Recently, several organizations asked me for help in making the case to provide an easier donation-processing experience for their donors.
Especially during these difficult times, an extra investment may be hard to swallow and even harder to “sell” to leadership and the board.
That’s why it’s really important to find all the ammunition you need to make the case.
Keep track of donor anecdotes like this:
Have any donors reached out and shared anecdotes or messages telling you how hard it was to complete a donation on your website? Do you have any donors who called or emailed you and said they had a bad donor experience, and they needed to make a correction to a gift? When you called your donors to say thank you, did any of them share that there was a problem with their gift?
Can you quantify how many you received in the past month or even longer? Then check your numbers. How many donors went to your website and then didn’t complete their gift? How many donors clicked through to the giving page, but then abandoned it? How many tried making a monthly gift but didn’t?
Will the new solution improve this?
What if you could improve your completion rate by 10% or even 20%? How much money will that equate to? On an annual basis?
If your new solution allows your donors to pay for credit card fees, just calculate how much more money you’d be able to use for your mission. Industry studies have shown that some 60% to 80% of donors pay for the fees, so it’s an extra donation to your nonprofit. What does that mean if you total it up for a year?
If you can now make it easier for donors to make a monthly gift and if you can now offer special monthly gift amounts, that may be worth doing, and your new solution will pay for itself in a few months.
Just think, one new monthly donor will generate $300 a year on average. Ten new monthly donors will generate $3,000 more a year. What is the cost of the new solution or your extra investment? How does that compare?
Now combine the donor feedback and some hard numbers, and try selling the solution again. It takes some money to make money. How can your leadership team and/or board not be persuaded by that?
Posted October 12, 2020 at NonProfitPRO Today.
