Optimizing Donation Pages

Optimizing Your Website for Online GivingFundraising Ireland, July 1st 2009

Eugene Flynn, 54 Degrees

eugeneflynn@54degrees.com

www.twitter.com/eugeneflynn

www.54degrees.com

Let's look at the landscapeSVP has reported an increase of almost 400% in online Giving in 2008 compared to 2007 - * Source SVP

Broadband Subscriptions reached 1,272,166 in June 2009. This represents a 28.2% increase on Q1 2008 - * Source Comreg

In 2008, 36% of Irish People Shopped Online Compared to just 14% 2004EU Average is 32% * Source Eurostat

Internet Advertising Grew by 17.1% in 2008 Other Advertising Chanells fell. * Source IAB

What We'll Look At Today

• Donor Expectations• Effective Donation Pages • Online Event Fundraising - Getting the most

from your online fundraisers

Are You Listening to Your Donors?

Donor Expectations

What Potential Donors Look For on a Charity Web SiteThe organization's mission, goals, objectives, and work.How it uses donations and contributions.

Insights"Only 43% of the sites studied answered the first question on their homepage""a ridiculously low 4% answered the second question on the homepage"

* Source: Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charities, Jacob Nielsen

Donor Expectations

Reasons Given for Not Donating47% decided not to donate because of confusing navigation, cluttered design, and/or confusing flow from page to page17% of people couldn't locate the donate button due to 'banner blindness' and 'over-formatting'53% related to content. Unclear titles and terms along with missing information

LessonsDesign intuitive, clutter free easy to use websites with simple language that answers your donors' prime questions about your organization's mission, objectives, values, & demonstrates how their donation will be used.

* Source: Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charities, Jacob Nielsen

How Do You Use Donations?

Your Mission

Large Donate Button

A Big Donate Button is Important, but make sure you offer other ways to give in your Main Navigation

Clear Calls to Action

Prominent Email Capture

Not all visitors will be convinced to give a contribution straight away. Ensure you give them easy alternatives to engage & then work on your relationship.

Poor Design is Expensive

A Badly Designed Donation Page Will Confuse & Lose Donors.

On Some Web Sites - Up to 90% of prospective donors who visit your donation page are leaving without making a donation*

Do You Know How Much Your Donation Page is Costing You ?

* Source, Donor Digital

• Size DOES matter: Bigger donate buttons helped convert more donors

• Color can matter too: A vividly colored donation button can strongly boost donation page conversion…

• Less is more: Removing unnecessary fields from the personal information form significantly increased conversion rate

• Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference - Removing the title and suffix boxes from the donation form generated over a 30% lift in conversion rate.

*Source: Amnesty International USA, Donor Digital

Why You Should Test Donation Pages?

• Small changes can make a big difference to the level of donations your receive online. If you increase your conversion rate from 40% to 80% you have effectively doubled your online donations for a small investment.

• It's a lot cheaper than increasing visitor traffic & you do not incur any additional spend on Marketing

What Should You Test?Page HeadingIntroductory CopyDonation AmountsForm LayoutField Labels & Field PromptsNumber of FieldsButtons Size & ColourButton TextSecurity AssurancesPrivacy Assurances

Case Study - Irish Red Cross

Problem:Regular Giving Page Conversion rate = 40%

What We Did: Tested, Redesigned, Tested etc.

How We Tested: Observed a small number of users interacting with the siteUsed Google Analytics & Website Optimizer to Measure Results

What We Tested

Introductory Text & Security Assurances

Donation Amount String

Before

Donation Amount String

After

Required Fields

Before:

Required Fields

After:

Results, Lessons & Next Steps

Conversion Rate increased from 40% to 75%.

Next StepsWe Will Continue to monitor & TestWill Review Other Donation Forms

What We Could TestDifferent Gift Amount StringsRemoving Unecessary Fields

Say Thank You

Say Thank You in Style

No Need To Reinvent the WheelOffline Fundraising Tactics Can Work Online

Other E v idenceEvent Fundraising PagesGetting the most from your online fundraisers

Search Engines Are Important• John wanted to take part in the Beijing Marathon for Charity so he

consulted his reliable friend Google.• Google Introduced his old friend Beaumont Hospital

Friends are Important

John raised almost €4,000 online without any need for Staff to get involved....

The following year he came back & raised almost €15,000 with 3 friends

He Introduced over 150 New Donors

Getting Your Fundraisers Online• Ask them - in person, direct

mail, phone calls• Hold technology Workshops

- how to sign up & raise money online?

• Demonstrate that it saves you money

• Demonstrate that they can easily raise money online

Use Email & Phone to Motivate• Upon Registration, Thanks

for signing up, here are some tips

• Half Way, You're doing great, is there anything we can do to help?

• Final Push - Deadline approaching

• When they Reach their Target Do you think you could do better?

Thank YouLet our discussion continue

eugeneflynn@54degrees.comwww.54degrees.com+353 71 9127434www.twitter.com/eugeneflynn