5 Digital Reasons Leading Your Donations to Drop

At a Glance

Charities are facing declining donations due to economic pressures, rising competition, and weak digital strategies. In this article, we discuss some of the challenges, including outdated fundraising methods, unclear donor journeys, limited payment options, a lack of suggested giving, and poor mobile optimisation. Learn how to address these digital gaps and attract supporters, increase contributions, and sustain long-term fundraising success.

Why Your Donations May Be Declining

The shift towards raising funds and collecting donations through digital means has grown exponentially in the past few years. In addition to offline initiatives, digital donations and fundraising campaigns are on the rise, attracting offline as well as online contributors and supporters towards charities and non-profits.

Due to the pressure from the rising cost of living, we’ve seen a sharp drop in the number of people donating to charities. To make matters complex, the number of charitable organisations is increasing, which makes gaining funds and contributions more competitive.

So, how does your charity or non-profit keep up? Are you tapping into the complete potential of digital fundraising?

One effective way is to find out what’s leading to a drop in your donations and then create a watertight donation management plan. In this blog, we highlight the 5 digital reasons why your donations are dropping.

1. Not Keeping Up with Digital Trends

Moving away from websites, charities are embracing other digital platforms, including social media, to maximise awareness and reach.

One example is the British Red Cross using donation stickers on TikTok to raise funds during the COVID-19 crisis. UK charity Help Musicians also joined this initiative with its own donation button. 

Instead of solely relying on donations from websites, extend your fundraising efforts through the power and presence of social media platforms. With KindLink’s online nonprofit donation management software, you can connect your charity to platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram in just one click. At the same time, stay ahead of the latest digital fundraising trends to attract even more support for your cause.

2. Unclear Donation Journey

According to Impact SEO, non-profits average a 60% bounce rate, where bounce rate indicates the percentage of website visitors who leave after looking at a single page. It may be possible that your charity or non-profit’s website has a page or multiple pages that are underperforming, causing potential donors to leave the page, and resulting in a higher bounce rate. (In short, lower bounce rate equals higher engagement.)

One reason for this could be complicated donation journeys that make the route to donation unclear. It’s important that charity leaders refocus page designs and make the path to donation crystal clear.

Steps include:

• Making the donation button stand out visually on the page
• Reduce the number of steps to complete the donation; skip sign-ups or account creation if possible
• Let potential donors know how many steps it takes from start (filling forms) to finish (completing payment)

If your charity doesn’t have a website or doesn’t have the tech expertise to upgrade the donation page, you can also use KindLink’s nonprofit donation management software for a simpler and clearer donation process. 

3. Not Supporting Different Ways to Accept Donations

With debit cards being the most preferred mode of online payment in the UK, consumers are moving away from cash. And with the rapid growth in smartphone usage, consumers are likely to be more inclined towards using mobile phone payments and contactless credit cards and debit cards. This signals that it’s time for your charitable organisation to embrace multiple digital ways to accept donations, if not doing so already.

This means that non-profit leaders need to come up with innovative ways to keep up with the evolution of digital payments. By adding multiple modes of online payment, you can offer your donors a wide range of payment options when making donations.

Our platform not only supports various online payment methods but also supports donations from international donors in different currencies. This flexibility allows you to effortlessly increase your donations.

4. Not Pushing Donation Suggestions

According to NPT, the average monthly donation in the UK in 2021 was £49. This shows potential to increase one-time donations and Gift Aid contributions.

By choosing Gift Aid, if eligible, donors can boost the value of their donations at no extra cost. 

• First, communicate the importance of Gift Aid to donors and the benefits of regular donations to help your charity plan for the long term.
• Secondly, push for adding Gift Aid to contributions through an easy one-click button
• Encourage regular donations through follow-up emails and communications

Having a donation suggestion button or drop-down on your page can prompt contributors to increase their contributions. Charity leaders can suggest strategic donation amounts for one-time and recurring digital donations to increase fundraising.

5. Mobile Giving

According to the UK Giving Report 2025, 29% of people who had not donated gave a reason that indicated a lack of interest in charities, rising to 34% of 16- to 24-year-olds and 38% of 25- to 34-year-olds. 

One of the common reasons that emerged was a lack of interest. 

With mobile donations on the rise, it’s also important to know how to channel the interests of young people to engage with your charity and your cause. When looking for reasons why donations may be dropping, consider mobile-unfriendly donation pathways to be one of the possible causes. Websites that are not optimised for smartphones or take longer than usual to load can cause issues for donors.

From connecting with them through social media to creating mobile-friendly websites, with these 5 reasons addressed, charities can boost donations and make a huge difference.

Boost Digital Donations With KindLink’s Donation Management Platform

Addressing the various digital reasons leading your donations to drop is one aspect. Getting the right support to turn it around is another, and that’s where we can help. 

KindLink is a free online platform that helps charities, non-profits, and CICs of any size with their fundraising, volunteer, and donation management efforts.

With our dedicated non-profit donation management software, you can ensure:

• Social Media integrations
• Simplified donor journeys
• Gift Aid contributions and suggestions
• HMRC integration
• Accepts multiple payments
• Regular donations
• Secure and UK GDPR compliant
• Mobile-friendly interface

Sign up your charity today and enhance your digital donation efforts.