Fundraising today knows no borders. Whether your supporters are based in Berlin or Buenos Aires, they come to your website with one simple intent: to give.
But too often, their journey stops short, simply because the giving experience isn’t built in a language they’re fully comfortable with.
That’s where multilingual support becomes more than a nice-to-have. It removes friction. And friction, even small, can interrupt the giving impulse.
When donors can give in their own language, it’s smoother, faster, and more intuitive. It signals respect and builds confidence in the choice to support your mission.
Why language localization matters
Many nonprofits operate in linguistically diverse regions or receive donations from international supporters. But offering English-only donation forms can unintentionally exclude potential donors, especially when giving involves sensitive personal and financial information.
Language barriers don’t just lead to confusion. They create hesitation, and hesitation leads to drop-off.
In a nutshell, when donors understand every step of the process, they're more likely to complete their gift, return to give again, and build a deeper relationship with your cause.
The data tells a clear story
In partnership with Stripe, Fundraise Up analyzed thousands of global nonprofit campaigns. Here’s what we found:
- International giving is growing. In countries like the UK and Australia, 5–7% of donations come from outside the country. That figure is 2–3% in the United States and Canada. These gifts rely on language accessibility.
Moreover, our own research reveals the following trends:
- While English remains the most-used language across Fundraise Up campaigns, there are significant pockets of donors that prefer European languages like German and French.
- In Canada, 1 in 5 donors uses Canadian French as their primary language, overlooking this audience means introducing friction for 20% of supporters.
What multilingual giving looks like in practice
Multilingual support means more than translating a headline or CTA. It’s about delivering a complete, consistent experience from start to finish.
Fundraise Up supports 23 professionally translated languages across:
- Website Elements like donation buttons and banners
- Checkout Modal and Campaign Pages
- Donor Portal for managing recurring gifts
- Email confirmations and receipts
Every translation is crafted by native speakers, not machines, because tone, clarity, and context matter.
We also support:
- Regional language variants, like:
- Canadian French vs. European French
- Brazilian Portuguese vs. European Portuguese
- U.S. Spanish (based on Latin American Spanish) vs. European Spanish
Different dialects reflect different donor communities. Offering the right version helps you connect more personally and reduce friction.
European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese
- All six UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish
These are spoken by over 2.8 billion people, and supporting them is essential to any global strategy.
- Character-based languages like Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, and Korean
Not all platforms support these languages well. Fonts, line spacing, and formatting need to be optimized to ensure legibility and consistency.
Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum is using localization for the Japanese version of its website.
- Right-to-left (RTL) layouts, like Arabic
Most platforms skip RTL support because it’s technically complex. We didn’t.
Supporting right-to-left languages like Arabic requires more than just flipping layouts. It means rethinking the entire interface. Arabic poses unique challenges: text flows right to left, but numbers still read left to right. Abbreviations, common in English, are rarely used, which makes fitting information into small UI elements like buttons or form fields even harder. We solved all of that.
By studying regional leaders like Qatar Airways and Emirates — widely trusted services with large local audiences — we developed mirrored layouts, RTL-native UI components, culturally appropriate spacing, and locale-specific logic to ensure the experience feels intuitive.
We invest heavily in thoughtful language localization because we believe great donor experiences matter.
As our Head of Design says:
For someone making a donation, the journey should feel like a water slide—smooth, fast, and free of obstacles. Everything should guide them forward, not slow them down.
How it works (and how easy it is)
Fundraise Up makes localization powerful, yet incredibly simple. From your organization’s settings, you can enable supporter-facing languages in just a few clicks. Check the boxes, set your defaults, and you’re ready to go.
You choose which languages to enable, and we take care of the rest. From smart language detection via browser or URL, to correctly formatted dates and addresses, everything is handled automatically.
Localization settings are flexible: apply them across your entire organization, tailor them by campaign, or even customize individual website Elements to meet supporters where they are.
What we recommend
After analyzing thousands of nonprofit campaigns, we’ve identified a few key patterns that lead to stronger donor engagement and higher conversion rates. Here’s what we recommend:
- Always add your country’s official language(s), even if there’s more than one. This is especially important when addressing local or national causes.
- Add English, even if it’s not official in your region. Many donors prefer giving in English, and if you’re running global campaigns or paid ads, it’s often the common denominator.
- Include the languages of neighboring countries. If you’re near linguistic borders, localized content can capture cross-border support.
- Support top European donor languages. If you’re seeing international traffic from regions like Germany, France, or the Netherlands, enable those languages. Making the process easier for them means fewer drop-offs and more completed gifts.
- Think inclusively, not just strategically. Even if you’re not actively soliciting donations in a particular region, localization still matters. For example, a nonprofit in California might not target donors in Korea or China, but someone browsing their site with their browser language set to Korean or Chinese will still see the giving experience in that language if it’s enabled. It’s a small step that shows big respect.
A real-world example: Canadian Red Cross
The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) set out to modernize its donor experience and knew localization would be a critical part of the transformation. With supporters across Canada, bilingual fundraising wasn’t optional. They needed a platform that could speak to donors in both Canadian English and Canadian French, meet strict privacy standards, and scale fast.
With Fundraise Up, CRC:
- Nearly doubled its year-end fundraising, from $3.8M to $7M
- Enabled fully bilingual donation flows and receipts, in compliance with CRA standards
- Streamlined compliance with PIPEDA and Quebec’s Law 25, ensuring donor trust
- Achieved a 25% click-to-donate conversion rate on Fundraise Up-powered Campaign pages
Finding the right, modern, user-friendly donor platform was mission-critical to our future. I can’t speak more highly of Fundraise Up and its team. — Jessica Bernat, Director of Digital Marketing, Canadian Red Cross
Thoughtful language support, made simple
You don’t need a dev team or an expensive localization vendor. With Fundraise Up, offering multilingual donation experiences is intuitive and turnkey. And adding a new language is as easy as checking a box.
From browser-based language detection to native-formatted addresses and RTL layouts, every detail is designed to reduce friction and foster connection, because when donors feel understood, they give with confidence.
Learn more about the full localization experience
Language is just one part of creating a truly local giving experience. To fully meet donors where they are, it’s important to consider payment and currency preferences as well as regional regulations.
Discover more localization features for global fundraising →