Social Proof in Nonprofit Fundraising: Can Peer Influence Really Boost Donations?

At 4Site Studios, our bread-and-butter is helping social impact organizations enhance their online fundraising and activism. It’s a journey of continuous improvement and testing. This is valuable to the organizations that we work with as it allows them to find big and small opportunities to increase donor engagement, digital advocacy, or user experience. One of the most promising avenues of improvement we’ve been exploring lately is “social proof”—the idea that people tend to follow the actions of others, especially when making decisions like donating.

Social proof is all around us. From product reviews influencing our purchases to crowded restaurants signaling good food, our behavior is continuously shaped by observing others. But how effectively can nonprofits harness this principle in the digital world to encourage donations?

At 4Site, we’ve worked with our clients to implement social proof into their online engagement. One of the more popular examples of this is a scrolling ticker of donors that appears on web pages. We’ve implemented this for the Rainforest Action Network, PETA, and the National Wildlife Foundation, among others. It’s actually fairly simple to do. Here’s a demo that includes the javascript you can use to put this on your web page. 

While early results have been promising, we are learning that to really move the needle, we need to understand how social proof motivates people and adapt our strategies accordingly.

What the Research Says

Early research, including valuable insights from NextAfter, suggests that incorporating social proof elements—such as real-time donor counts or testimonials—can meaningfully increase conversions on donation pages. Similarly, fundraising platforms like Fundraise Up have integrated AI-driven social proof pop-ups that appear at strategic moments to nudge donors.

But there is more here than meets the eye.  I recently spoke with Kevin Schulman at DonorVoice who has done research that highlights the complexity of using social proof effectively. He said there are two critical considerations:

• Context is Crucial: Messages that highlight donor activity and satisfaction (“See, everyone’s donating!”) may backfire late in campaigns by creating complacency. Highlighting urgency (“We still need 20 donors to reach our goal!”) can be more effective at these critical moments.
• Audience Segmentation Matters: People with high openness to experience, those who are typically independent or innovative thinkers, might actually be repelled by overly strong social proof messages. Understanding your donors’ psychographics is crucial to avoid unintentional negative impacts.

Practical Ideas for Experimentation

Given these insights, we’ve been encouraging our clients to experiment, finding the right balance of social proof for their unique donor communities:

1. A/B Testing Donor Activity Widgets:
   • Test simple donor activity counters (“25 donors have given today!”) against more neutral messaging. And if you can, measure not just overall conversion, but donor satisfaction and sentiment.

2. Using Testimonials Strategically:
   • Integrate brief, authentic testimonials from donors that appear selectively—perhaps only when visitors scroll past a certain point or linger on donation forms.

3. Framing Goals Differently:
   • Mid-to-late stage campaigns could experiment with shifting messages from broad participation statements to specific calls-to-action around how many donors are still needed.

4. Personalize Social Proof:
   • Experiment with showing localized donation stats, such as “Join 150 donors from your city who have already contributed,” to make social proof more personal and compelling.

Moving Forward with Curiosity

At 4Site, we don’t claim to have all the answers, especially when it comes to human behavior as intricate as social proof. We believe the best insights come from testing, sharing, and improving—together. By sharing insights and experiments openly, we can collectively learn more about how to engage supporters thoughtfully and effectively.

We’re excited to dive deeper into this topic, and we encourage you to follow along, share your experiences, and maybe even run your own tests. Let’s explore together how social proof can best serve our collective missions and make our fundraising efforts even more impactful.

4Site Interactive Studios is a talented troupe of web professionals who are passionate about creating tools to support digital marketers. We love to hear from our community! Reach out to us with your thoughts and questions. And don’t forget to subscribe below to get notified when we post new blogs – no spam, just content👍🏼