It is predicted that by the year 2020, online giving will make up the majority donations. This is dependent on the development of nonprofits’ websites though.
Jakob Nielsen, who has researched nonprofit online trends, gives suggestions based on his findings. He analyzed 23 different websites in a recent study through simple tests. From this study, several clear areas showed up:
1) Your missions, goals, and objectives must be made clear—People want to see these things on the homepage. Of the 23 websites analyzed, only 43% had done this. This information is important to prospective donors because “they want to contribute to causes that share their ideals and values.”
2) Show how your donations are used—This ties exactly into the first suggestion. If people see what your organization stands for, the next thing they want to know is how you plan to act on these things. Most people will agree that helping the homeless or running a food-bank is a good thing and many organizations will say they do these things. However, donors need to see how you plan on helping and how you have done these things. Without these evidences, it raises skepticism about your effectiveness and legitimacy—both important concerns when transactions are being made online.
3) Develop simple designs—In Nielsen’s study, one of the main factors that discouraged people from giving online was in page design. “Unintuitive information architecture, cluttered pages, and confusing workflow” were all major turn-offs. Nearly 20% of the people in Nielsen’s test could not even find where to make a donation. Make sure your format is simple and clear—banners often caused people to miss the link for donations.
4) Make your content clear—Broken links, unclear information, and confusing terms are major frustrations to donors.
5) If you are a local chapter of a national organization, make sure your website is similar to the main website. This does not mean it has to be the exact replica, but major differences in presentation and content are confusing to donors.
6) Be sure to use a good e-commerce checkout—this eliminates a lot of the worry for online transactions and simplifies the donation process greatly.
The main problem in receiving online donations was not the usability of the site, but the usage of content. These problems are easily remedied by simplifying communication—Clearly state your ideas and answer donors’ main questions: what are you about? How do you use donations?
To read Nielsen’s entire report, click here
Jessica High is a Research Assistant at Christian Foundation Grants (www.christianfoundationgrants.com) which is a subscription database of foundations that provide grants to faith based organizations. iDonate.com is a website (www.iDonate.com) that allows ministries to receive non cash gifts online.