You Don't Ask, You Don't Get...
...and if you make it difficult for me to donate, you'll lose me.
Of the many invitations I receive to charity events (online or offline) every week, I received one recently that particularly irked me. This invitation was from a local charity that does great work and typically has fun events. The event they were promoting sounded interesting enough, but with all the online events going on, we decided to make a donation instead of participating or sponsoring.
Sounds normal so far, right?
The invitation itself was an email with the subject line including the name of the charity and the event, and the words “Donation Request”. All good at this point. Great! I then clicked on the link in the email, went on to the event page to find the “Donate Here” link, and found….nothing. Turns out that the email was only asking for me to contribute items for the event’s silent auction, and — get this — there was no place, and no way, to do anything but contribute to the auction. No option to donate money, buy tickets or purchase sponsorships.
Ugh.
As a donor who gets solicitations on a daily basis, I only look at emails that have clear and concise descriptions of what the organization wants from me. If the nonprofit makes a compelling case for me to donate, buy a ticket, or whatever, I want to complete the transaction right away, and move on. Since these solicitations typically come via email, they’re part of several hundred emails that come on any given day, and I don’t have the time or patience to sit around thinking about any one particular event solicitation. The “decision tree” for me goes something like this:
Look at emails, delete the ones that are solicitations for organizations I don’t care for or causes that aren’t my “thing”. If the subject line and “from” section don’t clearly tell me who’s asking and for what, they’re deleted immediately (the full email never gets opened.)
Quickly scan the emails from organizations I’m interested in or intrigued by, and delete the ones that are repetitive, offer no information short of “give us money because we need it”, are designed poorly, or are just plain boring.
Of the remaining email solicitations, I look at them carefully but quickly, and, if it’s an event, I look at who’s being honored or who’s performing, and if it works with my calendar. If it’s not an event, I look to see what the organization is asking me for, and try to find a clear reason explaining why I should donate “now!”. If there is information on the impact made from previous donations, I’m much more interested.
Note that if, anywhere along the way, the website is difficult to navigate, has misspellings or in any way looks unprofessional, I’m likely to move on without considering a donation. Also, if I’m moved by the solicitation, but the path to donate on the website is in any way convoluted, I'll lose interest and give up.
If I have questions about the donation (i.e. what address do I use if I want to use my DAF to donate?), and there’s no phone number listed, I’m likely to get queasy about contributing to that particular organization and change my mind about donating.
The upshot, in case it’s not clear already, is that email solicitations — of any kind — need to be:
Clear and compelling about the organization, and what they do
Up front about what they’re asking me for
Direct about what the donation will accomplish, and
Professional, simple and streamlined in a way that makes it easy to donate.
And if you want me to continue donating to your organization, don’t forget the timely thank-you note.
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- Lisa