May 29, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Simple changes can often make a big difference in how much money a charity’s Web site raises.
Amnesty International learned that lesson when it tested several different approaches to see which ones were most effective. Donordigital, a San Francisco consulting firm that helped the charity, has released some of the results the charity achieved.
Among the highlights:
- Increasing the size of a button that said “click to donate” resulted in 25 percent more gifts from people who landed on the donation page.
- A red “donate now” button produced 29 percent more gifts than the charity’s former gray button that simply said “submit.”
- Decreasing the amount of personal information people were required to enter before making an online gift made a substantial difference: When Amnesty removed spaces for people to enter their professional title and preferred suffix (such as “Mr.”), the number of donors increased by 31 percent.
Charities might be tempted to make the same changes Amnesty did to their own donation pages, but Donordigital officials said groups should do their own testing. “Results from your organization’s supporters may differ, so testing is paramount,” they write.
To read the report: Go to http://www.donordigital.com.
