Why the Giving Experience is so Important for Social Donors
Social Donors represent nonprofits with a unique new group of donors to tap into. Approximately 30 percent of Social Donors are first-time donors for an organization, and nearly 40% are lapsed donors. Meaning many are not intimately familiar with your nonprofit prior to giving.
Remember Social Donors are those that donate through events, peer-to-peer campaigns or online occasion/challenges. They are often invited to participate by their friends, colleagues or others in their social networks. Personal connections are what draw them into your fundraising!
The question is…what are you doing to engage them?
Because many Social Donors are not necessarily deeply connected with your cause, the giving experience is vital to getting them to 1) consider giving, 2) complete a donation, and 3) stay engaged for repeat donations.
Make an Easy First Impression
It’s true that Social Donors must be wooed like any other donor, but they have specific motivators that nonprofits needs to trigger. Besides understanding the mission of your nonprofit and having trust in your cause, the third top motivator for Social Donors is an easy giving experience. In fact, according to a recent study from OneCause, the giving experience – aka, how easy it was to actually make a donation is key to unlocking generosity with today’s donors.
In some ways, they are like any online shopper, you have to grab their attention and make the donation experience seamless – or you risk losing them. You have one shot to get it right!
For nonprofits this means looking at your donation channels through the eyes of a donor. Ask yourself the following questions to evaluate the ease of your giving experience.
- Can donors give anytime or anywhere?
- Do you use technology? Is it mobile-optimized?
- Do you have multiple CTAs and donation buttons for quick giving?
- How many steps or clicks are needed to give?
- Can donors customize their giving levels?
Keep Them Coming Back
The giving experience is also incredibly important when it comes to retaining donors and converting them into regular supporters. Seventy percent of Social Donors say they are likely to donate again to an organization and become regular annual donors. This stat is simply amazing when you think about the current donor retention rate!
Streamlining your giving experience helps increase donations, deepen donor relationships, and show supporters that you’re aware of the effort they’re making to be a part of your cause.
Three Must Haves to an Easy Giving Experience
1. An intuitive giving process
Giving should not be hard. With the right giving platform, nonprofits can create intuitive, flexible giving, that makes interacting with your cause easy from start to finish. Things like quick-fill forms, real-time progress bars, secure payment processing, and recurring gift options make the donation experience fast and worry-free for donors.
2. Mobile-optimized giving sites
Mobile technology is no longer the new frontier – it’s absolutely here to stay. Social Donors, like other donor groups, expect to be able to experience giving from their phones, anytime and anywhere. Today’s donors should be able to utilize online giving sites as well as Text2Give for maximum simplicity.
3. Easy-to-Use Personal Fundraising Pages
Today’s donors are all about leveraging their social networks to help you attract new supporters. In order for them to maximize their efforts, they need powerful tools and solutions that help strengthen engagements and cast a wider net for fundraising success. It’s up to your nonprofit to empower them!
Be sure you include easy-to-launch personal fundraising pages that your supporters can spin up themselves. Make personal giving a priority in your next event or campaign and watch your supporters embrace the flexibility and chance to “fundraise their way.” Creating personalized giving options is a must have for today’s donors!
Now that you know they keys to unlocking generosity through an easy giving experience, you’re on step ahead of the competition and one step closer to fundraising success!
