A Latecomer to Online Fundraising Gains Big Successes Fast

March 5, 2015 | Read Time: 3 minutes

Global Impact was slow to start raising money online, but once the organization started, it went after it in a big way.

In 2011, the organization, which raises money for 121 international humanitarian charities and creates fundraising campaigns for them, brought in $670,000 in online gifts. That number jumped to $17.8-million in 2012 and $22.1-million in 2013, which was 22 percent of its total revenue.

From 2012 to 2014, its websites and social-media traffic skyrocketed as well. Page views to its websites rose more than 22 percent, the number of Facebook likes climbed more than 800 percent, the number of Twitter followers went up 106 percent, and its Facebook page for the Combined Federal Campaign—which raises money from government workers—shot up 11,000 percent in likes.

Here’s how it had achieved those results:

Aims for crispness and simplicity.

Joseph Mettimano, Global Impact’s vice president for marketing and communications, says that when it first started raising money online, its lack of streamlined online content harmed the organization. Would-be donors had to read too much to learn about the various groups Global Impact had under its umbrella, and it turned them off from giving.

“It was not simple and intuitive,” he says. “We’ve seen a significant bump since we simplified and tightened up what our website looked like, what the content looks like, social media. If you post something that’s going to require a person to read four paragraphs, they’re going to bounce out.”

Mr. Mettimano says if too much time lapses between a potential donor visiting a website and contributing money, a donor could be lost.

“There’s so much competition out there,” he says. The quicker you can convert somebody into a donor, the more your success.”

As a result, Global Impact prefers one-page sites with a donation form. It also helps if the sites are mobile-friendly.

Spells out the impact of donors’ contributions.

Briefly explaining what donors’ money will support, however small the gift, increases the likelihood someone will give online, says Mr. Mettimano.

One successful effort he cites is the nonprofit Women & Girls Fund, which raises money for CARE, the International Center for Research on Women, Plan International, and World Vision. In one page, the site explains major problems facing women and girls around the world, quick summaries of the missions of the four charities, success stories, and what different dollar amounts will support. For example, a $100 gift helps protect a child from forced marriage.

“A lot of the same practices that you would employ in any fundraising strategy convey over to online as well,” he says. “Basic things like making sure you are showing impact and value in what you’re offering; you are clearly identifying the problem your organization is addressing and clearly identifying the solution.”

Avoids ‘compassion fatigue.’

Global Impact takes pains to avoid the grim imagery that often accompanies the sites of international development groups.

Photographs and videos of children with distended bellies and flies in their eyes were popular among groups in the ’70s and ’80s, but Mr. Mettimano, who has worked in international development for more than 20 years, says those kinds of images were discouraging.

“It created compassion fatigue,” he says. “The imagery got to be so heavy and gave no indication of hope that donors began to feel they couldn’t meaningfully change the problem.”

He advises charities to highlight stories of positive change. The Women & Girls Fund page includes striking photographs and stories of those the fund has helped.

Every digital platform, he says, must have “stories about real people and how their lives were positively changed by an organization and the donors that support the organization.”