Campaign websites should be about fundraising, right? Sarah Maxell Crosby from Dartmouth did some research and realized that many of them just…aren’t. They’re often more focused on explaining the goals of a campaign than the actual donor experience. After looking around at other higher education giving sites, Sarah realized that a great campaign website has a few key factors:
- Sharing big ideas in a clear way
- Explaining the impact of an initiative
- A clear call to action that is easy to navigate
These three key elements, Sarah explained, have to work together to make a great site. If one is weak, the entire experience is weak.
Sarah also realized that advancement in higher education has a unique advantage because its users are not often hopping between university giving pages and comparing the experiences. Instead, a university advancement team is competing (and can learn from) other industries like nonprofit organizations and retail.
The five-point manifesto
After analyzing 27 pages of notes, Sarah created a five-point manifesto for Dartmouth’s giving page.
- The purpose of the site is to inspire donors to give. Plain and simple. It gives Sarah and her team the power to say “no” to stakeholders who want to add content that doesn’t support the main goal of giving.
2. Usability is the bedrock of all design decisions. The Dartmouth site needs an easy, accessible user experience.
3. All roads lead to a giving form. Sarah’s research uncovered a shocking number of giving pages that did not lead down a simple giving path. Sarah wanted to give any visitor the opportunity to give at any time, and not get stuck in the journey. “When they reach their personal decision-making point, they have to be able to act,” she explained.
4. Build a system robust enough to grow with future needs. When Dartmouth’s giving site was launched, they repurposed 20 different stories from other Dartmouth pages. Since then, 90 stories have been added. Over time, Sarh explained, they can look at user behavior and adjust as needed.
5. Plan for a visual refresh. “We don’t want to get to the end of the campaign and look like a museum piece,” Sarah said, acknowledging that what is fresh now might not be fresh later.
The users
In order to build a successful giving experience, three different types of users were identified:
- Major donors. This audience needs to be stewarded with impact stories but are not likely to give large gifts online. So, how can this audience find information about their impact?
- Middle of the pyramid; those that give at least $2,500 each year. They also need to understand their impact, but may choose to give online in different ways.
- Young alumni. Internally, Dartmouth’s goal is increasing engagement with young alumni. It’s widely assumed that audience is participating less and less, so Sarah wanted to make most of the site design choices based on the needs of this audience. Sarah explained that this audience isn’t necessarily giving less, though – they are just giving more thoughtfully and critically to causes they want to support.
Gift opportunities – gateway gifts
Taking a cue from other online donation experiences, Sarah identified key elements to a successful giving page for an engaging user experience:
- Specific cause title
- Social sharing buttons
- An explanation of the individual impact from the donor’s gift
- A simple giving process
- Progress bar
- Social proof that others are participating
The Dartmouth giving page now features 66 online gift opportunities and growing. Each opportunity has a defined title, purpose, and proposed impact, along with social sharing buttons to encourage more participation.
Initially, if a donor wanted to contribute to more than one of Dartmouth’s initiatives, the process was convoluted – they had to travel to different locations across Dartmouth’s site. Now, they have a shopping cart feature – just like a retail site – and can do it all in one spot.
Social proof – Sarah and her team solicited donor testimonials and gathered them in one view. Now, when a donor makes a gift, they are also prompted with a way to answer “why they give” on the thank you page as a form.
User engagement
Sarah explained that traffic to the newly designed giving experience page has slowly increased over time. She noted that spikes in web traffic directly correlate to the days informational newsletters are distributed to her audiences about the campaign, but the amount of traffic between those dates is increasing, on average.
Finally, Sarah explained the power of donor testimonials. She partnered with her stewardship team to request statements from donors to populate an individual page filled with quotes, photos, and even stories about donors’ experiences and reasons for giving. This was a place to drive home the power of giving in one cohesive place.
