Is your online donation form communicating a strong reason for site visitors to take action and donate? Perhaps it’s time to take a critical look at your online donation form and how it’s motivating – or not motivating – your prospective donors. Research shows that even small changes can generate big results! Join us to learn more about some best practices that can improve and optimize your online fundraising efforts. This presentation is courtesy of Heather Ballachey of iATS Payments in Vancouver, Canada. http://www.meetup.com/net2van/events/166601052/

1. Small Changes for Big Results:
How to Optimize Your Online
Donations
NetSquared Vancouver
October 7, 2014

2. Tonight!
• Warm-up
• The problems with online
donation forms
• Why they matter
• The solutions
• Group challenge!

3. Question
• How is your
organization
driving traffic to
your website
and online
donation form?

4. Sources
Email
Print
advertising
Events
Social
Media
Search
marketing TV?
Direct
Mail
Transit / out
of home
Face
to
face

5. Why it matters…
• 85% of US adults are online on a
daily basis
• 73% are on some type of social
media
• Online giving was up 13.5% in 2013
– Accounted for 6.4% of all giving in 2013
• A total of $8.3 billion in Canadian
donations in 2012
Sources: Pew Research Center, Blackbaud 2013 Charitable Giving Report, Statistics Canada

6. Online donors…
• Dominant channel for
new donors (64 or
younger) = online
• Online-acquired
donors have a much
higher cumulative
value
• Online donors tend to
give larger gifts
Source: 2011 donorCentrics Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report

7. Question #2
• Do you know the
conversion rate of site
visitors to online
donations?
• Do you know the
abandonment rate of
your online donation
form?
• Please share your data –
no judgment!

8. Problem
Source: NPEngage.com, Alissa Ruehl, 2013

9. Solutions
• Avoid third party
redirects
– Up to 70% of donors
abandon when they’re
redirected to another site
– Keep donors on your
site
– Focus on continuity of
look and feel – even the
URL (if possible)

10. • Offer a compelling
call to action
– Tell them why they
need to donate
TODAY
– Incite them to take
action!
– Make the appeal feel
personal
Solutions

11. • Eliminate
unnecessary fields
on the donation
form
• What data do you
really need – and
use?
• Less is more!
Solutions

12. Question
• Do you know how
many fields are on
your organization’s
online donation form?
• How many clicks does
it take to find your
form and make a
donation?

13. Problem

14. Why it matters…
• If site visitors can’t find it instantly,
what’s the point?
• Assume they’ve never been to your site
or heard of your organization before
• Simple math:
– Convert more site visitors to donors!
– 1,000 visits @ 1% conversion = 10 donors
– 1,000 visits @ 3% conversion = 30 donors!

15. • Make your donation
CTA front and centre!
• Use obvious
language
• Refine and test
navigation
• Offer multiple access
points in the
navigation
Solutions

16. Problem
Source: NPEngage.com, Alissa Ruehl, 2013

17. Why it matters…
• 30% of traffic to nonprofit and
charity websites is now from mobile
• 15% of donations are coming from
mobile web browsers
– This number is growing!
• Don’t lose them because the process
is cumbersome!
Source: Artez Interactive, “Mobile Matters”

18. • Invest in
responsive design
– For the donation
form landing page
at LEAST
• TEST the donation
process from a
mobile device
Solutions

19. Problem

20. Why it matters…
• Huge increase to lifetime value of
donor
• Reduce costs for handling donations
• Reduces ‘donor inertia’
– Donors have to make an effort to cancel
the gift
• Keep it straightforward and easy
when they’re inspired!

21. • Ask them for a
recurring gift!
• Don’t separate
one-time gift form
and recurring gift
form
• Make the process
easy and
intuitive
Solutions

22. Considerations
• Payment processing integration
– Monthly gifts automatically processed or
manually processed
– How to handle credit card data
• ACH (direct debit) as a payment
method ideal for recurring
– Less rejected transactions than credit
cards and lower processing costs
– Churches love ACH for tithing

23. Final Thoughts
• Visual representation of security
– https:// vs http
– Other icons to reassure donor their data
is safe
• Credit card fraud prevention
– Payment processor tools
– Fraud targeted to charities
– Avoid the refund scam!

24. Group Challenge
• Grab your phones,
phablets or tablets!
• Grab a partner (or
partners)
• Go to their org’s form
• Try to make an online
donation!

25. Discuss…
• Is the call to action compelling?
• Where is the form on the site’s
navigation?
• What does it look like on your
device?
– Can you enter your details?
• Can you set up a recurring gift?

26. Conclusions

27. Thank you!