Dusty Rhodes “Your Donate Page Could Be Losing 79% of Donors You Send There”
Your Donate Page Could Be Losing 79% of Donors You Send There – Here’s Why!
Quick Fixes to Reduce Friction and Boost your Results
Part 3 of the Fundraising Red Zone series
It is now officially the 2024 year-end fundraising season! All your plans, meetings, decisions, logistics, designs, content creation, production elements – oh, and the party planning! – you want it all leading to a celebration of record-setting results for the sake of the mission! And rightfully so!
But…what if 79% of the audience you drive to your donate webpage…do not give?
The bad news – that 79% is a real statistic and it happens way too often. People find your donate page and then get distracted, confused or frustrated while trying to give and they give up trying.[1] Researchers blame it on ‘friction,’ a resistance people experience when trying to complete an action. People are on your donate page because they are ready to give, most likely, but something about the webpage is slowing them down enough they do not complete their transaction.
The good news – fixing issues is usually a relatively quick change to some tactical aspects on the donate page. Doing so can greatly improve the donor’s experience so they complete their transaction, satisfying both you and the donor.
To clarify, friction is not about a malfunctioning donate page where there’d be immediate widespread agreement to get it fixed. Friction is often ‘good things’ including form layout on the donate page that a well-intentioned person or department wanted there, but it is slowing the donor down to the point of leaving the page before giving. According to the Donate Page Friction Study[2] examples can include Decision friction, asking donors to decide too many options; Confusion friction, forcing donors to make a decision they were not prepared for; Field friction, asking for too much information; Steps friction, requiring too many clicks, page-loads and steps.
In many cases taking actions to reduce friction on your donate page will not be strategic changes to your overall campaign, as it’s too late for those. We’re too inside that fundraising red zone I wrote about earlier, similar to football teams playing in the red zone close to the goal line, the closer we get to our goal lines midnight December 31st the more critical it is to execute at your highest level because there is little to no time left to make up for costly mistakes. While reducing this friction should not affect your strategy, making tactical changes will improve the positive outcomes of your strategy because more donors will complete their transaction.
Here are three examples of friction on donate pages from a recent study [2] and some tested tactics you can do to improve response levels.
Field Layout Friction
In this experiment, the amount of information in these two forms are the same. The only difference is the layout. The donation form on the left used vertical space, so this form appears longer to the donor. The donation form on the right used horizontal space and also grouped similar fields together, such as city, state, and zip code.
The above horizontal form on the right appears shorter because of these adjustments. Yet these adjustments increased conversion by almost 40% by just laying out the form differently! If it looks like it’s less work, donors are more likely to start and complete the form.
Tip: Keeping all fields on one page gets higher response rates than making the donor click to a 2nd or 3rd webpage to complete their information.
Confusion Friction
Confusion in the donor’s mind happens when unexpected items appear like navigation bars, multiple calls-to-action, distracting links, and messages that are not related to the giving experience. A classic example is the navigation bar at the top of the donation page. From the donor’s perspective, they have already expressed interest in donating by coming to the donation page. A navigation bar or other links to other pages often leads them away from completing the donation.
In the example above, the organization saw almost a 200% increase in donations by removing the navigation bar on top. This would stop the donor from navigating to another page, such as Events or the Blog page, while completing the donation form.
Tip: If you want to display a seal of accreditation approval on your donate page (ECFA), display it without imbedding a link in it.
Decision Friction
Asking the donor to make too many decisions, especially without context and clarity, can cause them to hesitate when they want to keep moving forward and complete the form.
In the example above, even though the form asks for relatively small things such as dedicating the donation in honor of someone or leaving a comment, organizations saw a 107% increase in donations by removing those additional questions.
Tip: Those and other questions can be asked later such as on a Thank You webpage that displays after their transaction, or in a post-transaction Thank You email that is sent later.
For practicality sake wait until after your Giving Tuesday fundraising event to make any friction-reducing changes to your donate page. Try to get them done either before you conduct another on-air fundraising event and certainly before the final week of December which typically is the biggest fundraising week of the month.
Most of our call-to-actions from on-air appeals to emails to text giving messages to QR codes and even direct mail response pieces, are likely directing people to the website donate page. Considering that, plus Giving USA studies reminding us each year the number of donors to mission-driven nonprofits nationwide are declining, including to listener-supported Christian music radio stations, that is hopefully enough incentive for us to do whatever we can to give our donors the easiest and simplest experience when trying to give their gift.
Tip: You can take a friction self-assessment specific to your own donation webpage. You’ll receive a personalized Donation Page Friction score with industry benchmarks and specific tips to reduce unnecessary friction – all based on a/b testing and first-hand research. It is free courtesy of Fundraise Up and NextAfter. Here’s the link: Take the Assessment | Donation Page Friction Assessment
[1] The 2021 M+R Benchmark donate page conversion rate is 21%; 79% of people who visit the main donation page with interest in giving, do not give.
[2] 2021 Donation Page Friction Study; surveyed 643 organizations across 17 different verticals including faith-based and public broadcasting outlets.
Dusty Rhodes is a strategic executive helping nonprofit leaders grow revenues to fulfill their missions for wider and deeper impact! He works alongside leadership creating visionary strategic plans and the revenue strategies to fund them for sustainable growth. His accomplishments span 30+ years serving in Christian media and ministry as an award-winning radio morning show talent, Program Director, General Manager, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Development Officer and Senior Vice President.
Contact Dusty: DustyRhodes777@Outlook.com and at www.LinkedIn.com/in/DustyRhodes777
