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Monday, February 22, 2010
Are you struggling for ways to increase online donations? Do you think your online donation process is clear and simple?
If it isn't, you are almost certainly losing potential gifts and the truth is -- you're probably too close to the process to judge for yourself.
So why would I suggest asking your parents to test your online donation process? Well, hopefully they're willing to do you a favor, but they're also less likely to be computer-savvy and won't mind having you observe them while they make the donation. Okay, it doesn't really have to be your parents -- anyone in your family or circle of friends who you think is a little "technically-challenged."
So here is how I suggest you perform the test:
The next time you're at their house, ask them to sit down at their computer and go to your organization's website to make a $50 donation (more if you think you can get away with it ;-). Tell them you just want to watch them go through the process. Encourage them to verbalize any thoughts or questions while they're doing it, but make it clear that you won't be able to answer their questions until after they are done.
Now the hard part -- stop talking and watch. Take notes about your observations and their questions and comments, but avoid the temptation to guide them or answer their questions. You can't be there to help other donors so you won't get a realistic view of the donor experience if you interfere.
Here are a few things you should try to notice:
Do they have trouble finding your website?
Do they have trouble getting to the correct page to make a donation?
What steps seem to take them a long time?
Do they seem to be confused by the donation options they are offered?
How long does it take them to complete the process?
After they are done, you can ask for additional feedback and ask questions that occurred to you while you were observing them. Obviously repeating this exercise with other family members and friends will give you the broadest insights, but even one or two experiences will probably uncover things that you didn't realize were problems.
Most importantly, improve your website and donation form based on these insights. Change your call to action link if they didn't immediately find the donation page because the link said, "Give your support" and they were looking for the words "Donate Here." Reduce the options and text if they felt there was too much to read. Increase the font if they had to put their reading glasses on. Small changes can make a big difference -- not just for your parents, but for all your potential donors.Labels: fundraising basics, online donations
Monday, January 18, 2010
The tragedy in Haiti is horrific and the outpouring of financial support to aid in the relief efforts demonstrates, once again, the compassion & generosity of Americans. As with other recent disasters, much of the support is coming via online donations, but there has also been much press attention paid to substantial sums being raised by the Red Cross and a few other charities via text message initiated gifts.
The approach is simple: just text a simple keyword to a "short code" to donate a fixed amount (usually $5 or $10). The donation is added to the donor's cell phone carrier bill and the funds go to the designated cause. So if giving by mobile phone is so easy, why hasn't this caught on before?
When we last looked into mobile giving, the cell phone companies wanted to keep a huge percentage(40-50%) of the funds collected, which made it a very costly fundraising method. I don't know the details, but Mgive, the company facilitating the donation process, seems to have convinced the cell carriers to provide the service at much more reasonable fees -- by funneling the donations through a non-profit foundation they have created. That's great, but I think there are still several major issues that are likely to confine text message giving as a worthwhile technique for only relatively large non-profits.
Here are some issues to consider:
Significant fixed costs - Mgive is charging a minimum of $5000/yr. ($500 setup plus $399/mo.) and up to $18000/per yr. plus transaction fees. That may be fine for the Red Cross, but will be prohibitive for most non-profits.
Timeliness of payments - Although several of the mobile carriers have agreed to transfer a portion of the donated funds to Haiti faster, the standard arrangement is that it can take up to 90 days for the donation to reach the non-profit. That is far longer than a typically online donation where the funds get deposited into the non-profits bank account almost immediately.
Publicity - The success of a text message really requires two things: free publicity and a social network viral effect. Of course if you can get Hillary Clinton to mention your cause at a nationally televised news conference, or Ryan Seacrest to give you a plug on American Idol, you can drive a lot of visitors to your online donation page as well. The same viral effects can come from people passing on a donation link.
