Make Online Giving Easier for Donors . As a ministry in 2022, you must embrace digital fundraising as part of your donor development strategies in order to continue connecting with your present and future supporters. But just as years of experience have developed best practices for offline donor development, it’s important to consider both the technical and user experience approaches that can impact online giving.
Digital or online giving includes donations through a website, app, virtual reality, mobile device and SMS. The considerations for each are different, of course, but many of these principles on today's episode will apply across them all.
Make Online Giving Easier for Donors . As a ministry in 2022, you must embrace digital fundraising as part of your donor development strategies in order to continue connecting with your present and future supporters. But just as years of experience have developed best practices for offline donor development, it’s important to consider both the technical and user experience approaches that can impact online giving.
Digital or online giving includes donations through a website, app, virtual reality, mobile device and SMS. The considerations for each are different, of course, but many of these principles on today's episode will apply across them all.
Welcome to the, This is HIS Story Podcast the executive director
and Pastor Guide to sowing and reaping online givers.
Hello and welcome to episode 10 nonprofit digital strategies,
you know, if you know me or of hired me in the past,
you know that I normally teach principles more than tactics.
I rather teach somebody how to fish. Then tell them about past fish that have been caught
and how you might could catch one too bright.
I just don't feel. I feel like there's a lot of people out there who are teaching tactics
and that is one of the problems is that organization to grab tactics.
That'll work and they just don't understand that.
They may not be ready for that tactic yet,
and there's other dominoes that need to fall before they do it.
And so I like to teach the principles
and the Order of things so that you don't waste time working on
something that probably is five steps down the road
for your organization.
I feel like that's where frankly, a lot of people fail and that's why I like coaching.
I look at see where people are and then tie.
Here's your next five priorities don't About this other thing.
But today I'm going to give you some tactic.
I work with enough organization, see enough,
things that maybe you can grab a pen
and paper and maybe it's a little bit of a strategy tactic blend.
That will have some value for for you as you listen today.
So let's start with the first one donation and payments,
you know, it was not too long ago,
people would just specially the small organizations,
the best they could put together is maybe donate through PayPal.
And then, you know, as things got a little cheaper and easier to integrate,
you know, a lot of organizations have a back-end
and they have a way for people to not only donate but maybe even become monthly donors,
but then we get happy with that
and we move on as an organization
and do not stay attuned to the technology and user trends that are occurring.
And right now we have a giant
one and that is people have Have income and resources that aren't on their credit card.
So we expect people to come to our website and donate and use their credit card,
but they literally are are living in a world where their assets are in different places.
So if you don't have an easy way to show,
someone how to give their stocks PayPal venmo,
cryptocurrency. That's the one I want to underline.
Then you need to Go back to your website and make some adjustments.
I would especially say in today's world of cryptocurrency is of utmost importance.
Every nonprofit website needs a way for someone to donate and transfer cryptocurrency.
I would also say your organization probably through your board of directors needs to create your
policy for cryptocurrency.
A lot of the organization's I work with,
have just put it in there. A clause that says,
We are not going to play the stock market.
And so when we get a gift if it's in the stock market,
we have X amount of days to sell it. We're not going to read the newspaper
and guess which way it's trending and will tell going to do the same with cryptocurrency.
Now, your organization can wing it, but I would just say do what you say,
say what you do like, know
what you're going to do and don't guess every time you get a stock
or a cryptocurrency that you're going to throw it.
Let me transfer it from this one to this one. Or are you going to cash?
Out. And what day, how many days do you have to cash out if that's your policy?
So you need to think that through,
but I would definitely make sure your website lets people easily know how to transfer and there.
But just, by the way, if you've not done any research on that,
they're actually organizations out there. I think it's,
I even mention them in my master class as failing,
on the top of my head, of organizations, and sort of make it easy for people to donate,
through that organization and then you create your account.
And then it automatically puts in that account.
You have to a little bit of work. But here's what I'm here to tell you.
It didn't go anywhere. Even if you're listening to this and you don't own any crypto currency.
You don't own it. You don't believe in it.
You think it's foolish? Okay,
still go click the currency on your website
because there are people who differ with your opinion
and they actually will give you cryptocurrency.
And I would even say, Crypto currency
and stock expecially in this economy were in there doing so well,
it's like when you go to when you go to the casinos and you know,
they give you the chips, you know, chips aren't real money.
If you play with real money, you would behave totally different.
But because he lets you play with chips, you spend more
and you walking out and you only have a couple chips in your pocket.
