Wild Apricot Blog has a useful post delineating some best practice approaches to providing online services, such as a members-only area of your website, or online registrations. It’s worth reading the whole post: Online Member Services Best Practices (Part 1 of 2).

One section particularly caught my eye: the part about raising funds. The post contains a number of important points and useful strategies, but I’ve grabbed just a few here:

• Include a “donate” link in a prominent position on every page of your website
• Add a donation form on your website
• Accept all major credit cards as well as PayPal if possible
• Allow donors to specify designations or acknowledgements, make memorial or gift donations, or remain anonymous
• Encourage your supporters to spread the word to even more people online through the use of widgets and social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook
• Thank your donors!

That first point about having a prominent ‘donate’ link ties right in with the idea that we have to make it as easy as possible for people to do the things we want them to do. If they have to hunt around for how to join or how to support our organisation then we’re making it too hard for them.

Even if you’re not set up to accept donations online, you can still make sure you have the information people need in an easy to find spot. Give them a form to print, fill in and send back, with the name and address right there on the form. If you can handle credit cards by phone, then say that and list the phone number.

Accepting credit card payments online may be too much to think about for some organisations, but it’s quick and easy to sign up with Paypal, and to accept payments that way. Paypal’s very popular, so look into it.

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