7 Steps to Reduce Your Donation Form Abandonment
Up to 83% of Your Potential Online Donors Are Giving Up. Here’s What to Do About It
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
There’s a lot more crossover between businesses and nonprofits that some would like to admit. That means we can learn from each other. One such item is what businesses call ‘cart abandonment.’ Nonprofits call it donation abandonment. It’s essentially the same thing.
Donation abandonment happens when a potential donor reaches your donation page and even may begin to fill out your donation form, only to abandon the process for some reason.
There could be an infinite number of reasons why people abandon an impulse to give. You can’t counter all of them. And some people visit donation pages just out of curiosity.
Nevertheless, poorly performing donation forms and donation pages lead to increased donation abandonment. Reducing abandonment by even 5-10% means a huge increase in donations for relatively little effort.
Why lose money donors have already decided to give?
How Often Does Donation Abandonment Happen?
Different sources claim different amounts. NP Engage says 50-70%. Agroup reports from an actual study that found 68% donation form abandonment. Bloomerang says 60%. Everyaction reports it’s as high as 83%.
For comparison on the business side, Sleeknote says 75.6% of consumers abandon items in their online shopping carts.
So from these reports, what can we say – with absolute certainty – about how often donation abandonment happens?
Too often.
The question is, how can you reduce donation form abandonment?
How to Reduce Donation Form Abandonment
1. Say Something
Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay
Another commonality between businesses and nonprofits is that too often they presume buyers and donors are pre-disposed to buying or donating.
Now, they’d probably never admit that because it’s a subtle, subconscious kind of thing. But their actions (or failure to act) bear it out. This is how.
Many nonprofits say exactly nothing on their donation pages. Donors may click through from ads, emails, elsewhere on the site, social media – finding their way to your donation page. Something motivated them to come here. Something made them consider giving enough to visit this page. And that ‘something’ happened because of the copy they read, pictures they saw, and the emotions aroused.
Yet, when that potential donor reaches the donation page, they see nothing but a dreary form.
No pictures.
No reinforcing message about the huge impact their gift will make in specific people’s lives.
No ‘thank you’ for even considering giving.
Just a form.
Is that appealing to you? Well, guess what – it’s not appealing to anyone else either. Having no copywriting on your donation page is a presumption that people who reach the page will just give. Because, why wouldn’t they? It’s our charity. Who wouldn’t want to give, right?
Well, apparently 50-70% of people. Or 83%.
2. And It’s a LONG Form
Not only do so many donation pages have just a form and nothing else, but it’s a long form. Often multiple pages. Now, I’ve seen testing data saying that fewer fields on more pages can convert better than more fields on a single page. And I’ve seen testing data saying the exact opposite.
So what should you do?
When in doubt, go with fewer steps, and fewer fields.
This means, for one, don’t require donors to create an account or have a password. Everyone hates passwords. Even people who don’t like to use the word ‘hate.’ We’re sick of being forced to have accounts everywhere we go, and no one can keep track of it all. So give people a break, and don’t make them create an account.
Does that make it a little tougher on your internal processes?
Well, would you rather have more money?
Take away unnecessary questions and fields. Reduce the number of pages, ideally down to one. Don’t make donors say the same thing twice. Don’t make them opt-in to a bunch of stuff. Don’t make them think any more than they have to.
Take a scalpel to your donation form. Examine each field. Ask yourself, openly and objectively:
“Do we need this field? Why?”
3. Don’t Make Donors ‘Review and Confirm’
Seriously folks. Why?
“Do we need this step?”
No, you don’t need this step. How many donors have reached this step, and because it looks like a receipt or confirmation page that you see on lots of other sites after completing an action, they leave your site thinking they’ve donated?
If your CRM forces you to have a ‘review and confirm’ step, that’s one reason to consider looking for a new CRM.
4. Eliminate Captchas
Perhaps you’re getting where I stand on internet silliness, but I hate these too. I’ve had to sometimes re-click boxes three, four, even five times because it doesn’t “like” my answers, even though the little tiny pictures are often fuzzy and indecipherable.
Can you see the Volvo?
Image by Igor Schubin from Pixabay
Imagine your 75-year old donor trying to squint at these ridiculous tiny pictures, and then having to do it all over again (and again) because she does it “wrong.”
Captcha is wrong. Not your donors.
If you feel captcha is a necessity in the days of withering internet security and confidence, then offer a simpler option, such as simple math questions like 3 + 4. Some sites use these instead of captcha, and they’re far easier to get past.
5. Include Suggested Donation Amounts
Some people don’t give because they’re not sure how much to give.
They were motivated enough to consider giving, but hadn’t thought about how much. By giving suggested amounts, you’re easing the process of decision.
See Data on Donation Page Suggested Amounts
6. Brand Your Donation Page
Internet donors do need reassurance. The simplest way to do this is to make your donation form page look like the rest of your site. This is why using Paypal is not a good move for nonprofits. Donors are taken from your site to Paypal’s site, which looks nothing like yours.
You will lose donors for this reason alone. Multiple testing studies have borne this out.
7. Mobile Mobile Mobile
Personally, I don’t send money to anyone over a mobile device. But lots of people do, so you need to make sure your donation forms are easy to use on mobile devices.
Donation abandonment is virtually assured if your forms don’t work on mobile devices.
Get Help Improving Your Donation Page
Fixing your donation page actually takes quite a variety of skills. You need:
- A fundraising copywriter to write your donation page copy
- A usability tester to assess your forms, fields, and directions
- A funnel expert to assess all the steps involved in your giving process, from the first arrival on the page through the thank you emails and whatever else happens after giving
- A graphics person to incorporate images and design for ease of use
ProActive Content performs the first three of these four tasks with regularity.
And because you’ve read this page, you have a special opportunity to improve your donation page.
Just ask us and we will perform a FREE donation form usability assessment.
If you also want us to write your copy and assess your complete donation funnel, you can have all these for one fixed investment.
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