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Turning Donor Insights into Digital Dollars
The document analyzes the online donation experience of Australian charities, revealing that many are underperforming against best practice benchmarks with over 72 charities scoring less than 50%. Key findings emphasize the importance of quick, user-friendly donation forms, mobile responsiveness, and the effective use of storytelling and visuals to engage potential donors. Recommendations include simplifying the donation process, offering multiple payment options like PayPal, and personalizing donor interactions, which could significantly increase digital donations.
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Turning Donor Insights into Digital Dollars
- 1. The Digital DonationExperience Expectation vs Reality Shanelle Newton Clapham & Dianna Verlaan October 2016
- 2. Parachute Digital guiding charitiesthrough the digital landscape We work exclusively with not-for-profit organisations to get more donations through digital channels. We do this by giving supporters and donors a great experience online and telling stories that matter to them.
- 3. WHY research Website DonationPages? What type of online donation experience do Australian donors expect? Finding the answers to simple questions What makes donors visit a website donation page only to leave it before completing the donation? What does a best practice website donation page look like and are Australian charities measuring up?
- 4. What opportunity areyou missing? How much more money could you generate for your cause?
- 5. Our approach wasthreefold Benchmarked 100 Australian charities against a set of 59 best practice criteria for the online donation experience and analysed how organisations nurture their new donors. 1. One page form Explains the cause Image Use dollar amounts Explains what you can do for the amount 12 or less form fields Maximum 9 mandatory fields Mobile responsive Validation Minimum 2 online payment options New page for than you message Is thank you page personalised The study was undertaken from the 4 December 2015 to 1 August 2016.
- 6. Our approach Surveyed 180donors to determine their expectations of an online donor experience.2. 3. Conducted 10 in-depth donor interviews to compare actual behaviour The study was undertaken from the 4 December 2015 to 1 August 2016.
- 7. The Top 5 LargeEnvironmental organisation Small Health organisation Score 92% Score 83% Large Human Rights organisation Score 83% Large Environmental organisation Medium Homeless/ Poverty organisation Score 75%Score 83%
- 8.
- 9. Speed iskey Easy is just as important as fast Keep form fields to a minimum Suggest how much to donate (dollar handles) Give your donors payment options LOVE your donors and design the experience for THEM (not the org)
- 10. Some surprises 72 Charities scoredless than 50% on the benchmark. Some simple changes could deliver more digital dollars. Only 5 Charities scored above 75% 25% of charities did not have a mobile responsive website donation page 90% of Charities choose not to ask their donors for a monthly donation
- 11. Some common senseconfirmed 79% of Donors said they are more likely to exit an online donation page if the process takes longer than a few minutes. The easiest form took 1:10 mins 81% Of Donors would be willing to donate more if they knew exactly what their donation was providing. 27% of Regular givers prefer to donate by PayPal and direct debit over credit card. But only 17 organisations offer PayPal.
- 12. What are the opportunities tomake more money online?
- 13. A donation pagethat tells the story The content, and images tells the story of the charity, outlining the issue and the solution Language and visuals are emotive Top Tip Use solutions-based imagery - this resonates more with donors and leaves the donor feeling more positive
- 14. Does video tellthe story better? Is it good? Does it add value? Is it a distraction? Only 4 charities used video on their donation page. GetUp!, Vinnies, Cancer Council NSW and Kid’s Cancer Research from Kiss metrics shows that 64-85% of viewers are more likely to buy a product after watching a product video
- 15. Donor testimonial –short videos
- 16. 67% of the benchmarked organisationsuse images The Fred Hollows Foundation Positive vs negative images Donors prefer solutions-oriented and positive images Barnardos Donors say that negative images leave them feeling guilty, which is a negative experience. 62% Of these images are positive
- 17. A quick andeasy online form It’s quick to donate only taking 1m 10 sec Its simple to donate with a one page form and less than 10 form fields Data is validated enabling TWS to contact the donor in the future Mobile responsive is just as important Top Tip If you get the form right, you’ll get more donations & loyalty
- 18. Live Demo: Quickand easy 34% of donors continue to donate to a specific charity because of the simplicity of the website donation process
- 19. Quick and easy Pre-population– from email Pre-population – from widget
- 20. Quick and easydonations Top Tip Cookies that remember you mean less fields to fill in
- 21. Mobile responsive: 75%of the donation pages are mobile responsive Donate button at the top of homepage Numeric keyboards for ALL numbers Google Smart address @ keyboard for email No captcha Quick and easy mobile donations
- 22. Discuss: One pageor multiple steps? 56% of charities benchmarked used a one-page form 4/10 focus group members donated to a charity with multiple pages
- 23. Show them whattheir money will do Provides suggested dollar amounts Open choice field is also provided Explains what their donation will provide “I love that it tells me what my money will provide” Donor Interviewee Top Tip If you’re looking to increase average donation, give your donors dollar handles that tell them what their money can mean.
