A Changing Conversation on Nonprofit Website Transactions

We’ve been working with nonprofit technology for more than twenty years, and nonprofit websites have been a part of our client conversations for at least the last decade.  It has been interesting to me to note how those conversations have changed over time and their impact on technology projects.

 

Our website must tell our story effectively.

These were the words we heard years ago, as nonprofit websites became an important part of substantiating and communicating to prospective supporters.  The idea was to tell a story, with web visitors being an inactive audience.  And for a time, that was a good goal to have.

Our website should take donations / sell a ticket.

Ah, now we are interacting! No longer static web brochures, websites for nonprofits starting as early as a decade ago needed to be able to handle a transaction. The bar for a long while was low: can a fairly determined and motivated supporter or patron complete a transaction with us? If a nonprofit could answer yes, that was a good achievement.  “We can sell a membership online” was, for a time, a boast that could make other nonprofit colleagues take note. 

A colleague of mine, an advancement services director for a healthcare foundation, once told me about his CEO calling him from a conference and saying,

“The other CEOs are saying their donors can set up a memorial fund online.  We can do that, too, right?”

My colleague answered, “yes.”

His boss said, “Great!  Bye.”

And that was as far as the conversation needed to ever go. As long as some basic function could be performed in some way online, well, all was good.  It was a sign of the times.

A changing conversation

But what do the conversations about websites sound like now? Well, they are changing, right as we speak, and they sound increasingly like what one CDO of a large national nonprofit said to me on the phone last week:

“Industry experts are saying 50% of all donation revenue will be via online by 2014. I think that estimate is low. Our website needs to not just function, but drive revenue to its maximum potential. Because if our website is not driving revenue, we stand to lose millions.”

Maximizing revenue means measurement and performance metrics for the transaction path.  One client pointed to the abandonment rate in their donation path and said, “let’s help more donors complete the transaction.” Another client needed to maximize add-on sales with ticket purchases.  Nonprofits are now measuring more than just “can we do that” and “how much money came in online.”  The measurements, and then the design work we do to create net increases, are far more nuanced than five years ago and are pretty interesting.  Where in the path do we lose our donors?  What is the average gift size and what does that tell us?  What percentage of online versus call-in center ticket buyers purchase parking for that concert?  Which form increases conversion of regular donors to recurring monthly givers?

The leading nonprofits and, increasingly, the average nonprofit, are measuring specifics in how their transactions and revenue purchase paths work, and find that making smart changes can net them thousands of dollars as well as many other strategic benefits.

If you want to talk to JCA about ensuring maximum revenue with your website transactions, give us a call. After all, if you can change the conversation at your organization from “can the website do that function?” to “how are we maximizing revenue?” you are joining the leaders in the nonprofit industry.

Ellen Duero Rohwer is Director of Jacobson Consulting Applications, Inc. (JCA)
JCA provides strategic consulting to the world’s leading nonprofits.