Presented by Chris Maddocks (@clm2134) Children’s Hospital Boston John Jakovich (@John4NpoTech) Jacobson Consulting Applications, Inc.
IN JANUARY OF 2010, BLACKBAUD REPORTED THAT ONLINE GIVING INCREASED BY OVER 60% YEAR OVER YEAR AND THE TOTAL GIVEN IN THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS. McClaughlin, Steve. “2009 Online Giving Trends”, January 4, 2010.
http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/connections/ar chive/2010/01/04/2009-online-giving-trends.aspx
INTERNET USABILITY EXPERT, JAKOB NIELSEN, HAS DECLARED THAT “SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCIES IN NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS' WEBSITE[S]… OFTEN FAILS TO PROVIDE THE INFO PEOPLE NEED TO MAKE DONATION DECISIONS.” Nielsen, Jakob. “Donation usability: increasing online giving to non-profits and charities”, march 30, 2009.
Http://www.Useit.Com/alertbox/nonprofit-donations.Html
ECOMMERCE ANALYSTS BELIEVE OVER 42% OF VISITORS ABANDON THEIR SHOPPING CARTS. Beacon Marketing, Group, Inc. “Is online shopping cart abandonment a problem?”, October 1, 2009.
Http://beaconmktg.Com/blog/?Tag=/shopping+cart+abandonment
A LEADING NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY FIRM REPORTED IN 2010 THAT THE AVERAGE GIVING FORM CONVERSION RATE WAS 2.2%. Convio, Inc. “The Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study”, 2011.
Http://www.convio.com/files/2011-Benchmark-Report.pdf
PHILANTHROPIC REVENUE COLLECTED IN THE ONLINE CHANNEL CONTINUES TO GROW. EXPERTS IN WEBSITE USABILITY INDICATE MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH HOW NONPROFITS STRUCTURE THEIR WEBSITES FOR DONORS. MORE THAN 9 OUT OF 10 POTENTIAL DONORS HAVE ENTERED THEIR INFO ON A FORM… AND THEN LEAVE.
ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT BLACKBAUD INDEX OF ONLINE GIVING, THE OVERALL NONPROFIT SECTOR INCREASED ONLINE GIVING BY 6.1% YEAR. IN CONTRAST, HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS INCREASED BY ONLY 3.1%.
In 2009, Children’s began a full study and redesign of its foundation website. Project goals included -
Get more people to giving forms Make giving easier Improve language and form usability Increase recurring giving Bring in more money
Get More People To Giving Forms -
Increase The Number Of Visits To Form
Increase Recurring Giving Make Giving Easier -
Reduce Time On Page For Giving Process Increase Giving Process Conversion Rate
Improve Language And Form Usability -
Create FAQ’s / Help Links Reduce Form Bounce Rates
Bring In More Money -
Increase Gift Volume Improve Average Gift Size
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2009
2009 100 Click Give
314 Seconds
2.6 Make a Gift
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Children’s first BBNC giving form: • Did not support multiple designations • Did not support recurring gifts or tributes well • Did not handle “deep links” • Single long form (lots of scrolling) • Not customizable
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Project Goals • Reduce the number of giving forms • Enable customizable designations • Enable CHT to customize the form via “deep links” • Create a simple, elegant, intuitive giving experience • Maintain seamless integration of web transactions with RE
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Data Integration • Data integration would be the key to back-office success • Most important aspect of a data integration project is the data mapping • Unique project with a 4-way data mapping
Text links to giving forms Different links to different gift types (Recurring, Tribute, Unrestricted) Intermingle bequest with annual giving, event giving Used branded name of recurring gift society
Serve all gift types on a single form; highlight recurring 3 clicks to completion; Give within 60 seconds Keep a clean layout, no long forms; remove navigation Include FAQ’s on form
Use natural language for labels, not fundraising speak
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While few steps, users disliked whitespace. Didn’t know where to find the next button and wanted to see a security statement on this page. Right sidebar contained actions like “change gift designation” and “add tribute” or which few users were able to find or necessarily understand. Visitors thought right-sidebar were ads.
Visitors don’t know understand different field labels commonly used by fundraisers including designation and tribute. Notify functionality was completely confusing; one tester asked how they would notify all hospital staff of the gift. Tribute contact is not intuitive. Visitors entered their own information in those fields.
Participant P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 Average St. Deviation
Few complete giving Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 7 usersTask 8 tasks within time target Missing Missing Missing Missing Missing (60 seconds). 16 70 250 Missing 9.00 56 10 60 119.00 118.00 Task 1 was starting the 59 62 236 111.00 Missing giving process from the 120 20 108 90.00 110.00 Home Page. Failure 120 322 Missing Missing Failure 86 117 120.00 a Task83.00 2 was completing Missing Missing Missing Missing Missing simple gift. 63 61 182 101 89 Task 3 17 was completing 43 41 102 54 a recurring gift.
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Type of Gift (single or recurring) Gift Amount Designation Tribute
Contact Info Message – monthly gift
Company Match Personal Info: First Name Last Name Address Line 1 Address Line 2 City State Zip
FAQ’s
Video
Old form supported one designation New form supports custom designations Facilitates RE integration
Includes tributes Form behavior can be controlled via deep links
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2010
2010 (+29.9%)
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The same time as the giving form customization, we also retooled the home page of our site to improve other metrics.
Home Page Bounce rate -36% Site conversion rate +90%
24.5% CTR 46% Conversion
27.7% CTR 50% Conversion
2% CTR
11% CTR
Test-review-test – just like A|B testing in direct mail, website + email optimization is a revenue opportunity. Donors can tell – Healthcare philanthropy is a specialized fields with specific nomenclature. Giving forms should reflect your identity and mission. No free lunch – Usability testing increased our project scope by both dollars and time. The expense paid for itself in revenue increase, donor satisfaction. Simple language – speak directly about fundraising on the web and avoid describing a gift like it is a database input. This is a commitment an individual is considering, and can abandon if they get confused.
Test price anchoring – What default amount leads to highest completion and highest average gift? Lightbox hijack – Use page hijack to “offer” recurring giving as an option. M&R Consulting has great white paper. New platforms – Optimizing giving form to ipad / iphone. Form architecture – Does everything have to be an HTML form? Are there other ways to choose giving options that are more pictorial, graphic? Remarketing – Is a donor abandoning the gift form a loss or an opportunity? Amazon sends reminder emails...
Christopher Maddocks Department of Information Management and Technology Children’s Hospital Boston