Case Study: How Donor Experience Drives Online Donations

Logos of charities we've done work for: Nature Conservancy of Canada, Thistle Farms, Agape Animal Rescue, Honey Harbour Association

Donor experience is a key differentiator for nonprofit organizations. Just like other sectors, nonprofits must compete with other charities by offering a better online experience to attract and retain new and existing donors.

Through validated research and web analytics, an opportunity was discovered that would make it easier for new and repeat donors to complete their online transaction when purchasing a Gift of Nature eCard. The eCards lets donors customize their message and send it to someone via email - a really enticing value proposition! But there was a problem; a large number of donors were calling in to the Call Centre to get help completing their donation. Donors were expressing frustration in the online donation process, and we assumed that for every donor who took the time to call, there were 100 more who did not. Web analytics proved this hypothesis by showing a high bounce rate on the eCard product pages, as well as a high shopping cart abandonment rate on carts containing eCards. These roadblocks presented significant barriers to donors' ability to give.

Through UX analysis and interviews with internal stakeholders, we identified two main reasons for these roadblocks:

  1. The online form fields were confusing
  2. Due to #1, forms were completed incorrectly, causing the donors to have to call and get help to fix it