Raising the pre-filled donation amount for non-profit pages

Jan 13, 2026

One experiment that shows how a single change to a pre-filled number can significantly increase what supporters give, without reducing the number of people who give at all.

  • WHO: Digital, fundraising & CRO teams  
  • INDUSTRY: Associations & Non-Profits  
  • IMPACTED PAGES: Donation page 

Experiment 1: Raising the pre-filled donation amount

Hypothesis: If we raise the pre-filled donation amount, supporters will be more likely to donate higher amounts, increasing overall donation revenue.

Demo form testImage source: Optimizely

Results:

  • +30% Average increase in donation size 
  • +$200M Raised for water projects 

Takeaways:

  1. Monitoring both donation amounts, as well as conversion rates, was critical to ensuring maximal value.
  2. Charity: Water could raise the suggested donation amount from $20 or $30 to up to $60 without impacting the conversion rate.
  3. Driving a simplified sign-up process was also critical in ensuring these higher donations actually converted. 


Each donation has the potential to generate more funds

The Experiment Program Overview Agent analyzes your experimentation program across a time period, reporting on velocity, win rate, and top-performing experiments so impact like this gets surfaced and shared, not buried in a spreadsheet. 

 

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