Like I'm not going to the window standing in that line.
So I'm just gonna go ahead and play them because I mean nothing to you.
Well, that's that's true. True and a crazy stock market,
and it's also true with cryptocurrency.
Some people put in very little and it's worth a lot and just giving it away.
It's easy for them. And so there's a lot of donations going on around with cryptocurrency even
as we speak.
So get in line. Be ready.
You never know who in your donor database may have some crypto they want or need to get rid of.
So, allow that? What's that plays into my second point today user experience?
To talk about two major things, but first,
let's do the simple one mobile, many of us sort of Bragg of who our website.
It's, you know, responsive. That means your homepage looks one way on a desktop
and it looks another way on mobile.
And, you know, we're mobile-friendly we've already already there,
but I'm talking about in the weeds of that is your mobile site,
you know, did you buy a template that your navigation is crunched up into that little sandwich bar
with three lines in your user has to click it to get around you.
Website. Well, if your donate button is hidden up there on a mobile,
you made it extra hard for people to find the ways to give to you.
So yes, you may be mobile friendly,
but the term isn't applying to the user experience mobile-friendly.
So sometimes you may need to put a secondary navigation that always
leaves to give button up maybe not on the homepage,
but on the other Pages or maybe on the homepage.
So think through as the user of Mobile,
can they find ways to give not just in a navigation?
And then that checkout process of your giving platform.
Some people have a very clunky giving platform and it gets even clunkier when you put it on mobile.
So yeah, you may be more friendly,
but maybe not user-friendly on mobile.
Semantics, right? Okay, second.
All right, I got to tell a little story here. So,
finally, this week for being your technology.
I guess I'm way behind. And I decided to go by the virtual reality headset.
The Oculus. The one that Facebook makes our,
I guess meta makes now. And I just thought,
okay, it's time. I need to learn more about this virtual world.
I need to experience it. I need to play in it.
Well, got to be honest. It did exactly what I thought it would do.
It blew my mind of the future of how we are going to experience life.
So, I'm sure there are Some of you listening today who literally
could school me on the thoughts about this
and the possibilities,
but for those of you who've never bought one never experienced that,
let me just throw some realities to you and get you to think like I'm thinking now,
so putting on this headset and being in this virtual world.
Yes, there are games and that's where the majority of is of it is right now,
but in that virtual world, the Possibilities are literally feel endless.
You can go to concerts in there.
You can watch TV in there, their special events.
Imagine for you sports fans,
never having to go to an MBA Stadium again,
but putting on a virtual reality headset and your at the 50-yard line,
10 rows up and you hear everything you turn to your,
right? There's a person you turned your leftover person you turn around.
You watch the whole game like you were,
right. They're not on a TV screen in your living room on a virtual reality headset
and the NFL can put a camera in that seat or in the end zone or,
you know, the little camera that hangs over the field.
What if they decide to let you watch the game from the offensive side,
or from the defensive side,
or from the referees hat, there are endless possibilities that how you can experience the world live
and the NBA or NFL would only have two.
Well, one ticket that 10,000 people would pay to sit in,
so it's highly advantageous for them.
For people who love to watch the Dallas Cowboys from Mexico from China
and they literally not only get to watch it on TV.
They get to experience it.
The sounds the sights from different angles.
That's one just one possibility going to concerts and you're not watching it on a TV screen.
You're putting a virtual reality headset. Set on and you're in the concert,
you're at the concert. My mind is blown of how there's going to be different
virtual reality worlds that you travel in between.
And people are already buying land in this world and putting up stores in this world.
And even though you may think you're not going to ever do this.
You probably will just like people thought,
I don't want. He be in my living room,
but you got one or I don't know what the internet is.
I will tell you that. Here's what I do know, there is no way we fully know the where this is headed.
Just like the internet. There's no way in 1996 when I got into it.
I had a clue about virtual reality.
I would have never guessed it, but here we are.
And so, my point is that what is this going to look like,
5, 10, 15 years down the road.
There's a Difference between the virtual reality headset
and like augmentation like remember those Google Glasses.
That was just sort of a the entry-level Point.
There's a chance. We're actually going to blend virtual with reality.
Meaning, what have your glasses
when you're walking could put information up on the screen
differently than women of the Google Glasses did
and it changes the way we view the world and information and Holograms and What if you put it,
put on your glasses and your in a meeting at your office.