- 24. Donor testimonial –where the money goes
- 25. How will mymoney be spent?
- 26. How will mymoney be spent? Other ways of showing how the money is spent: Widget Graph
- 27. Gives options forsecure payments Provides credit card and PayPal options Credit card form fields asked for required information only Provides certainty around security with security locks and links to privacy policy Top Tip Offer PayPal for both one-off and monthly donations.
- 28. Choose PayPal 57% of charitieshave only one payment option – credit card 17% ONLY 40% of donors preferring NOT to pay by credit card. Australians love PayPal 6million accounts in Australia In 2013 50%of PayPal donations came from Australia $6 million 25%Were mobile donations of benchmarked organisations used PayPal, despite
- 29. Show me myonline donation is secure 69% of survey respondents said they would be more willing to donate if the charity is clear about online security
- 30. Saying ‘Thank you’is important “37% of survey respondents agreed that saying ‘thank you’ well would lead to more donations” • Personalises the thank you page • Includes social media buttons for sharing • Uses inspirational imagery • Includes a button to encourage the next step in the donor journey • Explains the tax receipt has been emailed • Provides information on how the donation will be used • BUT doesn’t include images
- 31. Donor testimonial –say thank you
- 32. A great thankyou video ‘Thanks for giving us a hand’ • Gives the donation a personal touch • Talks straight to the donor and therapists • Reaffirms where the donor’s money will be spent
- 33. ONLY 24% of charities personalised theirthank you page How you thank your donor 98% of benchmarked charities used a thank you page, but… A TINY 7% of charities used a video in their thank you message 92% sent a thank you email, often combined with the tax receipt
- 34. Use the donor’sfirst name in your thank you email Write the email from the first person Personalise the thank you page The image has to be relevant to the appeal Talk straight to the donor in your thank you video Say ‘Thank you’ top tips Reaffirm where their money will be spent Tell them something new they didn’t get before – continue the story
- 35. Excellent thank youvideos Make it fun Show how the money is spent
- 36.
- 37. Keep talking toyour donors More than a third (35%) of charities did not continue to nurture the donor Format Number of Orgs Average times sent Email 61 5.5 emails Direct Mail 54 2.1 letters Phone 2 1.5 calls SMS 3 1 SMS
- 38. Let’s talk donorjourneys Question: Would our donor journey have been different, had we made a $100 donation, rather than a $10 one?
- 39. Great donor journey:Caritas DM Journey
- 40. A great donorjourney: Berry Street Combination of eDM and DM’s
- 41. Establishing an ongoingrelationship Opportunity: Spend the time to design a donor journey so that you don’t over or under communicate with them Only 8 charities took the donor through a designed donor journey Only 4 charities remarketed through Facebook & display banner ads Only 2 charities followed up the donation with a Regular Giving ask Only 3 charities sent an SMS follow up 54 charities sent a direct mail appeal and 10 charities sent 3 appeals in that same 6-month period
- 42. What else did welearn? Interesting insights into age and gender
- 43. Gender impacts donations Donorsexpressed a strong desire to support charities in which they can relate to, or sympathise with. Women donate to social justice organisations more often Men prefer to donate to health causes
- 44. Women want simplicity, menwant security Men (75%) were more concerned about security than women (66%). Women (45%) said it was the stories and images that determine if they would donate compared to 34% for men. Nearly all women (94%) surveyed felt that the simplicity of the website donation page was very important, compared to 84% of men.
- 45. Donor behaviour byage Donors OVER 40 are more likely to support environmental causes 31% 22% 29% Over 40s 16% Over 40s 14% Under 40s 13% Donors UNDER 40 prefer to give to health and social justice
- 46. UNDER 40s aretwice as likely to be triggered by public advertising than over 40s, and are more likely to donate at Christmas time. 41% of donors OVER 40 said the donation ‘Thank you’ process was important, compared to 33% of under 40s. OVER 40s (75%) were more concerned with security than under 40s (66%) - agreeing they would be more willing to donate based on security. Donors under 40 have different triggers to donate Older donors care more about being thanked.
- 47. What can youdo with this new found knowledge?
- 48.
- 49. How do Imake more money online? Keep the form simple Make it fast Tell your organisation’s mission and provide the solution on the donation page Use visuals to tell your story Make it secure Say Thank You well Build a relationship with your donor
- 50.
