The transcript with donation tips is below:
I have four tips for you for donation pages that I think will really improve the conversion rate on those forms.
Make Donation Pages Unmissable
So first, let's just talk about getting people to the donation page. It should never be a mystery where your donate button is. It should never be hidden like this silly cat. t should always be very clearly either in your top navigation or perhaps in what we call the utility area, which is above the navigation and tends to be to the right-hand side. So let's first be sure that our donate button is not missable.
Keep Buttons Up High for Mobile
It's important to remember that this is key on mobile as well. So here's an example from the American Red Cross organization, and you can see that on their menu button. If I click it on mobile over here, you can see donate is the first link. We never want somebody wondering where can I give them money? We never want that to happen. So here's an example from Sesame Workshop, the organization that puts on Sesame Street, and you can see that even on mobile, they make sure that they're there. Donate Button is floating what we call “above the fold.” Right. So somebody doesn't even have to scroll to find the donate button. It is there from the get-go. These are key things to keep in mind.
Abandonment Rates are High for Nonprofits
Let's talk a little bit about the abandonment rate. Oh, my goodness, 78 percent of people coming to a form are leaving a form in the nonprofit world. Tthat is a really high percentage. And if you can decrease that by a little bit, that can make a huge difference to your donations or, you know, your applications or whatever it is you happen to be. What we're talking about donations here. So if you haven't yet looked at the lesson on forms in general, please go check that out. That is important for making sure you have easy and usable forms. You want to be following best practices from now, not from 10 years ago.
We want to make sure that it is so easy to donate to your organization. It's as easy as doing a pocket dial. I'm sure you all have done this. I know I have. We want somebody to be able to shake their butt and give your organization money. We really want it to be super, super easy. So making your forms really easy to use is a good way to get there, making sure people can find them. That's really important, too.
Anchoring
And the next thing I want to talk to you about is anchoring. So I get myself out of the way here. So this is Charity Water. We know they're used as an example many times because they're doing a lot of things right. So anchoring is this concept where, you know, the first number you put out is going to anchor decisions around the rest of the numbers cycle, it's a psychological term.
People are going to anchor to something no matter what. So you may as well decide what you want them to anchor to. If you are hoping for your donations or your average donation to increase, you would want to put on your donation form a preset amount. That is the amount you would like them to be donating. You want to make it really easy for people. So making things easy by giving them pre-set amounts, that's great. They don't even have to put in a custom amount. They can just go, "That seems like a reasonable amount. Maybe that's what other people are giving as well," and then they will make that donation. So anchoring is a concept you really want to pay attention to. You can see that they even do it on a monthly option. They highlight the higher amount. They choose forty dollars a month versus the ten dollars a month. They highlight that with this button, it's OK to anchor them at a good amount that will help support your organization.
Another thing that I think Charity Water does really well, and this is actually a video in the background you can't exactly tell because these are still shots, but they're continuing while on the form to encourage and remind you why you're giving. So they have a child playing in the water.
Keep Encouraging Your Donor
Here's another image of somebody getting a cup of water. And so just because somebody got into your form doesn't mean that they're going to finish it. We know that from the abandonment rate. So we want to keep encouraging them with language like "you," with language like "join us," language like "you can help now," things that are immediate. So having imagery, I love the way Charity Water actually has put the form connected to imagery right there. So it's reminding me what I'm doing. So if there's any way you can put an image or language or quote or whatever it happens to be, that might continue that emotional connection once somebody is in a form, which tends not to be a very, let's say, emotional experience, you are more likely to get them to fill it out.
So to wrap up, make your donation button super obvious, especially on mobile. You're going to have easy and usable forms because you're going to follow good usability practices. You're going to use the anchoring concept on your donation form with preset amounts that make sense for your organization and your donors. And you're going to keep encouraging folks to donate even on the donate page, your goal is to get them to complete that form, press donate so that your organization can receive funds in order to do your good work. I encourage you to follow these tips so that you're more likely to get more donations.
Keep Learning!
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