How much of the potential $4-billion will your nonprofit organization receive?
A recent survey conducted by Forrester Research for Convio is quite interesting. The results were developed from a nationally-projectable, weighted sample of people with Internet access. They estimate 111 million online donors will give $4-billion this holiday season. So take a critical look at your site today and make any necessary website usability updates to ensure donors have a positive experience.
Here are some of the survey highlights:
- More than 63 percent of online consumers said they would donate via the Web during the holidays
- 44 percent of respondents who said they plan to give cite a nonprofit’s Web site as the most useful resource in choosing which nonprofit organization to give to
- 40 percent of those who said they plan to give cite “word of mouth” as the most useful resource in choosing a nonprofit to give to
- Other influencers to their giving decision include emails or enewsletters (27%), direct mail (28%), and peer-to-peer fundraising (23%)
Other survey results reveal that much of the influence on how and who people donate to is NOT coming from nonprofit organizations. Growing influence is coming from word of mouth, peer solicitations and from social networks.
In other words, a growing trend is the very important role friends and family play in how people give and who they give to. The other message they’re sending loud and clear is this: “I’ll engage with you in a variety of ways, but it has to be easy.”
The survey stats that emphasize the importance of having more than one way to engage a visitor on your nonprofit website include:
- 39% make an online donation after clicking through a nonprofit’s website
- 36% give their email address (You do make this easy for them, right?)
- 23% register for a newsletter (Again, verify this easy for them to do.)
- 5% use nonprofit web site info for their personal social network pages (e.g., Facebook and MySpace)
- 6% sign up for an event and use the nonprofit’s web site to solicit donations
- 6% listen to a podcast or an audio
Furthermore, these online visitors take other actions too. For example, 61% said they mail a check. But this is AFTER they first check out the nonprofit’s website.
Conclusions:
- Make everything EASY FOR THE DONOR – easy for the visitors to your website
- Have simple, straight-forward donation and sign-up pages
- Have a variety of ways for donors to engage with you online
- Update your website and improve website usability
- Find ways to integrate ecommerce into your website and holiday “asks.” This eliminates the tough choice between buying a Christmas present and making a donation.
Read all the survey details in an article by The NonProfit Times: http://bit.ly/8ReCYY
