The Digital Donation Experience Expectation vs Reality

The Digital Donation ExperienceExpectation vs Reality

Shanelle Newton Clapham & Dianna VerlaanOctober 2016

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Parachute Digitalguiding 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.

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WHY research Website Donation Pages? What type of online donation experience do Australian donors expect? Finding the answers to simple questionsWhat 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?

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What opportunity are you missing?How muchmore money could you generate for your cause?

Our approach was threefoldBenchmarked 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 formExplains the causeImageUse dollar amountsExplains what you can do for the amount12 or less form fieldsMaximum 9 mandatory fieldsMobile responsiveValidationMinimum 2 online payment optionsNew page for than you messageIs thank you page personalised

The study was undertaken from the 4 December 2015 to 1 August 2016.

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 donors 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:

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Our approachSurveyed 180 donors to determine their expectations of an online donor experience. 2. 3.Conducted 10 in-depth donor interviews to compare actual behaviourThe study was undertaken from the 4 December 2015 to 1 August 2016.

We then surveyed over 180 donors and undertook 10 in-depth interviews to discover what specifically donors liked and didnt 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.

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The Top 5Large Environmental organisationSmall Health organisation

Score 92%

Score 83%

Large Human Rights organisation

Score 83%

Large Environmental organisation

Medium Homeless/ Poverty organisation

Score 75%

Score 83%

Only 4 charities scored over 75% so we thought wed take you through some of the key criteria and showcase how each of these charities were able to achieve these scores7

What we learned

Speed is keyEasy is just as important as fastKeep form fields to a minimumSuggest how much to donate (dollar handles)Give your donors payment optionsLOVE your donors and design the experience for THEM (not the org)

Some surprises72 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 page90% of Charities choose not to ask their donors for a monthly donation

These numbers surprised us! But lets go into some of the details10

Some common sense confirmed79% 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 mins81% 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.

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What are the opportunities to make more money online?

A donation page that tells the story

The content, and images tells the story of the charity, outlining the issue and the solutionLanguage and visuals are emotive

Top TipUse solutions-based imagery - this resonates more with donors and leaves the donor feeling more positive

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.

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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 Kids CancerResearch from Kiss metrics shows that 64-85% of viewers are more likely to buy a product after watching a product video

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.

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Donor testimonial short videos

67% of the benchmarked organisations use images

The Fred Hollows FoundationPositive vs negative imagesDonors 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

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A quick and easy online form

Its quick to donate only taking 1m 10 secIts simple to donate with a one page form and less than 10 form fieldsData is validated enabling TWS to contact the donor in the futureMobile responsive is just as importantTop TipIf you get the form right, youll get more donations & loyalty

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.

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Live Demo: Quick and easy

34% of donors continue to donate to a specific charity because of the simplicity of the website donation process

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 fieldsThe average number of form fields is 19Get the donation first, ask questions laterFields you dont need: title, DOB, 5 address fields, card type, name on card

Use clear error messagesValidate phone number and postcode, only 14% of organisations do both

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Quick and easyPre-population from email

Pre-population from widget

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

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Quick and easy donations

Top TipCookies that remember you mean less fields to fill in

Mobile responsive: 75% of the donation pages are mobile responsiveDonate button at the top of homepageNumeric keyboards for ALL numbers Google Smart address@ keyboard for emailNo captchaQuick and easy mobile donations

Both screenshots are from mobile donation page Fred Hollows.

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Discuss: One page or multiple steps?

56% of charities benchmarked used a one-page form

4/10focus group members donated to a charity with multiple pages

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Show them what their money will do

Provides suggested dollar amountsOpen choice field is also providedExplains what their donation will provideI love that it tells me what my money will provideDonor Interviewee Top TipIf youre looking to increase average donation, give your donors dollar handles that tell them what their money can mean.

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.

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Donor testimonial where the money goes

How will my money be spent?