- 51. What you really wantto know is….
- 52. How did your organisationscore? Ask.us@parachutedigital.com.au
- 53. Scorecard of 100 Australiancharities
- 54.
Editor's Notes
- #6 Our approach was threefold. We firstly undertook a benchmarking study which involved donating $10 online to 100 Australian charities and measuring the experience against a set of 59 criteria. We looked at: overall design of the website donation page including content and imagery, layout, number and type of form fields and number of steps; the donor’s experience including speed, ease, payment options, use of dollar handles, and the experience on mobile; the donor journey- particularly how charities thanked their donors and pursued them over a 3-6 month period. The top 12 criteria I wanted to call out includes:
- #7 We then surveyed over 180 donors and undertook 10 in-depth interviews to discover what specifically donors liked and didn’t like so that we could compare against what charities were providing. We also looked at age splits and gender splits to see if there were any specific differences and we found some which we will share with you today.
- #8 Only 4 charities scored over 75% so we thought we’d take you through some of the key criteria and showcase how each of these charities were able to achieve these scores
- #11 These numbers surprised us! But let’s go into some of the details
- #14 Content that tells the story of the problem coupled with an explanation of the solution is very important to donors. 41% of survey respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the stories, pictures and videos shown on the donation page would determine if they donate and this was supported by the majority of donor interviews. Only 36% of benchmarked charities actually mention the cause on the donation page.This means that two-thirds of charities lost the opportunity to make a stronger emotional connection with their donor through the use of images. The type of pictures shown was also a key discussion point with donor interview participants saying they prefer images that were solutions-oriented and positive to those images of problem-oriented and negative. These problem-oriented and negative images left interviewees feeling guilty if they did not donate and resulted in a negative experience and connection with the charity.
- #15 https://blog.kissmetrics.com/product-videos-conversion/ : 64-85% of viewers more likely to buy a product after watching a video. https://youtu.be/9mMpSMXZpkc Video The Kids’ Cancer Project. Was in right hand column of both donation page and thank you page. Website has changed since research.
- #18 Donors want a quick and simple online donation experience but get slow and complex. If it takes longer than a few minutes, the donor is highly likely not to complete the donation with 79% of survey respondents saying they are more likely to exit the donation if it take more than a few minutes Donors also want the donation page to be easy to navigate, with 91% of survey respondents strongly agreeing or agreeing with this. Only a quarter of charities had a one step process to donate and they are asking donors for too much information when making an online donation. The number of form fields is frustrating for donors. Best practice is under 9 form fields and on average Australian organisations are asking for 19 pieces of information – of which 15 are mandatory. Many of these fields are unnecessary for the charity to continue to develop a relationship with their donor. Fields such as card type, name on card, date of birth, gender, title could be removed immediately to streamline and simplify the donation form. Unnecessary and compulsory fields can cause frustration for donors and many interviewees selecting a different charity to complete their donation once they saw the longer form of their first choice. Organisations who get the online form right are more likely to gain donor loyalty, with 34% of survey respondents indicating they would continue to donate to specific charity because of the simplicity of the process When collecting donor data online, best practice website donation forms should validate the key form fields to Australian formats – such as 4 numeric digits for post code and 10 numeric digits for mobile and landline phone numbers and 16 numeric digits for credit card number. Only 28 charities validated this information limiting just over 70% of charities from continuing to build a relationship with the donor With all the buzz about being mobile friendly, Benchmarking showed that 28% of organisations did not have mobile responsive donation website pages or a mobile page at all and only 9 organisations gave donors a numeric keyboard for all numbers including phone, post code, credit card and CCV numbers. People spend over an hour every day on their smart phones so those charities who find simple and easy ways to encourage donations through mobile will put them ahead of the rest and prepare them for future growth in this space.
- #19 Link for TWS donation page: https://www.wilderness.org.au/donate Link for Garvan Research foundation donation page: https://www.giving.garvan.org.au/donate-now 18 orgs validate mobile, 17 validate phone, only 14 do both. Minimise the number of form fields The average number of form fields is 19 Get the donation first, ask questions later Fields you don’t need: title, DOB, 5 address fields, card type, name on card Use clear error messages Validate phone number and postcode, only 14% of organisations do both
- #20 Link to prepopulated donation page Bush Heritage: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/donate/save-bilby?form=www&id=123906&SEQN=5262365&utm_source=informz&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WIN16EDM_W4 Widget animals Australia: www.animalsaustralia.org
- #22 Both screenshots are from mobile donation page Fred Hollows.
