It’s simple: more donation methods mean more donations
It’s vital charities offer supporters a variety of ways to give. This increases the likelihood of a supporter finding a way to give that they’re comfortable with, and is convenient for them when they donate.
Three Distinct Ways to Donate
It’s very easy for somebody watching TV to see a campaign advert for a charity, be moved to donate, but to decide against it because they haven’t got their credit or debit card close by and that is the only way the charity has said they can donate.
If, however, that charity also offered Text Giving or took donations via Apple Pay or Google Pay — or all three — that supporter might well have chosen to donate via one of these methods, as they probably have their mobile phone much closer to hand than their credit or debit card.
By offering all three donation options — credit or debit card payments, Text Giving and donating via Apple Pay or Google Pay — on our Regular Giving pages, we at Donr hope to avoid this drop-off, and have been able to notice how the average amount being donated varies depending on the payment method used.
Catering for Everyone
Spotting trends in donations has allowed us to ensure that we cater for supporters of all budgets.
We have a £1,000 button on our pages because we find that people do give that much money, if there’s an option to do so. It’s not something that happens all the time, but it happens enough of the time to make it worth having that button on there.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are people who give £5. This is typically done via mobile payment, as to put in all of the details required for a card payment is a lot of effort for giving £5.
Encouraging New Donors
Some organisations have concerns about potential ‘cannibalisation.’ In this case, ‘cannibalisation’ refers to one donation method proving more popular than another, thereby rendering the fees paid and the time taken to keep the other methods of donation available a waste.
We’ve found this not to be the case. For instance, rather than 500 supporters donating to a charity via card payment becoming split into 350 donating via card and 150 via text, we’re finding that 500 people will still donate via card, but there’ll be around 30% extra people who will donate via text, and yet more people when digital wallet services are introduced.
In summary, we’ve found that more donation methods do not divide your current supporters, rather they encourage new ones.
