The Online D onation P rocess

1. The Online Donation Process

2. Presentation objectives • How to get into the head of your donors and understand what drives people to donate • What to look for to ensure your donation process is trusted and secure • Benefitsof an engaged donation process • Increase conversion • Reduce donation path abandonment rates • Develop one-to-one relationship with your donors • How has WaterAid achieved this?

3. Donor fatigue • What motivates donors to donate?

4. Empathy

5. Giving is emotional not rational “Most people probably do not calculate the expected benefit of their donation. Rather, choices are made intuitively, based on spontaneous affective reactions.“ Source:"Sympathy and Callousness: The Impact of Deliberative Thought on Donations to Identifiable and Statistical Victims," Deborah A. Small, George Loewenstein, Paul Slovic; Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, March 2007. http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/increase-charitable-donations-appeal-heart

6. WSPA: Bali Dogs’ Appeal The fate of 460,000 dogs on the island of Bali is in your hands. (...) Over 100,000 dogs have already lost their lives on Bali, poisoned with fatal doses of strychnine in a misguided and inhumane attempt to stop the spread of rabies. (...) We urgently need to vaccinate 350,000 dogs (over three quarters of the dogs in Bali) in the next six months in order to have a hope of eliminating rabies – and to make sure that no more dogs are poisoned to death in a attempt to fight this killer virus. Your support could help save dogs’ lives. Please make a donation to WSPA today. Just months to save 460,000 dogs’ lives.

7. Group influence • The majority of people in this room have donated £10 to find a cure for breast cancer. • Will you help us?

8. Giving time fosters commitment • An online study offered a brief statement about a fictitious cancer research foundation. • Those who were first asked how much time they would be willing to volunteer and then how much money, offered to give nearly twice as much money as those who were asked only about money • “Nonprofits, therefore, may want to create more differentiated ways to foster feelings of meaning in their donors,” Source: http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/should-charities-ask-for-time-before-money%3F The Happiness of Giving: The Time-Ask Effect, Journal of Consumer Research; October 2008, Vol. 35 Issue 3, pp.543-557

9. Driving people to your donation page • Appeal to the emotional and trigger empathy • Create buy-in for your cause by asking potential donors to give something else than money , e.g. time, petition, viral, sign up for newsletter or blog, join a social network • Show what other supporters are doing for the charity

13. The Donation Path • To increase the conversion rate of your donation path, you must build the supporter’s Trust, with Security and a1-2-1 relationship.

14. Online / Offline Integration • Give the Online / Offline Choice • Online Giving is growing substantially, offline is still significant. • For best results - Integrate Online / Offline • It has been proven that Multi Channel Supporters are more loyal. • “First year retention for multichannel donors was 51% compared to 30% for offline donors and 22% for online donors.” • Source:"Latest Trends in Online Fundraising," Steve MacLaughlin, Blackbaud – 09/09/2010 • http://www.nten.org/blog/2010/09/09/latest-trends-online-fundraising

15. Online - Payment Options • Give as many payment options as possible. • But ensure the most cost effective option is used primarily. • Primary: Direct Debit / One-off Giving • Secondary: Alternative and Third-Party Payment Services

16. The Primary Payment Method • Guide donors through the most cost efficient / effective process. • Your own on-site process is the most cost efficient. • And, Regular Giving is the most effective (builds the 1-2-1 relationship) • Gift Aid it. • 28p extra per £1 donation. • Must be a prominent part of the path.

17. ‘Up-sell’ donation prompts • Up-sell from the one process to another with tangible / visual examples. • Pre-populate forms with a larger donation sum than the minimum.

18. Build the Relationship - Follow up • Personalised • ‘Thank you’ pages. • Confirmation / Auto-response E-mail • Follow-up within 30 days • Link Back • Collect more information – build a user profile for targeted marketing • Enable sharing and referrals

19. Follow-up Objectives • With the follow-up, it is possible to: • Increase recurring income per donor • Increase donor participation and engagement • Build your supporter base through referral and sharing • Use the E-mail Channel (recommended) • Cost and ROI • Track-ability

20. Best Practice for E-mail • Gift confirmation must be within an hour of the online donation, received instantly for best results. • Sent from a recognised domain (e.g. supportercare@charity.org) and a Friendly From Address. • Avoid replying on auto-responders sent by third-party payment processors. They have a negative affect on building a 1-2-1 relationship. • Use a visually appealing HTML E-mail from a reputable email service provider to ensure delivery.

21. Summary • Transfer your offline field knowledge online • Trust, security and one-to-one relationship • Follow-up, keep it personal • Test, try and measure

22. The Online Donation Process