Philanthropy
All They Want Is Money
Most nonprofit Web sites don't engage users fully.
At a recent conference, I did an informal survey of nonprofit professionals to see how many people visited nonprofit websites, other than for work, in the past 3 months (lots of hands)and how many planned to go back to those sites (very, very few). I asked, “Why don’t you go back to those sites?” “Because all they do is ask that I donate,” one guy said.
That is the state of most nonprofit websites—most engage users on only a superficial level. They rely on an information dump that ignores what the user wants to do and learn. A big “Donate” button on your homepage does not address the question of how to get that user motivated.
There are a couple of nonprofit sites that have woken up to this and really stand out for trying to spark intellectual and emotional engagement.
March of Dimes’ phenomenally successful www.shareyourstory.org now is home to over 13,000 short stories and 1,000 blogs by parents of premature children. March of Dimes is able then to approach these community members during fundraising or petition drives and ask them to give back to March of Dimes.
Engaging users by providing tools to help the users tell their stories doesn’t need to cost much or require much technology—check out these videos about living conditions in the favellas made by illiterate Brazilian kids at www.amplifiedvoices.org. The kids were given a couple of hours of training with a camcorder, and an Imac to edit the films themselves.
Even the World Bank is engaging the larger community by hosting live online interviews with their top executives. Next week, for instance, you can direct questions at François Bourguignon, the Bank’s Chief Economist at http://discuss.worldbank.org
Building relationships, highlighting individuals, and enabling dialogue are the strengths of nonprofits. These skills and values can be relatively easily and cheaply used to make their websites places that people will return to again and again to connect with causes that matter.
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COMMENTS
BY Dave Crory
ON October 12, 2006 12:18 PM
Pearla: Your point would make for interesting discussion at next week’s first-ever Nonprofit Congress, www.nonprofitcongress.org ... where emphasis is being placed on “building relationships, highlighting individuals, and enabling dialogue” that speaks to the essential value of the overall sector (to a democracy) ... another essential component individual orgs/websites too often fail to represent.
If SSIR is not planning to cover this event ... it would appear to be worthwhile topic for the future.
BY Claudia Zorn
ON October 12, 2006 01:09 PM
Perla: CARE (http://www.care.org) is another good example of sparking an intellectual and emotional engagement. CARE recently won GetActive’s SuperStar award for best recurring e-newsletter, CARE Connections, (http://my.care.org/care/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=2278395) which features several human-interest stories about empowering women to be catalysts for change in their community. A popular feature of their enewsletter is “Side by Side”, which profiles two women—one who benefits from CARE’s programs and the other a CARE supporter. CARE has received an overwhelming response to this newly launched enewsletter, and should have some good stats to share with the community at the end of the year.
BY Perla_Ni
ON October 12, 2006 02:05 PM
Claudia - thanks for pointing me to the Care Newsletter. Nice work putting real people and stories at the forefront of your marketing. One question for you - how could someone contribute a story or interact with a story? I’d love to see you being able to get more audience participation.
Would be great to get your stats because most of these efforts are so new that we’re still looking for concrete proof of success. Please post when you have them.
BY Perla_Ni
ON October 12, 2006 02:10 PM
Dave,
You are absolutley right in that what we are talking about is part of the larger set of values and practices of the NP sector. Thank you for making that vital connection. I’m not sure if SSIR is planning to cover the nonprofit congress. Do you know if it is going to be webcast, by any chance?
(feel free to also respond directly to me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))
BY Angus McAllister
ON October 12, 2006 02:36 PM
Recently, we did an experiment to assess the impact of the “donate button” prominence on a non-profit homepage. Our A/B test dropped 6,000 website visitors (not non-profit professionals) randomly onto 4 versions of a non-profit homepage. Two versions of the homepage downplayed the donate buttons, while two versions made the buttons more prominent; one of the latter had two prominent buttons. Results: visitors were 3 times as likely to click the “donate” on the homepage with two prominent donate buttons.
Your point is really important. Non-profit websites do need to engage people emotionally and intellectually to build and strengthen community. That means not coming across as too grasping, and giving regular people (ok - ok - the nonprofit professionals you surveyed are people too) - reasons to engage.
But at the same time, non-profits will want to be cautious about interpreting this as license to bury the donate features.
BY Dave Crory
ON October 12, 2006 10:18 PM
I would contend that balance, not bury, is the goal. Leading websites will precipitate change. Stronger sector-wide message will catalyze more/new donors too.
BY Perla Ni
ON October 12, 2006 10:33 PM
Dave & Angus,
Exactly. So not to overly dumb it down, but it’s like dating, you need the spark of curiosity and the getting to know you exchange…checking each other out, what do you do for work, what do you do for fun, do you like dogs, what kind of movies do you like, yada yada yada… and you also need the “so, um, can I get your number?”