What? I was think about this, imagine this with the virtual reality,
if any of you go to conferences, nothing about like covid did.
And how many conferences is shut down. Imagine little sound.
So sci-fi, imagine little robots
and your conference with a computer screen on the top
and a camera on the top and you're in your house right now with goggles on.
And you were literally living through that robot.
So you're walking the Halls at the conference.
You're like well when I look down the expo at the conference and you turn to the right,
it looks to the right, you turn to the left and looks to the left,
you go sit down and watch the classroom in that,
you know, there had a little breakout session and you go listen to it.
Our what if they have five robots walking around?
You can say, oh I want to be that robot right now who I want to be that robot right now.
And you want to hear the and see the sights and hear and you could be in a little Conversation.
You can walk down the hall and see your friend and stop.
He sees your face your avatar.
You see, as and you can having a conversation with them,
like you're there, but you're not there
and imagine years down the road where he has his goggles on and you have yours.
And it's like, you're both there talking to one another,
but you're not. There you're in your living room.
Like the technology. It's here.
It's on the edge of the technology.
So I'm actually I'm investing in a lot of work.
Companies, that it's not so much.
I'm investing in crypto, even though I am,
but I'm investing in the companies that are making this to technology happen,
because it's going this way. I'm telling you,
it's going this way. So why would a digital fundraiser have these conversations with you?
Because your donors are going to be on these platforms
and they are going to have money on these platforms.
You're going to pay with a crypto technology for things.
Going to gather money wealth.
You're going to spin there and if we don't understand the world,
we are going to be disconnected and early adopters are going to do.
Well. I don't know if your organization feeds the homeless and West l.a.
I'm not sure where virtual and you are going to blend,
but I would say some of you listening.
You not only can do ministry
and advertising their but you certainly can benefit from your donors being in this world
and collecting money and resources and being willing to give it to you.
So once again, not only do you need to start with your cryptocurrency collecting.
You need to think through what this new augmented virtual reality world.
And your organization where they may intersect,
and where they intersect with your donors. It's a thing,
it's worth your time. So if you don't do anything else,
go spend $300 is 299 for the Facebook Oculus headset.
Virtual reality goggles been handsets.
It's easy to set up, put your world put it in there,
watch a couple of YouTube videos.
I did that and just had a night of, you know,
Learning what EFT s and cryptocurrency and augmented reality,
virtual reality and just trying to understand the world but it's coming.
It's not just for gamers.
It's for us, it's for businesses.
It's for people, it's for organizations and get ahead of it.
Get ahead of it. That's my giant suggestion to you today.
Okay, back to personal experience.
We talked about the user experience with your organization
and I sort of got off on the tangent of virtual.
Personal experience. When people or when your donors give to you.
It's one thing to say. Thank you. It's another one to show them that they're more than just a gift
or a number.
Like even the idea of when you communicate with him.
Whether it's the landing page after a donation or your next email,
but sentences like thank you for being a partner to our ministry.
For eight years. Thank you for,
for joining us. With your first gift.
Last October. Thank you for your recent gift of $100.
It shows that you're watching.
It. Also lets them know. Wow, there's accountability
or like I'm not just a number and this is not just a normal email,
they know, and value my gift.
My partnership with with them and then it puts a little bit of a,
huh, they're watching and if they're watching,
I'm going to show them that. I still care that if they're paying attention.
I'm going to pay attention. Should I marry I'm going to read their emails
so that little bit of extra technology of collecting and displaying their information back to them.
It's really doable. It's not that hard.
But if you can pull that off take the time to do it it is worth it.
Fourth easy to find information on your website.
Here's what I'm going to say not knowing your if you paid me to come into your organization,
one of the things I'm going to do is challenge you In this area.
And that is, if people ask you the same questions over
and over before they give you a gift or when they want to learn about,
you make that information easy to find.
So if people ask what percentage of the gift goes to the orphans and Nairobi,
well, why would you make them dig for that if they want to know,
make it obvious? One of the things I get really frustrated by is On.
So Amazon has a promise that if you're a Prime member and you pick anything,
two-day shipping and it doesn't get there in two days.
Then you get one month credit on your Prime Membership.
Well, over the course of a year. I promise you all,
my shipments don't make it in two days,
especially when I lived out in the country.
North of Dallas. Everything was three days.
No matter what, they promised. It was three days.
Well, they used to make that link a really easy to find on their website for you to make the claim.
It is so buried. Now between search engines and looking in the mobile phone experience.
