As you may know by now, when it comes to monthly giving, I’m all about making things easy and simple for both monthly donors and the organizations.
So when I start working with an organization on growing their number of monthly donors, we first look at the online donation forms to see what’s already in place.
And that’s sometimes where the big pause comes…
I call it the “stopper,” “the donation preventer” or the “I’m-not-so-sure-about-making-a-donation-right-now” piece that sits on the donation form.
Here are just a few examples of what this looks like and it’s typically located above the amounts.
It’s the first thing the donor sees, and it causes him or her to think. And maybe think twice!
“Do I want to create an account right now?”
“Did I already make an account for this organization? I think I may have. What the … did I do with the login and password?”
“Oh, where did I write down the password?”
“Nah, I’m not comfortable creating an account. But I’m not sure if I can donate without that. Nah, I don’t want to spend the time going through that whole process when it then forces me to create an account.
Let me think about this some more.”
So, what just happened? You lost the donor and the donation.
Now, donors are wonderful people, so if they’re not comfortable online, they may call you and make a donation that way.
Or if you have the option of downloading a PDF form to send in with a donation or monthly gift, great! That’s another good approach, so be ready!
But, if you can at all get away with not having to create an account, that’s so much better. You take away that “stopper,” and you allow the donor to fill out their information and hit submit. Et voila, now you have a new monthly donor.
So, today I have a question for you: What is your experience? Does your donation form have the account creation option built in? Is it required or can you hide it? And if your system has it, how many donors start the giving process and never finish? I’d welcome your insights at erica@adirectsolution.com.