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-form25

How will my money be spent?Other ways of showing how the money is spent:

WidgetGraphIMPACT OF YOUR DONATIONSHOW OUR DONORS FEELHOW YOUR DONATIONS ARE USED

Gives options for secure payments

Provides credit card and PayPal optionsCredit card form fields asked for required information onlyProvides certainty around security with security locks and links to privacy policy

Top TipOffer PayPal for both one-off and monthly donations.

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% dont 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.

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Choose PayPal

57% of charities have only one payment option credit card 17% ONLY40%of donors preferring NOT to pay by credit card.

Australians love PayPal6 million accountsin AustraliaIn 2013 50% of PayPal donations came from Australia $6 million25%Were mobile donationsof benchmarked organisations used PayPal, despite

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

Lock: childfundSubmit secure donation: CMRI Childrens Medical Research InstituteSecure donation form: Animals AustraliaYour transaction is secure: World Animal protection29

Saying Thank you is important37% of survey respondents agreed that saying thank you well would lead to more donationsPersonalises the thank you page

Includes social media buttons for sharing

Uses inspirational imagery

Includes a button to encourage the next step in the donor journeyExplains the tax receipt has been emailed

Provides information on how the donation will be used

BUT doesnt include images

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 donors 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 donors first name. Only 7% include a video in their Thank you message.

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Donor testimonial say thank you

A great thank you videoThanks for giving us a hand

Gives the donation a personal touch Talks straight to the donor and therapistsReaffirms where the donors money will be spent

Link to Cerebral Palsy Alliance video: https://youtu.be/pqzTdNxykmk32

ONLY24% of charities personalised their thank you pageHow you thank your donor

98% of benchmarked charities used a thank you page, but

A TINY7% of charities used a video in their thank you message

92% sent a thank you email, often combined with the tax receipt

Personalised image is from World Vision33

Use the donors first name in your thank you emailWrite the email from the first personPersonalise the thank you pageThe image has to be relevant to the appealTalk 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 didnt get before continue the story

Excellent thank you videos

Make it fun Show how the money is spent

Donor Journey

Keep talking to your donorsMore than a third (35%) of charities did not continue to nurture the donorFormatNumber of OrgsAverage times sentEmail615.5 emailsDirect Mail542.1 lettersPhone21.5 callsSMS31 SMS

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.

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Lets talk donor journeysQuestion:Would our donor journey have been different, had we made a $100 donation, rather than a $10 one?

Great donor journey: Caritas

DM Journey

Only email from Caritas before 1st June was thank you: 8 Jan. Next email comes in in Sept.39

A great donor journey: Berry Street

Combination of eDM and DMs

Thank you email: 7 Jan from CEOThank you email: 18 Jan from fundraising officerDM Stephanie 1 26 FebThank you DM for donation 9 MarchEmail Stephanie: 16 MarchEmail Stephanie 2: 31 MarchDM Stephanie 2 31 MarchDM Eve 18 April; convert to RGEmail Eve 26 AprilDM Jessica (tax appeal?): 6 MayEmail Jessica: 12 May

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Establishing an ongoing relationshipOpportunity: Spend the time to design a donor journey so that you dont over or under communicate with themOnly 8 charities took the donor through a designed donor journeyOnly 4 charities remarketed through Facebook & display banner adsOnly 2charities followed up the donation with a Regular Giving askOnly 3 charities sent an SMS follow up54 charities sent a direct mail appeal and 10charities sent 3appeals in that same 6-month period

What else did we learn?Interesting insights into age and gender

Gender impacts donationsDonors 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

Women want simplicity, men want securityMen (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.

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Donor behaviour by ageDonors 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

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.

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What can you do with this new found knowledge?

Make more money online!

How do I make more money online?

Keep the form simple Make it fastTell your organisations 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

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 organisations 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.

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Summary research report

www.parachutedigital.com.au/researchDOWNLOAD

What you really want to know is.

How did your organisation score?Ask.us@parachutedigital.com.au

Scorecard of 100 Australian charities

Link http://www.parachutedigitalmarketing.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Parachute-Digital-Top-100-charities-table.pdf53

Questions?

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