It is a pain and of course,
they hit it. I know they had it, they don't want people.
I mean, they have the technology right now,
to literally credit you without you calling in.
They know your it was late. They know when it was delivered.
All they'd have to do is say any product does not look deliver.
Today's were in the credit. Those people of course are not gonna do that.
They make you call. And in this case they make you look,
I used to have it bookmark, the link, and then they changed the bookmark.
The URL now it's broken. So I have to go look
and I'm honestly not even done it until long because it makes my blood boil,
just to be quite honest. Every time I go looking
for that link for that form to tell them this order was delayed by one day.
I'd like to claim this promise. But anyway,
my point is is that is that you don't do that to your donors,
don't do it to your web visitors. If people need to know something or want to know something,
make it obvious for them. If there's questions,
they have about your organization. They shouldn't have to contact you to ask you those questions.
Or to find out that information, put it out there front and center,
you will make them happy. And then of course,
if there's a hurdle to giving and you explain your way around the hurdle,
make sure your give button. And your give opportunity is right there,
don't make them scroll up,
find the donation button in the navigation litter,
your website with donation opportunities all along the way.
So that when someone finally crosses their last giving hurdle that
the opportunity to give is right in front of them.
Okay, and then last it it's a good segue testing.
Be a donor, sometimes we set things up and we move on.
And it's it's like if you own a car dealership,
right? You set up all the processes,
you hire yourselves men.
You think you've got it, right? You're making yourselves.
But if you put on a mask and a fake mustache and came in and try to buy a car,
you would find new frustration points along the way because you're looking at a different.
And I would say Give give for a mobile site.
Become a monthly Giver, do things to put yourself in your donor shoes.
The Experience. What emails did you get right afterwards?
It was that landing page. Any good. Maybe it was good in 2017,
and maybe it has some clunky wording on to the,
your organization. Don't even use anymore,
like, go and audit yourself and I would even say going on at yourself.
You're early at least yearly.
The very least one of the things I used to do with one of the organization's I worked with is
once a year and it may have been in six months,
but I'll just say it was a year. We would pull out all the emails like I want to.
I would make my guys print out the,
then monthly newsletters are appeals.
I want to see what newsletters went out in the
mail and we laid it all out on this giant table we had and we said,
oh, Look at the Cadence. Look at the color schemes.
Look at how we titled that subject line.
Like, Let's Pretend We're user. This is what hit us.
This is the order of that, it hit us. This is who we say we are.
This is who are donors. Know us to be?
Are we happy with this? Do we, like, what we sent out?
Do we like this wording? Still on this email?
That goes out. Whenever somebody signs up on our website.
Is that us anymore? It was a few years ago.
Is that us now? So that Audit is a very,
very good to sit down and pretend you're someone interacting with your organization.
I think it's super valuable.
Okay, that's good enough for today.
I there, this is why I get frustrated with tactics because it frustrates me that organizations,
that need something different or going to hear something and say,
oh, let's go do that. Well,
Yeah, but what about this other thing and that more important right now?
Hopefully, these are high level tactics that you can put in your mind.
Maybe you'll do some of them, maybe it'll cause you to research.
And think I will say if you're listening to
this and you are one of the organizations that just aren't sure what the next steps are for you.
I am going to tell you that you are a prime candidate for my master class.
I literally lay it out in order.
Small to mid-sized organizations need to do,
to grow to grow online to collect more new names and you get more donations.
There is a order of priority to pull that off.
That I tell every client that I work with.
And so if that interests you and you go to my website,
creative digital guide.com, you will find what you need to learn more about that.
So blessings. Have a great day.
I'll see you guys on the next episode.
Thank you for listening to today's episode of.
This is his story podcast overwhelmed at all.
The technical terms. Trends options cost,
invoice signings for your organization's digital.
Strategies. Join other leaders of Christian organizations.
As We join hands in our closed.
Facebook group, go to creative digital guide.com Facebook to register and apply for Access.
I'm only allowed Executives of Christian organizations in no vendors.
No high-pressure sales, no gimmicks into this closed Facebook group sign up today
and be encouraged and informed.
As you lead, your Christian organization,
looking for a free resource to help your organization move the needle on new names and donors,
watch the five simple ships to gain.
Dedicated donors with your digital strategies a webinar,
go to creative digital guide.com.
To register for this on-demand resource built exclusively for executive directors.
Creative digital guide.com
for more information of gaining donors and telling stories that convert to new names and donations,
find your God's eyes mission.