Tips for Creating a Donor-Centric Web Site

November 10, 2009 By Abny Santicola

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Though still a small percentage of total individual giving, online giving has been steadily on the rise for the past nine years and has even begun to outpace online retail sales.

In the Sage webinar "Web Wise: Creating a Donor-centric Web site," Daniel Gonzalez, Web manager for Sage Nonprofit Solutions, went over tips to help nonprofits understand donor needs, set objectives for their Web sites, create donor-centric content, eliminate obstacles and distractions from the main objective of their sites, and set and track key performance indicators.

Understand donor needs
Donor-centric fundraising makes donors' needs for information the top priority. A key component of donor-centric fundraising is donor recognition. Gonzalez said donors want:

• Prompt, personal gift recognition (acknowledgment)
• Confirmation that their donations are being used as intended (information)
• Measurable, published results (accountability)

But too often, what donors say they get, Gonzalez shared, is prompt but impersonal gift recognition and general appeals with few measurable results. The reasons donors stop giving, listed here, are directly linked to their needs for acknowledgment, information and accountability:

• Feel the charity is not fulfilling its mandate
• Disagree with a change in direction the charity has taken
• Lost interest in the cause
• Believe that the charity no longer needs their support
• Feel there are more compelling causes to support
• Believe the charity has not kept in touch

What donors want from online giving is speed and convenience; year-end tax receipts to be sent electronically, as well as other updates; personal stories of people whose lives have been transformed by nonprofits; volunteer information; and summaries on recent news coverage of a charity.

But few charity Web sites make it easy to give online. Donors also report that nonprofit Web sites lack inspiration, connection and an opportunity for deeper engagement.

For nonprofits, online giving is efficient and reduces administrative costs, and it's easier to track over time.

Set site objectives
Determine your site's objective, e.g., to supply information, get donations, net subscriptions, sign up volunteers, or all of these combined.

Donor-centric sites include:

• A clear description of an organization's goals and objectives
• Information on what the organization is doing with gifts
• Visible call-to-action buttons and links
• Minimal clicks to completion of the action(s)
• Success stories and news updates

Examples of donor-centric sites shown by Gonzalez included:

• Oregon Humane Society, which features large, prominently displayed buttons for donating, volunteering, adopting a pet and its adoption goal for the year.
• Make-A-Wish Foundation, which lists the number of wishes it’s granted to-date way at the top of its page; and features a beneficiary section to show where donor dollars are going, a tab for sharing success stories, a monthly giving option and a donate now button.
• Sierra Club, which prominently features a petition sign-up; buttons for goals and news; a special premium offer to join; a poll; a brief description of the organization's mission; and a sign-up for e-alerts.

Create donor-centric content
The first three seconds on a site is all about visual impressions. If the page is what visitors are looking for and if they find it appealing, they'll stay. The next eight seconds, they take in their initial impression of the content on the site. If the content is relevant to what they’re interested in, they'll stay longer. Following that, the next 60 seconds is when visitors engage with the content, Gonzalez said, determining if enough content is available for them to make a decision whether or not to stay on the site. If it is, then they look for their desired next step on the site. The question then is whether that next step displayed clearly and is easy to get to within two clicks.

1. Content-rich. Gonzalez recommended nonprofits aim to have content-rich sites, full of relevant information that attracts and holds the target audiences' attention. Key to this is maintaining and updating content on a regular basis, though the update frequency can vary. Know what your audience expects from the content on your site.
2. Clear message. Despite what you might be hearing, Gonzalez stressed organizations should write for people, not search engines. "Content should help educate, engage and compel potential donors to act," he said, "and [it should be] be clean, concise and scannable."
3. Keep it simple. This goes for content, navigation and calls to action. Don't try to tackle everything at once.
4. Create interlinking pages. This helps donors find what they're looking for quickly and easily. Linking pages improves usability and helps with search engine rankings. Including a site map for visitors also makes your site easier to use.

Gonzalez recommended following these content and design musts:

• Clear navigation, hierarchy and links
• Site map
• Clear, scannable, informative content
• Relevant and updated
• Text, not images, to display names, content or links
• Descriptive title elements and alt tags

He also stressed organizations continually check their sites for broken links and correct HTML.

Eliminate obstacles and distractions
Gonzalez stressed organizations remember they have only about three seconds to get visitors' attention, and less than 60 seconds to get a donor to take an action on your site. An action should be no more than two clicks away.

If you're trying to get a visitor to fill out a sign-up form, Gonzalez stressed communicating the value proposition of the sign-up clearly to help visitors decide to give their information. Some other best practices he noted: Remove as much navigational distractions as possible so visitors can focus on the form; if you're giving away a premium in exchange for sign-up, show a thumbnail image of the premium; and tell prospects how they'll receive your e-newsletter or whatever it is they're signing up for, and how long it will take for them to receive it.
Set and track key performance indicators
Measuring Web metrics is valuable to determine your site's performance over time. Most Web hosting companies offer basic metrics or Google Analytics. Determine your key performance indicators, i.e., measures that yield information on the performance of your organization online. This will enable you to take action based on those indicators.

To determine your KPIs, consider:

• Your primary objective. Is it to increase donations, improve donor engagement, provide information?
• Your call to action. Is it to donate, register, subscribe, download?
• The value to the visitor/donor for each action.
• The metrics to which your organization is held accountable.

Gonzalez said all marketing/optimization activity should affect your top-level KPIs; otherwise you might be wasting time and money. KPIs should remain consistent and be measured over time. He stressed organizations not mistake traffic (e.g., impressions, visits, hits, etc.) for measures of site success.

Examples of donor-centric KPIs include average visits per visitor and total visits/total unique visitors; average visit duration; abandonment rate; average size of gift; and recurrence of gift.

In terms of hits, visits, visitors and unique visitors, you want to know how many people came to your Web site, what pages they viewed while there and whether it was the same person over and over again or unique visitors. In terms of page views, page view duration, bounce rate, visibility time, session duration, depth and frequency, you're looking at the frequency and amount of time visitors spend on your site and how many pages they view before leaving. These loyalty metrics, Gonzalez said, help determine your site's "stickiness."

Clicks, impressions and clickthrough rate measure how often a visitor selects or clicks on a link, how many times a page loads on a user's screen and the number of clicks divided by impressions for each link, respectively. A high ratio between these three equals high visitor engagement — which is the goal of every nonprofit Web site.

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