Parachute Digital benchmarked 100 Australian website donation pages against 59 points of criteria and got donor insights from a survey and in dept interviews with donors.
1. The Digital Donation Experience
Expectation vs Reality
Shanelle Newton Clapham & Dianna Verlaan
October 2016
2. Parachute Digital
guiding charities through 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
Donation Pages?
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 are you missing?
How much
more money could you generate
for your cause?
5. Our approach was threefold
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 180 donors 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
Large Environmental 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%
9. Speed is key
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 scored less 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 sense confirmed
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.
13. A donation page that 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 tell the 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
16. 67%
of the benchmarked
organisations use 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 and easy 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: Quick and easy
34%
of donors continue to donate to
a specific charity because of the
simplicity of the website
donation process
20. Quick and easy donations
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 page or 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 what their 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.
26. How will my money be spent?
Other ways of showing how the money is spent:
Widget Graph
27. Gives options for secure 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 charities have 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 my online 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
32. A great thank you 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
their thank 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’s first 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
37. Keep talking to your 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 donor journeys
Question:
Would our donor journey have been
different, had we made a $100 donation, rather
than a $10 one?
40. A great donor journey: Berry Street
Combination of eDM and DM’s
41. Establishing an ongoing relationship
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
we learn?
Interesting insights
into age and gender
43. Gender impacts donations
Donors expressed 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,
men want 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 by age
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 are twice
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.
49. How do I make 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
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:
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.
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
These numbers surprised us! But let’s go into some of the details
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.
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.
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.
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
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
Both screenshots are from mobile donation page Fred Hollows.
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.
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
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.
Lock: childfund
Submit secure donation: CMRI Children’s Medical Research Institute
Secure donation form: Animals Australia
Your transaction is secure: World Animal protection
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.
Link to Cerebral Palsy Alliance video: https://youtu.be/pqzTdNxykmk
Personalised image is from World Vision
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.
Only email from Caritas before 1st June was thank you: 8 Jan. Next email comes in in Sept.
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
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.
Link http://www.parachutedigitalmarketing.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Parachute-Digital-Top-100-charities-table.pdf