Perla
BY Dave Crory
ON October 12, 2006 10:45 PM
Online giving ASPs make it possible for “donate now” to be natural progression of compelling online engagement. The goal should be to measure giving, volunatarism and advocay over time ... borrowing from the ol’ adage, “consistency over time is better than the single moment of greatness (one-time donors). DC
BY Angus McAllister
ON October 12, 2006 11:56 PM
Dumbed down works for me. I like your reference to “exchange” Perla—I’m for anything that helps us feel like we are part of, or witnesses to, a real conversation. Anything that fires the synapses of social and increases our sense of social acknowledgement builds connection and community (possibly, even among cat-lovers). A stranger steps into the teepee for a few minutes trying to keep warm. Someone is telling a powerful story. A reason to linger. You learn something you didnt know. And there are others like yourself. A reason to return. Perhaps with a story of your own to share.
BY P.V. Narayanan
ON October 13, 2006 04:38 AM
“Donate” button is important for not-for-profit e-commerce. It is an important part of the business model. More important though is the website has authentic information on the work done and an invitation to any visitor to explore further—through the website, visiting projects or checking out over email and phone. Also, appearing credible in terms of expenses and income right upfront will be laudable. The reason I am saying this is across the world, the biggest concern for any donor is where is the money going. A proactive answer to this determines faith of the potential donor in the cause.
BY Mark Rovner
ON October 14, 2006 12:30 PM
I completely agree that non-profits do a poor job of engaging in an honest and authentic way online. As a consutant and former non-profit exec, my own sense is that non-profits on the whole are more risk averse, and more determined to “control the message” than are many of their for-profit counterparts.
I do think the prominence of the DONATE button is a bad example however. Our studies have shown that potential donors (putting aside visitors with non-giving motivations for the moment), fall broadly into three categories: (1) Folks who have already dcided to give and are seeking out the organization’s website to make the transaction; (2) Folks who are intrigued byt he organization and want to be sold; and (3) Potential offline donors who are visiting the site as part of their due diligence process. For most organizations, there are probably far more category 3 visitors (Online research but offline donation) than anyone else—again, putting aside visitors with no charitable intent at all.
For many organizations, including the largest ones, the remainder of folks generally fall into Category 1—they are ready to give now and they want to get to the donate page and complete their transaction. And they want to do it quickly. Time and again, we tested donate page comp[letion and found that almost without exception, the interposition of a landing page between the donate button and the form suppressed completion rates. Finally we relized why—the “came to give” folks want to complete their transaction, and the landing page was distracting or confusing them—or trying thier patience.
My two cents!
Mark Rovner
Sea Change Strategies
BY Lloyd Nimetz
ON October 15, 2006 02:18 AM
Extremely useful conversation.
I would also suggest checking out OneWorld.net’s TV initiative for another example.
(http://tv.oneworld.net/)
There is no doubt that nonprofits have to get much better at telling their stories in a new virtual medium, where multimedia is king. I would underscore also that although telling stories and engaging the community is the working objective I usually focus on “connecting people” and the rest follows. That’s want most of our community is looking for when they come our website, if they know it or not. In other words, the people that already know they want to donate will do so, but by feeling ‘connected’ they might donate more or again. CARE’s ‘Side by Side’ feature is a great example of putting a face to this connectedness that people derive a lot out satisfaction from.
BY Carol Liege
ON October 16, 2006 06:34 AM
Check out www.Parkinson.org. Site of the National Parkinson Foundation, it posts an entire downloadable library of information for Parkinson’s patients and their families, links to other useful sites, and more.
BY Brenda Lockyer
ON November 5, 2006 02:51 PM
I am interested in non-profit/charity websites and found this discussion interesting. What was missing was the role of the website as a medium by which to convey accountability and transparency. A recent survey in Canada found that 56% of those survey went on-line to find information about a charity. Also, the survey found that donors wanted to know how their donation helped, what were the charity’s fundraising costs and what programs and services the charity funds. This information is not always readily available or current. Given the heightened public scrutiny of charities one would think the charity webpage would contain all this inforamtion that donors require.
Brenda
BY Perla Ni
ON April 21, 2007 09:02 AM
Brenda,
Those are terrific points. Do you have a link to the survey in Canada? I think people would find it really useful as they put themselves in the shoes of their donors and see the website from their perspective.
BY Brenda Lockyer
ON April 22, 2007 03:52 PM
Hi Perla: I’ve attached the URL for the Muttart Foundation. They conducted a survey, “Talking about Charities 2006” which provided the information I posted earlier. I have a particular interest in this topic as I am doing a research project for my Masters Degree and my research project involves an assessment/evaluation of charity websites to determine how they demonstrate accountability on-line. Will keep you posted.
Brenda