Very limited gift flexibility - The relatively small gift amounts associated with the text message gifts is certainly part of the success, but a basic tenet of fundraising is to tailor the "ask" amount to the donors ability to give. A good online donation form makes it very easy to offer donors a choice of giving levels or to encourage an ongoing monthly pledge instead of a one-time gift. That's one of the reasons the average online donation is much larger -- roughly $70. Perhaps equally important, is that an online donation form allows you to build your constituent list by collecting at least some information from donors such as their name and email address.
Other potential issues include questions about fraud risks, extra challenges of donation receipting and how much of the current success is driven by the novelty effect.
I hope my comments are not interpreted as a criticism of the current efforts to use text messages to raise money for Haiti. These campaigns seem to be generating absolutely wonderful results and rebuilding Haiti will certainly require every dollar that can be raised, but at least for now I don't see text message giving as a panacea for most non-profits.Labels: credit card processing, online donations, social networking
Monday, November 23, 2009
A few nights ago the phone rang at about 8pm. When I answered, a woman introduced herself and said she was calling in regard to my support of a non-profit called The Steppingstone Foundation that helps inner-city children attend private schools. "Oh great," a late-night solicitation call I thought -- but I was wrong.
She explained that her children were beneficiaries of my donation and were now attending a private school in my area. She told me what a difference my gift was making to her family and that she just wanted to thank me for my kindness. It felt really good, and it truly personalized the impact of this organization's mission. The whole call took perhaps 2 minutes, but virtually guarantees that I will continue to support this organization for years to come.
So the next time your considering a phone campaign, consider making it a thank-a-thon.Labels: donor attrition, fundraising basics, thank-you
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Competition is a powerful motivator and the Jewish Community Heroes campaign is a great example of how to harness people's competitive instincts to achieve multiple benefits. I learned about the campaign when I recently received an email encouraging me to vote for noted holocaust survivor and author Gerda Weissmann Klein to be recognized as a Jewish Hero. She is a very worthy hero in my mind, so I happily clicked the link and voted for her. After voting, I was given an opportunity to get updates on the voting and FIND OUT WHO WINS! by just providing my email address and zip code. When I did, I was invited to Spread The Word by emailing friends. Brilliant, think about how this seemingly simple website is able to achieve so many desirable goals including:
- providing recognition for many worthy individuals - not just the winner, but everyone who is nominated.
- engaging constituents in the process of nomination, voting and campaigning.
- dramatically expanding website visitors and collecting lots of email addresses using viral and social networking techniques that require very little effort (or really commitment) from participants.
Although creating a sophisticated campaign like this may be beyond your non-profit's current capacity, there are still some great lessons about using friendly competition (a common option in team-raising and sponsored event tools) and about using non-fundraising engagement tools (e.g. petitions and surveys) to build email lists that can be cultivated into active supporters. Labels: donor email addresses, fundraising basics, social networking
Monday, August 10, 2009
Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance refers to a set of security standards for protecting cardholder data. Here are some basic Dos & Don'ts for any organization that is accepting (or considering accepting) credit card payments.
Don'ts
1) Don't think PCI doesn't apply to you - Most non-profits process fewer than 20,000 transactions per year and are thus considered Level 4 Merchants. Currently this means that certifying PCI-compliance is not mandatory, however they are still responsible for the security of cardholder data and still subject to fines if the data is breached.
2) Don't ever keep account verification data - This includes the 3 or 4 digit CVV security code on the card, PIN #s or data stored on the magnetic stripe of the card.
3) Don't collect or send credit data via email - Email provides very little security and should not be used to transmit credit card data. This means discouraging donors from providing their account numbers via email, but also eliminating any "online forms" that collect card data and then send it via email. If you can't justify the fairly minor expense to offer a truly secure online donation form, just don't offer the option to make a gift online.
Dos
1) Do store cardholder data securely - In order to process monthly pledge payments via credit card or ACH, the account data must be stored somewhere. If it is stored in a spreadsheet, Word document or database on your computer or servers, it must be encrypted and password protected. It's far easier to use processing software that allows you to store account data at a Level 1 PCI-certified hosting facility. For instance we recently adapted all our software to store only a unique ID "token" that allows processing of future pledge payments without the need to store credit card data on our or our client's computers.
