Creating A Donor-Centric Web Site

Daniel Gonzalez, Web Manager Sage Nonprofit Solutions [email_address] Web Wise: Creating a Donor-centric Web site

Such much info, so little time…. Understand your donor’s needs Set site objectives Create Donor-centric content Eliminate obstacles and distractions Set and track key performance indicators

Importance of Web to Sector Online Giving Outpaced Online Retail Sales Online giving as % total individual giving* Online retail sales % total sales** * Giving USA, Ted Hart ** U.S. Census Bureau, they exclude travel booking/sales

1H’09 Online Gift Growth First half dropped, then rebounded Average Online gift amounts increased December giving was 48% of total raised Major donor online giving increases

Online Giving 1H’08 vs 1H‘09 22% Increase Yr/Yr

What is “Donor-Centric” fundraising? Donor-centric fundraising puts donors’ needs for information as the top priority Improved communication through donor recognition in a unique way (Source: Statistical Data Cygnus Applied Research)

What Donors Want Prompt, personal gift recognition ( acknowledgment) Confirmation that their donations are being used as intended (information) Measurable, published results (accountability) (Source: Statistical Data Cygnus Applied Research)

What Donors Say They Get Prompt but impersonal gift recognition General appeals with few measurable results (Source: Statistical Data Cygnus Applied Research)

Why Donor’s Stop Giving Believe the charity is not fulfilling its mandate Disagree with a change in direction of charity Lost interest in the cause Believes that charity no longer needs donor’s support Feels there are more compelling causes out there Believes charity has not kept in touch (Source: Statistical Data Cygnus Applied Research)

What Donors Are Saying Nonprofit Web sites lack inspiration, connection, and opportunity for deeper engagement Cite speed, convenience and CC reward points for giving online Online donating is more efficient and helps charities reduce admin costs Online giving is easier to track over time

5. Don’t want info about other organizations

More Things Donors Are Saying Only half believe charity websites make it easy to give online Want year-end tax receipts sent electronically Want electronic updates on charity’s finances Concerned about online security issues Expect to make greater contributions in future

What Donor’s Find Valuable Personal stories by people whose lives had been transformed by the charity Volunteer information Reviews and summaries of recent news coverage of the cause or charity

Agenda Check Understand your donor’s needs Set site objectives Create Donor-centric content Eliminate obstacles and distractions Set and track key performance indicators

Setting Site Objectives What is the objective of your site? Information? Donations? Subscriptions? Volunteers? Calls? All the above?

Aspects of ‘Donor-centric’ sites Clear description of goals & objectives Info on what the organization is doing with gifts Visible “Call To Action” buttons and links Minimal clicks to completion of the action(s) Success stories and updated news

Donor-centric site #1 Donate Volunteer Goals Adopt

Donor-centric site #2 Success Stories Where $ Are Going Results

Donor-centric site #3 Join or Renew Sign-Up Sign Up Vote

Visitor interaction with content on a site Visual Impression Initial content Impression Content engagement CTA engagement First 3 seconds – if the page is what they were looking for & if they find it appealing Next 8 seconds – if the content is relevant to what they are interested in Next 60 seconds – they spend being engaged with the content. To see if sufficient content is available for them to make a decision Next Step– if they have made a decision, then they look for their desired next step on the page. Has it been displayed clearly and is easy to locate Yes Yes Yes

Have a Content-Rich Site “ Content-rich” means your Web site is full of relevant information that attracts and holds your target audience Maintain and update your content on a regular basis Frequency of updates varies with each organization Understanding what your audience expects is critical

Convey A Clear Message Write for people, not for search engines Content should help educate, engage and compel potential donors to act Content should be clean, concise and scanable. No keyword stuffing!

Keep It Simple Simplify Content Navigation Call To Actions (CTA’s) Don’t tackle everything at once

Create Interlinking Pages It’s important for potential donors to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily Strategically linked pages improve usability and increase search engine rankings Include a site map of your Web site to increase ease of use

Summary of Content and Design Guidelines Site should have clear navigation, hierarchy and links Provide a site map Create an informative site, with clear, scanable content Keep content relevant and updated Use text, not images to display names, content, or links Make sure <title> elements and alt tags are descriptive Continually check for broken links and correct HTML (Source: Google WebMaster Guidelines)

Eliminate Obstacles Remember you have about 3 seconds to get their attention You have less than 60 seconds to get a donor to where they need to be to make a decision Not more than two clicks to get to the core offering Don’t place barriers in the way

The Critical Path One click to sign-up form Two clicks to sign-up form

Effective Forms Giving a clear value proposition can help visitors decide to give their information Creating a column form gives sense of less information being asked

Effective Forms Introduce a Thumbnail of the info that will be sent Tell them know how they will receive this information and how long it will take for them to receive it Remove distractions so visitors can focus on the form

Mind Your KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) Select measures that provide visibility into performance of your organization Enable you to take action based on those indicators KPI’s are not raw numbers, but the relationship between them

Determine your KPI’s What is the primary objective? Increase Donations, Improve Donor Engagement, Provide Information What is the Call To Action? Donate, Register, Subscribe, Download, Call What is the value to the visitor or donor for each action? To what metrics is the organization held accountable?

KPI Dashboard Best Practices All marketing or optimization activity should impact top-level KPI’s If not, you may be wasting time and money KPI’s should remain consistent and be measured over time Don’t mistake traffic (impressions, visits, hits, etc.) as a measure of site success

Examples of Donor-centric KPI’s Avg. Visits Per Visitor = Total Visits / Total Unique Visitors Average Visit Duration Abandonment Rate Average size of gift Recurrence of gift

Web Metrics 101 Most hosting companies provide basic metrics, or Google Analytics Valuable to determine site performance over time Lingo can be confusing, numbers can be misinterpreted Dilbert ©2009, United Feature Syndicate, Inc

Web Metrics 101 Someone came to your Web site Viewed a page or multiple pages on your site It could be the same person over and over again Good metric to know, but relative Hits, Visits, Visitors, and Unique Visitors

Web Metrics 101 Frequency and amount of time visitors spend on site How many pages they view before leaving Loyalty metrics help determine site “stickiness” Page Views, Page View Duration, Bounce Rate, Visibility Time, Session Duration, Depth, and Frequency

Web Metrics 101 High ratio = High visitor engagement Clicks, Impressions, Click-Through Rate

A deep breath….and begin 1. Understand Donor 2. Set Objectives 3. Clear Content 4. No Obstacles 5. Mind KPI's

Available Resources Idealware, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, provides candid Consumer-Reports-style reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits. TechSoup offers nonprofits a one-stop resource for technology needs by providing free information, resources, and support. NTEN is the membership organization of nonprofit professionals who put technology to use for their causes, and is a community of peers who share technology solutions across the sector and support each other’s work.

Q & A Daniel Gonzalez, Sage Nonprofit Solutions [email_address]

Creating A Donor-Centric Web Site

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