"How Does My Online Donation Page Look?" = The Wrong Question

Since we work with many charities to power their online donations experience, we have a privileged view and can study the conversion rates across multiple online donation experiences. What have we seen so far? Less is often more. Some of the best converting donation pages are often the simplest: a small header, lots of white background, and a clear call to action. Some of the best-looking donation pages were often laggards when measured by conversion. Big juicy headers, lots of text, lots of color seem to be getting in the way of conversion! We have more studying to do, but one thing is crystal clear: Decisions about online donation pages should be driven by objective conversion data, not subjective opinion about what "looks good."