There are few things more disconcerting than successfully motivating a site visitor to click through to a donation form only to have him or her abandon the form before completing the transaction.

Donors fail to complete donation forms for a wide range of reasons.  For example, donors abandon forms when there are “too many” clicks to complete the form.  For some, too many clicks could be as few as two where as others who are committed and motivated may persist through three and four clicks.  Others fail to complete forms over security concerns.  Some fail to complete forms because they use a navigation link to move away from the donation form and get absorbed in other content and don’t return to the donation form.

You can increase donation form completion rates and revenue through the simple design changes described below.  The donation form for The Bowery Mission demonstrates a number of the principles discussed in this article. 

1. Limit navigation options on donation pages.  Getting a web visitor to a donation form is difficult work, so keeping them there is paramount.  One practice that’s important to consider is limiting the number of navigational opportunities to click off the form.  While the primary navigation bar on The Bowery Mission website includes 10 options, all of the navigation options were removed from the core donation forms.  Once on the donation form, the donor is able to focus on the task at hand — making the donation.  It is important to note that there are forms, such as donor acquisition programs, when limited navigation related to “About Us” and financial accountability are warranted.  Understand how and why a user clicked on your form and that will help you decide what navigation options are essential to maximizing conversion.

2. Create simple donation forms that require one click to complete.  Web visitors crave simplicity, and each click required to complete a step increases opportunities for the donor to give up and abandon a form.  As illustrated in The Bowery Mission, we were able to develop a form with donation, credit card, single and recurring gift options, personal information, and in honor/memory gift designations all included in one form.  The donor can simply and quickly scroll down the page, completing all of the necessary information. 

3.  Reinforce that donations are secure.  Internet security and the security of online financial transactions continue to be a concern, particularly with older donors.  You can easily communicate to a donor that her donations are secure by including a security logo on the donation form.  The Bowery Mission form was designed so that the security logo is visible above and below the fold. 

4. Include a recurring giving option.  If you are raising money for a cause or project where monthly recurring giving is relevant, include a recurring gift option as part of the donation form.  A check box option with a simple invitation like, “Can you make this gift monthly?  Your gift every month will help more people,” will generate significant levels of monthly giving.  In one organization where I implemented this strategy, monthly giving grew to 20% of total online giving.  Again, simplicity is key — make it an easy process with a compelling ask.

 One of DSA’s “corporate learning” initiatives this year is to offer interested staff the opportunity to participate in a reading & discussion group that will focus on DSA’s eight core values.  We’re in the process of finalizing the list of books we’ll be reading to well represent the substance and spirit behind each of these company values.  

 I’ve just completed Dr. Henry Cloud’s Integrity:  The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality (Harper, 2006).  I don’t think we’ll find a better book to represent DSA’s value of “honesty, integrity, and respect in all our dealings with clients and coworkers”. 

 Dr. Cloud’s thesis is that character, more than any other factor in a person’s life, influences their ability to succeed in business.  “Who a person is,” he states, “will ultimately determine if their brains, talents, competencies, energy, effort, deal-making abilities, and opportunities will succeed” (p. 8).   And while we all demonstrate various shortcomings in our character that can lead to difficulties in the workplace, we all have the potential to change and grow and thereby improve our performance.

 Early on in the book, Dr. Cloud introduces the concept of a “wake”.  “You can tell a lot about a ship as you look at its wake.  If it is in a straight line, you get a feeling that the boat is steadily on course, and that the captain is not dozing at the wheel, or that an engine or shaft is not somehow out of whack.  But if it is wavering, you begin to wonder.  Also, if it is smooth and flat, you know something about the speed of the boat, and if it is steep, you can tell something about its drag.  In other words, what the wake looks like can tell you a lot about the boat itself” (p. 16).  

 He continues.  “With people, the same thing is true.  As a person goes through a company… he or she leaves a wake behind as well.  And just as with a boat, there are always two sides to the wake that a leader or someone else leaves when moving through our lives or the life of an organization.  The two sides of the wake are:  1.  The task, and 2. The relationships.  When a person travels through a few years with an organization… he leaves a “wake” behind in these two areas, task and relationship:  What did he accomplish and how did he deal with people?  And we can tell a lot about that person from the nature of the wake” (pp. 16-17). 

 Finally, Dr. Cloud concludes that “When we look at .  If it isn’t, it is time to ask ourselves some hard questions.  The wake is the results we leave behind.  And the wake doesn’t lie and it doesn’t care about excuses.  It is what it is.  No matter what we try to do to explain why, or to justify what the wake is, it still remains.  It is what we leave behind and is our record” (p. 17).

