Before they give, donors google you
A new donor checks your site before trusting you. What they need to find to feel safe, and what makes them close the tab.
November 11, 2026Last updated November 11, 2026
Almost nobody gives money to an organization they’ve just come across without checking it first. They see your post, it moves them, and before reaching for their card they open another tab and type your name into Google. What they find in the next two minutes decides whether they give or go back to memes.
What nobody wants to find in those two minutes is a Facebook page whose last post says “Merry Christmas 2021!” Or a site full of stock photos where the children you serve clearly live in Norway. Your organization can do enormous work and still look, online, like a well-meaning scam.
The real question is “Are they real?”
Many donors have already had a bad surprise with a fundraiser, and they remember it. So your site has a specific job: to show that you’re a real organization, with real people, doing what you say.
And what convinces people most is usually what they can verify, even when it isn’t the prettiest thing on the page.
What convinces
Faces and names. Who runs the organization, with full names and photos. If someone wants to write to them, they should be able to. A team with no names feels like a P.O. box.
What you did last year. You don’t need a 40-page report. A page with what you achieved, told through concrete examples and your own photos, tells a donor more than a pie chart. “This year 60 girls finished middle school with us” lands on the first read.
Something they can check. If you’re a donataria autorizada, an organization authorized to issue tax-deductible receipts in Mexico, say so and link to the SAT’s public directory, where anyone can look you up. Include your organization’s legal name too, because it often doesn’t match the name everyone uses, and donors need both to find you.
Dates. Make it obvious the site is alive. One story from this month is worth more than ten from three years ago.
What makes them close the tab
A “Donate” button that leads to a bank account with no name. A contact email that bounces. Photos that aren’t yours. A “we’re transparent” without a single fact to back it. And an unanswered question that stops many donors who pay taxes: “Do I get a receipt?”
On receipts, we won’t tell you how to issue them; that’s your accountant’s job. What your site can do is answer the question before anyone asks. If you issue receipts, say so next to the button, along with what the donor needs to send you and how long the receipt takes. Ask your accountant for those two details and put them on the page exactly as given.
The two-minute test
Ask someone outside your organization, who doesn’t know it, to look you up on Google and tell you how they felt after two minutes. Don’t explain anything. Just listen.
If their answer sounds like “I don’t know, it looks kind of abandoned,” you know where to start. It’s also worth knowing what an AI bot says when someone asks about you, because that’s the new googling. That’s what the free AI visibility check is for.
