modern consumers, expect nonprofit organizations to meet them where they are. Here’s how nonprofits can achieve effective donor engagement efforts with personalization:

1. Build trust and drive conversion

A donation page that seamlessly mirrors the campaign’s branding does more than look professional—it reinforces trust. When donors see consistent visuals, messaging, and tone from the campaign materials they engage with, it reassures them they’re in the right place. This continuity across email marketing, fundraising events, social media posts, and more creates a sense of legitimacy and alignment, reducing hesitation and building confidence in their decision to give. 

The result? Improved conversion rates, stronger donor relationships, higher donor retention, and an intentional and meaningful giving experience.

2. Create deeper connections and lifetime value

Consistent branding throughout the donor journey creates a unified experience that strengthens emotional ties to your cause. When every touchpoint reflects the same mission-driven messaging and visuals, donors feel a deeper connection and a greater sense of alliance with your organization. 

This alignment fosters loyalty, encouraging more than a single gift—it encourages an ongoing commitment. By delivering a thoughtful, cohesive journey, you ensure that donors feel valued and engaged, building the foundation for long-term support, stewardship, and advocacy.

3. Optimize for mobile

With more donors giving on their phones and participating in social media, mobile-optimized pages have become essential for successful campaigns. Studio’s responsive designs ensure City of Hope can effortlessly reach and engage mobile users. 

From QR codes on direct mail that led directly to optimized donation pages to clickable ads providing a seamless giving journey, the team tailored every form of outreach for convenience and ease on mobile devices. This approach not only enhanced the donor experience but also maximized the campaign’s reach and impact.

4. Encourage new gifts

City of Hope experienced a significant increase in overall donations, highlighting the success of their personalized approach and streamlined donation flow. But this growth wasn’t only about one-time gifts. It demonstrated their ability to turn first-time donors into loyal, lifelong supporters. 

By creating a giving experience that felt intuitive, seamless, and aligned with its mission, the City of Hope team not only inspired new donors to take action but also laid the groundwork for lasting relationships. The results reflect how thoughtful personalization and optimized design can drive immediate impact and sustained engagement with your fundraising efforts over time.

Making donor engagement personal and simple with Studio

Classy Studio empowers nonprofits to tailor donation pages for various scenarios, creating deeper and more meaningful donor connections.

classy-studio

Create stunning, branded donation experiences—no developer needed

Studio’s drag-and-drop interface empowers nonprofits to design beautiful, branded donation pages with ease. Start with tested layouts and customize them to tell the right story for your audience or moment. With Studio, anyone on your team can:

  • Adjust layouts to match your campaign vision.
  • Upload images and videos for a personal touch.
  • Customize messaging for maximum donor impact.

Tailor campaigns for specific audiences

Studio makes it simple to create personalized, engaging experiences:

  • Clone and iterate: Repurpose existing pages and tailor them for specific donor segments.
  • Version content: Create variations of pages and emails to deliver relevant donor communications and designs.
  • Add context: Include custom messaging, videos, and imagery to deepen connections with donors.

Enhance donor trust and inspire generosity 

Take personalization to the next level with:

  • Social-proof elements: Build credibility by adding logos, live feeds of donor activity, impact stats, or community stories.
  • Impact tiles: Showcase causes that resonate with donors to inspire giving.
  • Giving Cart: Encourage multiple gifts in a single transaction for greater impact.

Simplify personalization with real-time updates

Studio removes technical barriers to personalization:

  • Make real-time changes without any coding.
  • Refine your campaigns continuously to align with donor expectations.

Ready to elevate your donor engagement initiatives? Contact us today to discover how Allegiance Group and Classy from GoFundMe can partner with you to create seamless, personalized giving experiences that deliver results.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

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