2) Do promote security for online donations - If you've made the effort to ensure that your online processes are secure, promote this fact on your online donation pages using appropriate text and security icons. This will increase donor confidence when providing their information and thus increase donations.
3) Do review handling & storage of paper records - Securing cardholder data does not only apply to electronic records. Any donation forms, pledge cards, reports or other paper records that contain credit card numbers should be destroyed (or at least stored in locked files) once they have been processed.
The bottom line is that protecting your donors' credit card data is critical -- not just because of PCI, but also to ensure their trust in your organization is maintained. Following these Dos and Dont's is a really good way to begin.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Seem obvious? It is -- but yet it's really easy to get tempted into investing lots of time and effort in pursuit of the latest "hot idea." A good example is all the buzz around using social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. They do offer intriguing potential to communicate and develop stronger relationships with supporters. But how much have you seen or read about nonprofits really achieving significant success? More typical are articles like this reporting a small return on investment. My advice - let others blaze a trail and instead focus on techniques where others have already demonstrated significant success.
Here are three ideas that are far more likely to provide a good return on your investment of time and effort:
Monthly giving program - Building your base of recurring givers requires significant work but has been proven to improve donor retention by as much as 40%. This can increase the life-time value of a donor by several times.
Friend-raising - Sponsored events like walkathons and other -thons have long been successful ways to use supporters to help raise money. The advent of software tools that make it easy for donors to create a personal fundraising/supporter page and then use email to solicit support for your cause, has significantly increase the efficiency of such campaigns. A growing number of nonprofits are now extending these techniques and tools for virtual-events, board-member fundraising or work-place campaigns.
Email - Despite the challenges of SPAM blockers and keeping email addresses current, email is still the simplest, quickest and best way to keep your donors well informed. I strongly recommend using a tool like Constant Contact which allows you to create and send professional looking e-newsletters, e-invitations and other communications. Broadcast email systems like this also provide really helpful reporting on open rates, undeliverable/blocking and click-throughs.
Remember, successful fundraising doesn't have to be cutting edge, it just has to work. Relying on techniques that have worked well for other organizations or for you in the past is one of the best ways to increase your chances of meeting your goals.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
We recently conducted a client focus group to get insights from customers who are using a new product of ours called DonorPages. It helps nonprofits use social networking to assist supporters soliciting donations or sponsors for events (or virtual events). Anyway, the feedback was really interesting and incredibly useful -- and not entirely what we expected.
I suspect that most nonprofits have never thought about organizing a donor or constituent focus group, but I think it is a great idea and not hard at all. Here are a few tips based on our experience:
Virtual focus groups - A simple conference call is easy to setup and not at all costly (even free). Since you don't have visual queues like raising one's hand in a virtual meeting, it usually best to keep them to about 6 participants.
Have a clear theme - What are you trying to learn? For example it could be what aspects of your mission are most important to donors or how to improve your communication with supporters. Focusing on one main topic helps keep the sessions from getting out of control.
Prepare just 3 or 4 questions - Keep them open-ended to encourage more in-depth responses. Listen and ask probing follow-up questions when appropriate. To "break the ice" ask participants to introduce themselves and answer a short question like how long they've been a supporter.
The moderator - Speak as little as possible. Your job is just to ask the questions, facilitate discussion by keeping it on topic and encourage participation by all. Let participants know that you may need to limit their comments so everyone gets to speak.
Record the call - You probably want someone else listening and taking notes but recording the call makes it easy to ensure all the insights get summarized. It is also a great way to share information with others who don't participate.
In this challenging economy, it is that much more important to stay in touch with your constituents. What better way than to ask them what they think? So try a focus group -- and let me know how it goes.Labels: fundraising basics
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