- #24 Over a third (33%) of survey respondents preferred a suggested dollar value. This was overwhelmingly supported by the donor experience sessions on the condition that there was an open field option for the donor to add their own donation amount. 81% of survey respondents indicating that they would be willing to donate more if they knew exactly what their donation was providing Almost two thirds (63%) of organisations are not explaining what could be achieved for a specific donation amount and just under three quarters (73%) are not providing the donor with a choice of where their donation would be spent. This is an opportunity for charities who are looking to increase their average donation which they can do by simply educating donors on what could be achieved with their generous donation.
- #26 Oxfam: clickable. https://www.oxfam.org.au/my/donate/general-fund/ Epilepsy Action Australia: cheaper option with one image, not clickable. https://www.epilepsy.org.au/support-us/make-donation/donate-now-form
- #28 It will come as no surprise that credit card is the most popular payment option with 65% of regular givers and 61% of non-regular givers preferring credit cards. This was followed by PayPal with 15% of both regular and non-regular givers using this as their preferred method. Our benchmarking showed 57% of charities have only one option for online payment for one-off donations and this is credit card. Of these organisations 47% don’t offer any other way of paying on the donation form potentially impacting the completion of the transaction since almost 40% of non-regular givers prefer not to pay by credit card. Only 17% of organisations accepted Paypal and 27% accepted direct debit for regular giving meaning that these charities could be missing out on valuable regular giving donors with 27% of regular givers preferring Paypal and direct debit over credit card. Since these same charities accept Paypal (31%) for one-off donations, this could easily be extended to regular givers. When it comes to security - 69% of survey respondents indicating that they would be more willing to donate if the charity is clear about online security and how their personal information is used, there is certainly a good case for ensuring visual recognition of privacy and security. Reassuringly a vast majority of organisations have some form of visual recognition in place including padlock icons, a CAPTCHA, https or a privacy ‘tick box’. However almost ten per cent of organisations did not have a link to their privacy policy on the donation page.
- #30 Lock: childfund Submit secure donation: CMRI Children’s Medical Research Institute Secure donation form: Animals Australia Your transaction is secure: World Animal protection
- #31 How a charity thanks donors will determine if they donate again with 37% of respondents indicating that they strongly agreed or agreed with this statement. Most charities do this well with 98% of charities thanking their donors through ‘Thanks you’ page messages and 92% sending a ‘thank you’ email. The majority of organisations combined their ‘Thank you’ message within the emailed tax receipt. Using the donor’s first name to personalise the ‘Thank you’ message was also popular with 86% of organisations using this in their ‘Thank you’ email and just under a quarter (24%) personalising the ‘Thank you’ page with the donor’s first name. Only 7% include a video in their ‘Thank you’ message.
- #33 Link to Cerebral Palsy Alliance video: https://youtu.be/pqzTdNxykmk
- #34 Personalised image is from World Vision
- #38 Email was the most used channel to follow up with the donor with over 61% of organisations sending ongoing email communications But you have to be careful as 21% of donor interview participants said they would cease their donation immediately if they were forced to sign up to further communications. Benchmarking found that 64% of organisations have the option to subscribe to a newsletter with over 56% of those having a pre-ticked option. This potentially leads donors to inadvertently sign up to something they do not want. Donor Interview participants all expressed dislike for automatically being signed up to receive email, mail or telephone calls with all preferring to opt in.
- #40 Only email from Caritas before 1st June was thank you: 8 Jan. Next email comes in in Sept.
- #41 Thank you email: 7 Jan from CEO Thank you email: 18 Jan from fundraising officer DM Stephanie 1 26 Feb Thank you DM for donation 9 March Email Stephanie: 16 March Email Stephanie 2: 31 March DM Stephanie 2 31 March DM Eve 18 April; convert to RG Email Eve 26 April DM Jessica (tax appeal?): 6 May Email Jessica: 12 May
- #50 Keep the form simple - No more than one page and no more than ten form fields. Make it fast – To complete the transaction it should take no more than 1 and a half minutes. Tell your organisation’s mission and provide the solution on the donation page – Even though you think that people who reach the donation page are converted already, they are not. Use visuals to tell your story – Visuals provide an emotional connection - especially for women and under 40s, so use them to tell your story. Make it secure – Show donors how you keep their data secure (and private) using visual cues. Say Thank You well – Most benchmarked charities are doing this, so keep it up. Build a relationship with your donor - creating an ongoing digital donor journey is paramount and most charities are not currently doing this.
- #54 Link http://www.parachutedigitalmarketing.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Parachute-Digital-Top-100-charities-table.pdf