We're now entering the second half of holiday donation season, and this can be a high mark for your organization. Donors give more money this time of the year as it is: The most recent survey from the Center of Philanthropy found that people give about 24 percent of what they donate on an annual basis to nonprofits and charities around the holidays. With the season's end fast approaching, you want to make sure you get the most out of your supporters in ways that build your relationship with them. This is especially the case as more people donate online.
Give them a guiding hand
As more people donate online, it's a good idea to give them a little guidance. If you aid them throughout the donation process, they'll feel inclined to make a larger donation while trusting you at the same time. The first thing you probably want to do is make sure your site is it's mobile-enabled. As Google noted, providing a great mobile site experience is essential. With so many of your supporters connecting to the Internet with a smartphone or tablet, more are going to find out about your organization on these devices.
Many people want to donate during the holidays. How will you reach them?You'll want to create a site that utilizes responsive design, which changes your site's layout and design based on the screen resolution of the device visitors are using. In the process, the overall look and feel of your site doesn't necessarily change, but rather gets adjusted so it provides a better experience whether viewers are on a desktop, tablet or smartphone.
In addition to simply designing the site so it's more accessible, you'll want to make the giving process itself easy. For example, rather having donors choose their gift amount on their own, nonprofit blog npENGAGE recommends offering different donation levels contributors can choose from. That way, people may feel inclined to donate more than they originally thought they would. If they want to give a custom amount, you can give them that option in a different tab. Additionally, add an option to make donations recurring on a monthly basis. That may lead them to become more than one-time donors.
"When supporters tweet about their donation, that will draw the interest of friends and family."
Let them show they care
Along with making your online donations more accessible, you'll want to give supporters little incentives here and there to push them in the right direction. For example, social media doesn't just allow you to reach out to constituents directly. It also lets people tell their followers that they support your cause through tweets and status updates. This can bring more people to your site to learn about your mission.
A way you can help constituents show their support this season is through providing social proof. This can take a few different forms, including a page showing what the person donated and the total progress of the holiday campaign, or a preformatted tweet or Facebook status update donors can use to send to friends and family. In turn, donors' followers may become more interested in your organization.
In addition, you can send people who donate on a regular basis thank-you gifts. This can be tricky to manage, since you want something to offer that is consistent with both your brand and your mission. You can make something – such as a tote bag or clothing – that positively reflects your organization. This gift should be something that people can remember you by and always feel they made the right choice. What can greatly help the donation process as well is utilizing a CRM platform for supporter personalization. When a person donates, you can send a custom-made thank you card or gift for giving back to your cause.