CAPTCHA means Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart.
Captchas are those funny looking characters you see on some web pages before check out or before donating. Basically, they want to make sure the person filling in the form is real.
While this is a great idea and essential, Do Not Make The Captcha Too Complicated!
This is an example of where the web folks and fundraisers have to get together and get on the same page. You’re the marketer. Think of your donors.
If you have a lot of older donors, keep it simple. There are so many options that are really easy to read and allow you to know that the person filling out the form is a real person!
Here is an example that’s pretty easy to follow and there are many other simple examples like this.
Sadly, I occasionally see organizations use a very complicated type of captcha, which makes it virtually impossible for a normal person to fill out, let alone someone who is older or in a hurry, but who wants to support your organization with a one time gift or better yet join your monthly donor program.
For example, if you’re using a combination of upper and lower case, does this mean you have to use upper/lower case when you type it in or does it not matter?
One of the first things I do when I start working with an organization on their monthly giving program is to join their program.
One of them had a very complicated Captcha. It took me three tries to get my recurring donation to go through!
Of course, I was motivated but your average donor may not be that patient!
And most of this organization’s donors are older. Having tested it myself, we were able to improve their monthly donor program and one of the first things we did was put an easier Captcha code in place. One of the other things we’re looking at is the number of people abandoning their monthly donation page. Because that’s surely an indicator, you really want an abandon rate of 0!
So, before you send anything out, before your monthly giving page goes live, test out every part of the process. Make sure that you yourself can join the program. Test if the form is easy to fill out and confirm that all of the thank you elements work for you. Then it will work fine for your donors as well.
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And be sure to check out the new Monthly Giving Help Line where we can address any specific questions you may have.
