Recently my wife and I gave to several local charities and like many donors we opted for the convenience of contributing online. The four charities we donated to all had fairly similar online donations processes, (well one of them actually had some things that were broken, but that is a matter for another blog post.) As similar as each experience of giving the donations were, the experience of how our donations were acknowledged could not have been more different and that difference colored how we felt about our giving to that charity and the likelihood of our giving again.
It is no secret that one of the reasons people donate is to feel good. It is a great feeling to help someone in need, to push a goal forward and to have a sense of that you made a difference. It is also nice to be acknowledged when you’ve done something good. The acknowledgement does not have to be some grand gesture, but it must feel authentic. In a world of “real,” this can be as simple as a smile, but in the “virtual” world of online donations, things are not always so easy. However, one thing is clear: giving online must feel better, more meaningful than making a deposit in your ATM.
Below I’ve extracted a few best practices from my experiences making online donations. This is by no means an exhaustive list of ideas, but hopefully it will get the conversation started on how to make online donations a more emotionally fulfilling experience.
- A Personal Touch: One of the charities we gave to supported programs for kids. A few days after we’d donated to the charity we received an email from one of the kids who benefited the program. It was just two lines long, but it was heartfelt and really brought the ultimate beneficiary of the donation into focus. Technology can be key in supporting this sort of interaction by making it by leveraging readily available tools like email and integrating them into the donation processing workflow.
- Follow-up: Another charity, this one supporting an event for a local food shelter, sent an email with a post event wrap-up. The email listed the total amount raised, spotlights from the event and, what was most important for me, how they are using the funds they raised. It was helpful to see my contribution in the context of the bigger picture and the impact we had as whole. (As a personal preference, I also really appreciated was that in the email there was no “ask” for additional donations. I know this might be controversial, but it was nice to just pause and reflect on the good work that had been done without trying in that moment to raise more money for the enormous task still ahead. FYI, the email asking for more money came a week later and we will happily give again.)
- More Expressive: People respond best to on-screen acknowledgements that are short, but did not feel generic. For example, after making a donation and seeing a page with “Thank you for your donation” feels about as gratifying as seeing “Your deposit has been received” after you’ve deposited your check. By just putting a bit more thought into how an online donation is confirmed can transform the experience. For example, one of our clients used the following confirmation message on their SWEET site, “We really appreciate your taking the time to support our cause. Your donation will enable us to help patients in need and ultimately win this fight. Thank you!” Now that feels good! It reconfirmed the mission and vision of the organization in a way that tied it my donation.
I think that the take-away from all of this is that online donation does not have to feel transactional and cold. The technology itself does not prevent creating a sense of connection and acknowledgement. In fact the very opposite is true. We believe that technologies like SWEET can be key in reaffirming that connection in a way that is cost effective, simple and scalable. It just requires being creative and adapt practices to fit the medium. I hope this helps!
Posted by Chad Finsterwald
I'm looking for the 2-4 months checklists for planning a walk-a-thon. the first month was great, but where do I find the rest?
Posted by: Chastidy Ronan | July 07, 2009 at 07:51 PM