CivicActions

Every once in a while it's good to review the basics and yesterday I virtually attended a website usability presentation given by NTen. Using three simple criteria they reviewed the websites of various not-for-profit organizations to deomonstrate how some simple changes could potentially have a positive impact on the site and, more importantly, online donations.

I'm only going to focus on the "call to donate," but the three criteria they used are:

1. Does the Home Page Effectively Introduce the Organization? This includes elements like branding and effectively communicating who the organization is and what they do.

2. Does the Home Page have a Compelling Call to Donate? This includes the placement of the Donate link(s) and also appealing to various users types (hmm..sounds a bit like Persuasion Architecture).

3. Does the Site Use Effective Layout – Both Content Allocation and Design? How well does the site focus the user's eye? Does it have engaging and well organized content? Appropriate and appealing design for your audience?

With these three questions in mind it's possible to actually make some tweaks to a site that can help it achieve its goals (readership, usability, donations, etc.) Taking the second criteria of a compelling call to donate I looked at a few sites of non-profits to see how they fare.

Site 1: Montana Conservation Voters

You can see from their home page that there isn't any one element that stands out or has prominence over another. As as far as the donate button- well, it's a link in the header entitled "Want to Contribute?" :-\ Compelling? Eye catching? Want to contribute? Um. No.

Okay, I'll bite. I clicked the link and the donate page isn't half bad (nor is it half good). The good part is that the form for donating is right here so the site visitor doesn't have to go any further. The bad part is the rather bland text at the top of the form. It explains (in one sentence) what the contribution is for; however, how about some examples of where the money goes, what exactly has been funded with it and the difference it's made. Just a thought.

Site 2: Creative Commons

This homepage has a lot of good elements, but as far as donating it falls short. First, there is a link in the global navigaiton called "Support." When I thnk of support, I think of online help, forums, or other supporting materials. This might not be obvious and actually confuse visitors who are looking for genuine support information. I recommend calling it like it is and put a Donate link the global nav, or i the header along with the Search and License options.

Second, when I do click the Support tab the option to give is now called "Donate." Besides the change in terminology the visitor must now click the Donate link, further slowing him down and providing ample opportunity to click something else and forgo the donation altogether.

If I actually do click on the Donate link I'm taken to another page that lists suggested amounts and show icons for the gifts I can potentially receive for giving at certain levels. Cute.

This page does tell me Creative Commons is a charitable organization, offers me alternate methods of giving, and provides options for one-time or montly gifts (presumabley monthly donations and not gifts in the same sense as the gifts listed on the page). Good information indeed, but it's missing something critical- What do my donations do? Where does the money go? What gets funded? Hmm. For some types of visitors this information will be critical.

Now I'd like to look at a site that's doing it right....

Yikes. I just did a search for "aids charity" and looked at ten websites. Only one of them (http://www.aidshealth.org) had a semi clear and somewhat prominent Donate call to action. Unfortunately clicking on the donate button took me to a very text heavy page with another donate link; clicking that took me another page; and clicking that donate link opened another browser window. *sigh*

For those non-profits who may be reading this here are few things to keep in mind:

1. If you rely on Donations make it prominent. Ain't no shame in asking!
2. Use plain language- donate, contribute, give. Don't mask it behind a euphemism.
3. The Donate link should link to the donation form itself- why burden the giver with extra clicks?
4. Talk to the various types of givers (ala persuasion architecture): What will the donation be used for? How will it help? Where is it going? Who else has donated? Why is it important to you? To me? Resolve any questions now to make donating easier.

Clearly there's much work to be done in the world of non-profits to strengthen the call to give. In these days of economic uncertainty it's even more crucial to do all we can to ensure the good work these organizations are doing can continue. We're here to help.