 Before going any further this year, I’ve been challenged to stop and ask myself the question:  HOW’s YOUR WAKE?  I’d encourage you to do the same.  According to Dr. Cloud, our “success” in the workplace, and in life overall, is critically dependent on what we discover and do about our wake…

Lying in fundraising can certainly be unintentional, or maybe to put it in more generous terms unconscious.  Here are a few of the lies we often hear:  Sometimes organizations:

Overstate the impact of their organization
Tell their donors that they can’t do their work without them
Create an emergency in order to raise more money
Promise something to their donors and then don’t deliver it
Distort the facts of an appeal or a proposal
Raise  designated money and spend it somewhere else without telling the donor
Use photographs and/or stories that are not from their organization without telling the donor
Approach donors with a matching gift follow-up request when the match has already been met.
Inflate the magnitude of their need or opportunity e.g (we’re going to end hunger in our world)
Try to trick the donor into opening an e-mail or envelope with something that is misleading

Donors are intelligent people, I’ve found they will understand our circumstances if we’ll just take the time to explain our situation in simple, honest terms.  I’ve made phone calls to major donors and explained that we have just completed funding the project they have just now given to.  In all cases I asked them if they would like their gift returned or if we could re-designate it.  None of them has ever asked for their gift to be returned!  They loved having the option to redirect their giving but once they had released the funds into our care they were happy to have us use it where it was most needed.  Most donors are just looking for the simple truth…

Days 13-19: I think I would present my plan to my supervisor on day 13.  All of my enthusiasm, focus and effort will go a long way toward showing my leadership progress and hope.  Using days 13-19 I would develop specific individual tactics for each of the strategies in my approved plan.  This is where I have to remind myself to think 3-dimensionally, but caution myself against the temptation to be “all speed and no direction”.  In my thinking, it would be important to execute, or launch any portion of the plan that I can while I’m still completing the remaining tactics!  For example, if I know I have an income-producing newsletter due in a month, I get it started now.  I would use this same strategy concurrently with the remainder of my planning.  This applies to direct-mail appeals too!  The object here is for me to get money in the door as effectively and quickly as possible.  In my hurry-up offense I don’t want to forget the 5 Commandments in all that I do.  Hope and progress, as well as several thousand dollars will get me to a first-down position.        

 Days 20-26: I’d use this valuable time to complete my tactics making certain that ALL income sources are accounted for.  Now, before the majority of the money starts to come in, I’d use this time to insure my data entry is being done correctly (including the coding) and begin compiling reports for the income that has begun to flow.  So I don’t meet myself coming and going, I think I’d break off a few hours to create an “integration chart” for all communication and fundraising sources so I can see any areas where donor’s are being overwhelmed or neglected.  Using my chart, I’d make adjustments accordingly.  A note to self here:  The temptation to get sidetracked by unfruitful special events can be overwhelming.  The pressure will be mounting from auxiliaries, board members or advisory boards by this time.  Everybody will have mountains of ideas for me and they’ll send me up a dead-end trail head if I let them.

 Days 27-33:  Only now would I begin thinking about major donors.  This is where my most cost-effective gifts will come from.  I know that many development officers make the mistake of either isolating major donors from normal communication streams (like direct mail) while intending to develop a plan and strengthen relationships with their major donors.  From my experience I know the pressures of the job often prevent this from happening in a timely manner.  The resulting isolation of my major donors does me more harm than good, so I have included them in all my efforts to date.

 I think I would select all major donors who have given $250 or more within the last 12 months ($100+ if my organization is on the small side) and then I would send them a special major donor proposal.  I know the elements of this proposal must include the 5 Commandments of Rule #XX!

A one-page, personalized cover letter
A one page personalized proposal (including a specific gift amount based upon their largest gift in the last 12 months)
A one-page reply device (with several options for giving i.e. a gift now, a quarterly or annual pledge)
A  9” X 12” carrier envelope, with hand written name and address and 1st class postage (yes I know it’s expensive)
A #9 reply envelope (This can have a postage stamp applied for them)

Now the most important part of this strategy, me and my staff will call them within 7-10 days and do the following:

Ask if they received our proposal
Ask them if they have any questions about the proposal
Ask them if they think they’ll be able to help. (I won’t make a specific “ask” here; I’ll let the proposal do the talking)

Then, just for a moment, I’ll sit back, enjoy the moment and count the money; hopefully I’ve just scored a touchdown!  With a sigh, I’ll slowly get up and drag my tired carcass back into the fray…no unemployment line for me!