Hello Indiana, 👋 Today I want to tackle some of the limitations you may be facing with improving your donation page. Of course, there are the general challenges of time and budget. But in this email I want to focus on three more specific challenges you may face.
Technical Limitations
The first challenge you may encounter is technical limitations. When I work with charities on their donation pages, they often tell me that their tech platform won't allow changes.
Although this is true within the limitations of the current build, it isn't the whole picture. Anything is possible; it's just a matter of justifying the investment.
If we want to improve our donation pages, how do we make that argument? Often I start with a trial campaign and prototype donation page. In this campaign, we drive traffic to a simple HTML donation page. One that exists outside of your content system. We aim to build something as quickly and cheaply as possible. It will let us see if our changes to the donation page can make enough money. This money must justify the cost of the development work for a more permanent solution.
You will find management much more willing to spend money on development work when they're confident in a return.
Ownership Issues
Second, you may feel you can't comment on the donation page because you don't own it. Although that's true, it is impacting your ability to do your job, and so I would encourage you to speak up.
As long as you're not confrontational or blame whoever owns the page, I find that people are more receptive than you think.
Here are three tips I use when speaking to the owners of donation pages:
I attempt to find a reason for them to want to update the page and suggest we make the case together. Often the owner of the page wants to improve it as much as you, they just haven't been given the opportunity.
I work with the owner to identify the smallest changes possible that will cause them the minimum disruption. I try to start with something small and build from there when I can show the benefits.
I always come with evidence that there is a problem. This may be in the form of analytics, user testing, or ideally a combination of both.
Compliance and Legal Limitations
A more challenging limitation you might face comes from compliance and legal issues. Adding small print to donation forms is often needed as well as extra fields. But these can be intimidating, confusing, and distracting for donors.
Obviously, we need to comply with our obligations. But, that does not mean we need to blindly accept whatever the legal team provides.
For example, legislation often allows considerable latitude in how you follow the law. We can simplify the wording, set good defaults, and optimize the layout to reduce disruption to donors.
The key is to work collaboratively with the legal team, especially around wording. For example, I use the Hemingway Editor to make their legal copy more readable and accessible.
More Flexibility Than You Think
Working for a charity can involve navigating complex rules, especially for larger organizations. It can feel like you have no flexibility, but that isn't the case. With strategic thinking and a collaborative approach, we can overcome most challenges.
In the next email, we'll delve into the donation form itself as this is often an area where these constraints can raise their ugly head. But until then, feel free to drop me an email with any follow-up questions you may have.
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Keep a civil tongue.