How Nonprofits Can Improve Their Donor Experience

February 13, 2020

Finding the right approach to satisfy donors and express your appreciation for their donation is somewhat similar to improving customer experience and in most cases, it boils down to simplifying certain aspects. So, here is a list of suggestions to keep in mind in order to turn the one-time donors into regular monthly donors.

Implement a mobile strategy

Seeing how much time everyone spends absorbing content from their mobile phones, the idea of creating a mobile fundraising strategy doesn’t seem so unusual. By opting for this strategy, you will:

Provide people with an opportunity to make donations on the go, without having to organize their day around coming home to send a donation;
Follow the latest trends which will in return help you remain visible and relevant as a non-profit or raise you from anonymity;
Redirect money and time towards a strategy that is more efficient in comparison to more traditional strategies.

If you aren’t certain about ‘going mobile’, you need only check any analytics tool you are using (if you don’t use one, Google Analytics is user-friendly and informative) to see the amount of traffic coming to your website from mobile users.

Incorporate giving levels

Causes for which money is raised for differ and people are often uncertain about what the appropriate amount is so they give up on sending donations. This is because they would feel embarrassed about giving too little without realizing that every donation helps. The benefits of incorporating giving levels include:

The process being quicker and more practical for busy working people than typing the amount manually which also helps prevent mistakes in the amount;
A better understanding of how much the minimum is so they won’t probably send less even if they can type a smaller amount;
Knowing the preferred amounts might prompt people to donate more.

Besides giving grades, you can add a box for typing in the amount for those who have a particular sum in their minds. By offering donors guidelines to amounts, you are also helping those more reluctant to donate easily.

Facilitate by simplifying

When it comes to researching, a nonprofit website and any other is not that different – the users are there to look for a specific purpose and shouldn’t waste precious time scrolling and searching for something. A fundraising website could go about navigation in the following manner:

Promotions should be removed from the page with the donation form because it can be confusing to prospective donors;
To accentuate the message you are trying to send, the web design experts you hire need to create a simple layout which leads to different sections in a coherent manner;
The donation form shouldn’t contain the general website search option because it needs to seem like the ultimate goal of the website visit.

In short, visitors need to able to navigate easily and that once they reach the page where they do the actual donating, they shouldn’t be distracted by any content which is not directly related to their donation.

Raise the transparency level

Although the causes you are ardently fighting for are, without a doubt, noble, people may question your reasons and your operations, which is, after all, only natural. Since you wish to prevent any doubts forming around your nonprofit organization, you can show that it is trustworthy by:

Being open about the benefits from donations and the donations’ worth;
Displaying clearly how and when donations are raised as well as dispersed;
Making sure that newsletters and blog posts include an overview of where the funds are going.

With so many online frauds of different types, it’s no wonder people are being cautious about where their money ends up. Besides for the sake of improving current donors experience, your financial situation needs to be transparent since that is the key to having more people involved in fundraising.

Show gratitude to donors

Just as you thank people who do something good for you, you should listen to that same impulse when it comes to donors. If you fail to show your appreciation, your nonprofit might come across as rude or unthankful. Some general pieces of advice regarding gratitude expressions are:

Avoid sending presents since that might decrease the feeling of altruism which instigated them to make a donation in the first place;
If you still wish to send them a gift and not a thank-you note, make sure they don’t know about it before they donate so that it comes as a surprise;
Also, any gift you decide to send should be closely related to the cause they are donating for and should bear your logo so that it reminds them of the good deed they did.

However, sending a thank-you note can express gratitude just as much as a gift, just ensure that it is customized and not a general message.

Conclusion

Many people have the urge to get involved with fundraising but few are ready to go through a complicated process. Simplifying it in terms of navigation, suggestions of donation amounts, and making donations mobile-friendly will attract even more donors. And if you wish to turn the one-time donors into monthly ones, what’s necessary is a transparent approach to the amounts and how they are dispersed, while a little a token of gratitude, presented in the right manner, can be a nice addition to your rapport.