Guide to A/B testing for nonprofits: how to experiment for fundraising success
How innovation is born in nonprofit technology
As a nonprofit leader, how do you improve, innovate, and get better fundraising results every time? The answer lies in data-driven decision-making, not assumptions. In digital fundraising, it means constant testing. The best way to prove a hypothesis is through A/B testing, a method used by the world’s leading companies to optimize user experience and drive growth.
Amazon, Netflix, Booking.com, Adobe, Salesforce, and Slack all rely on A/B testing to fine-tune every small detail of their platforms. Even the tiniest changes can have a big impact. As Amazon founder Jeff Bezos put it:
Our success at Amazon is a function of how many experiments we do per year, per month, per week, per day.
For nonprofits fundraising online, A/B testing is just as critical. At scale, even small optimizations in the donor experience can lead to significant revenue growth. Yet, many nonprofits lack the resources or infrastructure to conduct meaningful A/B tests.
That’s where Fundraise Up comes in. As a digital fundraising platform, we provide the tools nonprofits need to raise more donations online through optimized checkout experiences. Every feature we build is backed by rigorous A/B testing to ensure nonprofits raise more while keeping donor experiences smooth and friction-free.
In this article, we’ll share key insights from A/B testing across 3,000+ nonprofits using Fundraise Up, explore how to design meaningful experiments, and reveal real-world results that have transformed online fundraising.
How nonprofits benefit from Fundraise Up’s testing
At Fundraise Up, we believe that a strong fundraising strategy starts with good data. That’s why we prioritize testing and experimentation. By continuously analyzing donor behavior and optimizing the giving experience, we help nonprofits raise more.
1. Innovation at your fingertips
Fundraising moves fast, and so should your technology. A/B testing allows us to identify and implement innovations faster than traditional development, ensuring nonprofits using Fundraise Up always have access to the latest, most effective fundraising tools.
2. Maximizing fundraising potential
Every test we run is about one thing: helping nonprofits raise more. Here’s how:
- Friction-free giving: We fine-tune the donor experience to eliminate roadblocks and make donating effortless.
- Higher conversion rates: Every tested improvement is designed to increase donation success.
- Revenue optimization: Small tweaks can lead to big gains — our data-driven approach maximizes Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
3. Reduced risk and workload
Running A/B tests in-house takes time, expertise, and resources. But for nonprofits, the bigger challenge is scale: you need a large enough donor base and consistent traffic to generate statistically meaningful results and test with real velocity. It’s a steep hill to climb — especially when your team is focused on delivering impact.
That’s where we come in.
- We handle the testing so nonprofits can focus on fundraising instead of experimentation.
- Fundraise Up solves the scale challenge by tapping into a much larger donor data pool — built from over 3,000 nonprofit customers and millions of transactions over the past decade — to run meaningful experiments and surface insights that individual organizations couldn’t generate on their own.
By continuously optimizing every part of the giving experience, we take the guesswork out of fundraising so nonprofits can focus on their mission and raise more.
How a good A/B test works
To generate reliable results, an A/B test requires proper setup. Here’s how we ensure every test at Fundraise Up is set up for success:
1. Crafting a clear hypothesis
Every great test starts with a clear, well-defined hypothesis. We identify a specific change that could improve donation conversion rates or another key metric, ensuring it’s grounded in donor behavior and fundraising best practices. For example:
This structured approach ensures that every experiment has a purpose, and that purpose is making giving easier.
2. Creating multiple variants
Once we have a hypothesis, we develop multiple test versions with intentional design or functional changes. These may include tweaking the donation flow, adjusting button text, or repositioning key elements. Each variant is tested against a control group (no changes) to determine the most effective version for driving donations.
3. Respecting your existing campaign settings
When conducting tests, we always consider the current settings of each nonprofit organization. This means that elements like minimum donation amounts or required address fields remain unchanged to ensure the test does not interfere with an organization’s existing fundraising strategy. Our tests are designed to enhance, not disrupt, the donor journey.
4. Designing a fair experiment
For results to be trustworthy, the test setup must be rock solid. We ensure fair traffic distribution, typically split 50/50 but sometimes adjusted based on specific needs. Test duration is carefully calculated to reach statistical significance, ensuring decisions are driven by data, not guesswork.
