Blackbaud Online Giving’s Year in Review: Elevating the Donation Experience

Mike Simmons

This year, we brought meaningful progress and new features to you through Blackbaud Online Giving. In this recap, we’ll highlight how our Optimized Donation Forms expanded, share some impressive conversion gains, walk through the latest updates to our Standard Donation Forms, and cover our big leap forward in payment acceptance and security. Plus, we’ll give you a sneak peek at what’s on the horizon for 2026. Read on and then join a workshop to learn more. 

Optimized Donation Forms Bring Online Fundraising Success to Every Region 

2025 marked the second year our Optimized Forms were available, and we’re thrilled to share that they are now available in all regions Blackbaud serves. That’s right – Blackbaud’s Optimized Donation Forms are now available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Packed with key features designed to simplify and enhance the giving experience, these forms are delivering impressive results—organizations are seeing conversion rates 8–10% higher than our Standard Forms. 

More Features for Optimized Donation Forms 

This year, we introduced a range of enhancements to Optimized Forms to further improve the donor experience. We put more focus on recurring gifts, including a recurring gift upsell feature. Our A/B test showed that recurring gift upsell increased the number of monthly donors by 8% without affecting overall donor conversion rate. 

Additional features added this year include: 

• Increased number of donation designations 
• Communications consent options 
• Social sharing capabilities 
• Tribute collection 
• SKY Add-ins for enhanced integration 
• Goal meters within the branding card to showcase fundraising progress in real time 

Continuous Improvements to Standard Donation Forms 

We didn’t stop at Optimized Forms. Throughout 2025, we continued to add new features to Blackbaud’s Standard Donation Forms, ensuring that every organization can benefit from improved functionality and donor-friendly experiences. Highlights include: 

• Pledge functionality which eases administrative burden with automated installment payments 
• Social sharing which encourages donors to share your form with their friends 
• Google Pay support 
• Recurring gift support for both Apple Pay and Google Pay 
• PayPal now available on Complete Cover enabled forms 
• Donor cover now available for PayPal payment methods 

A Big Leap in Payment Acceptance and Security 

Another major milestone for Standard Form was the switch to our new and improved checkout experience. This includes ongoing improvements to ensure payment acceptance rates are maximized and to enhance the overall user experience. It also features zero downtime during feature releases. Additionally, we continue to bring enhanced security and fraud resistance, giving organizations and donors peace of mind with every transaction. 

Online Giving Goes Beyond Donation Forms 

With Online Giving, we look beyond just donation forms to website components that help expand your online giving experience and make gift processing of your online gifts more efficient. Based on your feedback, we’ve rolled out several updates to improve these ancillary areas. 

• Google Tag Manager support for easier tracking and analytics 
• URL Parameter Builder for creating custom campaign links 
• Ability to close and archive forms for better control over your campaigns 
• Goal meters now let you set offline gift amounts for a complete fundraising picture 
• Online data review now allows you to match organizations and tributes for streamlined management 

These enhancements are designed to help you maximize results and simplify your workflows. 

Looking Ahead to 2026: Online Giving Is Expanding 

As we look to 2026, Online Giving is expanding beyond traditional donation forms to become a comprehensive digital engagement platform. Our vision is to help you build lasting relationships with your supporters across every giving channel—whether it’s one-time or recurring gifts, tributes, pledges, memberships, or constituent forms. Here’s what’s on the horizon: 

• A Fresh Portal Experience: We’re redesigning the donor portal with a new homepage and streamlined navigation, making it easier for donors to see all the ways they can support your organization. 
• AI-Powered Engagement: Artificial intelligence will play a bigger role in helping you connect with donors through engagement recommendations, personalized ask ladders, and intelligent assistants. 
• Global Expansion: Continued expansion into the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and beyond. 
• More Gift Types and Flexibility: Support for new gift types and flexible forms—like automated pledges, tributes, constituent/email signup forms and membership forms. 
• Enhanced Data and Insights: Deeper insights into donor behavior and campaign performance to empower data-driven decisions. 

Online Giving is more than a tool—it’s a growing ecosystem designed to help you engage, inspire, and retain your supporters in new and innovative ways. We’re excited to partner with you on this journey and can’t wait to share more as we move into 2026 and beyond!