QR codes for nonprofits

Codes that move people to act

• Donations. A website QR code on a reply card, an event table or the back of a report, opening the donation page on your own site.
• Volunteer sign-up. A short form with the roles you need and the dates. Put it on flyers, at events and inside thank-you notes.
• Event tickets. Your gala, walk or dinner registration page, on posters and invitations.
• Impact stories. In a printed annual report, put a code beside a story that opens the video or the full write-up. Paper has room for a paragraph. The page can hold the whole story.
• Newsletter sign-up. For people who aren't ready to give but want to hear more. It's the easiest yes you can ask for.

Link to your own donation page

Campaign and peer-to-peer pages on third-party platforms come and go. If your printed code points at a platform you later leave, every report and mailer still sitting in a drawer points at a dead page, or at a page you no longer manage.

Put the donation form on your own site, or at least behind an address you own like yourorg.org/give that you can redirect, and make the code from that. Then you can change platforms without reprinting anything.

Give each mailing its own path, like yourorg.org/give/spring. The QR code can't count scans, but your website analytics can count visits to each path.

Where to place them

• Mailer reply cards and the outside of the envelope, at least 2.5 cm (1 in) square
• Annual reports, next to the story or number the code expands on
• Event tables, banners and programs
• Thank-you cards, for volunteering or the newsletter
• Posters at partner spots: coffee shops, libraries, community boards

What to avoid

An unlabeled code. Nobody scans a square of dots on faith. Put the action right beside it, Scan to give or Scan to volunteer, or use a frame with a label built in.

A homepage when you meant the donation form. Every extra tap loses people. Send the code straight to the page that does the job, and make sure that page works on a phone over mobile data: short form, big buttons, and the wallet payment options if your provider offers them.

Dropping the reply envelope. Many of your most loyal donors still give by check. Add the code as another way in, and print the short web address under it for anyone who'd rather type.

Your next step

Pick the next thing you're sending to print. Add one code with one job, label it, and test it on two phones. Open the page it lands on using mobile data, not the office WiFi, because that's how your donors will see it.