To eliminate bias, we use a sophisticated distribution algorithm that assigns users to test groups randomly. This ensures a 0% probability of skewed results.
5. Launching the experiment
Once everything is set, we launch the experiment and collect real-time data on user behavior. We monitor interactions, conversions, and engagement to measure the impact of the proposed changes.
6. Analyzing results and implementing insights
Getting the numbers right is just as important as any other step. Once the test concludes, we dive deep into the results.
We measure more than 20 key metrics, such as Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), conversion rate, average donation amount, and many others. Each of these key metrics is further broken down by factors like operating system, country, and browser, providing a deeper understanding of donor behavior. Additionally, we measure test-specific metrics that are unique to each experiment. In total, every decision we make is based on 100+ indicators, ensuring a comprehensive and data-driven approach to optimizing the donation experience.
Only statistically significant findings drive action, meaning every improvement is backed by real data. If a test delivers better results, we roll out the change across the platform, ensuring all Fundraise Up nonprofits benefit from the latest optimizations.
Safe and secure testing is our priority
Every test we run is designed with security and compliance in mind. We follow strict best practices to protect donor data and ensure a risk-free testing environment.
- Risk-mitigation protocols: We handle sensitive tests with extra safeguards to balance innovation with security.
- Data protection: Donor privacy and security are never compromised, no matter how advanced the testing methodology.
Real-world results: what we’ve learned from A/B testing
At Fundraise Up, every experiment is backed by data from hundreds of thousands of donations, ensuring that our findings are statistically significant and reliable.
The examples below represent just a small fraction of our findings: behind the scenes, we are continuously testing, learning, and optimizing to enhance the donation experience and maximize fundraising outcomes.
Through rigorous testing, we’ve pinpointed what truly drives donations and what doesn’t. Here’s what we’ve learned.
What worked: game-changing improvements
Some tests led to breakthroughs in fundraising performance, unlocking new ways for nonprofits to boost donor engagement and increase revenue.
Tribute donations: a small change with a big impact
Simplifying the tribute donation process and repositioning it as a post-donation upsell dramatically increased donor engagement.
| Test | Hypothesis | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Tribute Checkbox | A simplified tribute option increases donation conversions. | âś… Significant conversion increase and more tribute donors. |
Removing friction in the checkout process
Sometimes, less is more. We found that requiring a mailing address during checkout hurt conversions, especially on mobile.
| Test | Hypothesis | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mailing Address Requirement | Making the mailing address field optional improves donor conversion. | âś… -3.4% drop in conversions when required (higher on mobile: -4.3%). |
What didn’t move the needle: tests with no significant impact
Not every test leads to game-changing results. Some ideas seemed promising but didn’t significantly impact donor behavior.
Design tweaks that didn’t influence conversions
Visual elements like color didn’t have the expected effect on donation behavior.
| Test | Hypothesis | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Checkout Accent Colors | Matching the checkout color to the nonprofit’s branding increases conversions. | ❌ No significant increase. |
Testing donor-advised funds (DAF) as a payment option
We tested whether adding a DAF payment option directly in Fundraise Up’s checkout would increase donations and improve the donor experience.
| Test | Hypothesis | Result |
|---|---|---|
| DAF in Checkout | Adding a direct DAF payment option will increase donations by 2-4%. | ❌ No meaningful lift observed: DAF donations made up only 0.3% of total donations and 0.55% of revenue, falling short of the 2-4% target. |
The results also showed that the DAF payment option had no impact on the overall conversion rate (within the observed confidence interval), meaning these donations were cannibalized from other payment methods.
What this means for nonprofits
A/B testing removes the guesswork from fundraising. It replaces assumptions with data-driven insights. The results speak for themselves: small changes can drive big improvements, while some ideas simply don’t hold up under real-world conditions.
By continuously refining the donor experience, Fundraise Up ensures that nonprofits always have access to the most effective fundraising technology. More conversions, more revenue, and less friction — that’s the power of smart, ongoing optimization.
Where do we get our best ideas? In the past year alone, we’ve analyzed over 4,000 pieces of nonprofit feedback to ensure our innovations address real challenges.
If you’re interested in more insights, the Pulse of the donor report analyzes data from millions of donations processed across 500+ nonprofits, offering data-backed insights to help nonprofit leaders optimize their fundraising strategy.
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