How Do You Create Donation Tiers?

Donation tiers are levels of giving that you show donors. Most of the time, it’s presented as a list of donation amounts with corresponding descriptions for each amount.

Here’s an example:

• $25 provides one day of housing
• $50 provides two days of housing
• $75 provides three days of housing

There are two methods you can use to create donation tiers for your campaign. The Impact Units Method and the Reward Method.

Impact Units Method

The Impact Units Method uses a multiplicative approach to creating levels of giving. For this example, we’re going to use a 2-3-6 multiplication factor, but you can use any factor that you want.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Determine your base. This is your lowest tier. Start with a single donation amount that yields an impact unit. We’re going to use $25 = 1 day of housing.
2. Then, you multiply your base by 2 to get $50 = 2 days of housing.
3. You’ll repeat that again by multiplying the base by 3 to get $75 = 3 days of housing. Then again by 6 to get $150.

The Impact Units Method is a good approach if you can quantify impact units easily for your project or campaign. It’s powerful because it lets your donors tangibly see what impact their donation is going to have.

Reward Method

The Reward Method gives the donor some type of value or benefits for donating a certain amount. For example, someone who donates $100 would get a handwritten letter from a child you are sponsoring. Or if you’re getting corporate sponsors for an event, companies that donate $1000 get their logo on your campaign site.

You can set any reward level that you want, but keep in mind a few things:

• You should have a range of donation amounts to cater to your donors
• You should have visible or significant differences in value for each reward level. Because this is a reward, donors will be weighing the costs vs value that they’ll get at each level.
• For individual donors, give rewards that are directly related to your social mission if possible so that you don’t dilute the motivation behind giving.

Two great ways to create donation tiers — the Impact Method and the Reward Method. Try these out today on your CauseVox fundraising site today!