How easy is it to donate to your charity?

Published on 2 October 2018

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In recent months we have seen High Street retailers come under increasing pressure as a result of the growth of online shopping, in particular Amazon, and as they look at new ways to deliver their products, for some of them this could be too little too late. The world isn’t moving online, it’s already there, so is your charity already prepared for the now?

Trends show a growing number of people, in particular the younger generations, is making all of their day-to-day transactions and decisions through online methods. More people get their news from social media than newspapers. More people do their banking online than in high street branches. But most importantly for the charity sector, more people donate to charities online than using traditional methods such as cash and cheques.

So is your charity optimising its online presence to generate donations? If you’re not sure, go on to your website now and take look, how easy is it to donate to your charity? Can you even find the “Donate” button on your website without scrolling through menus and options?

There is a growing demand for increased convenience and pace in every interaction we have. Pin codes have been replaced by contactless taps, phone passwords have now become fingerprint or facial recognition and you even get table service at McDonald’s now! It would be wrong to say people have become lazy, but behavioural changes mean people want everyday tasks to take place with minimal effort. Unfortunately, this means if it’s hard work to donate to your charity then some people probably just won’t, so how do you avoid that?

As I mentioned above, how easy is it to find your “Donate” button on your website? This should stand out from the rest of your website and ideally be at the top of the webpage, staying there no matter what page you’re on within your site. This should also be the case with the charity’s social media presence too, are there clear links for donating here? Any stories or posts that are shared should be followed up with links to a donation page. Even emails such as newsletters should include a clear donation link.

As well as more people using online methods, there has been a shift in how people get online, with far more using mobile devices that laptops and desktops, therefore your site needs to be mobile friendly. You should also take advantage of other mobile technologies that are available such as QR codes. Museums, galleries and even some charity shops now, have QR codes which you can scan with your mobile to donate with ease.

When you’re doing such amazing charitable work and doing a great job telling everyone about it, you want that to translate into donations and support. Make sure you’re asking the question and keeping the donation process short, and of course, don’t forget to say thank you afterwards.

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