Like any organization, charities should always look for ways to improve the way they do things. For charities, this includes your online fundraising efforts, which can take a page from e-commerce best practices to help you ultimately raise more for your charity.

While many charities have been slow to embrace the Internet as a channel to effectively raise funds because they may not realize all of the ways they can benefit, one area where the sector can look to for advice is online retail. When it comes to meeting donor expectations, there is a wealth of knowledge we can learn from e-commerce — and even from our own shopping experiences.

Here are a few key lessons that charities can learn from e-commerce.

Lesson 1: Donors Expect an Easy Experience

E-commerce sites are becoming more sophisticated, making it easier for customers to find what they want quickly and efficiently.

Thanks to mobile websites, online shoppers can access information about products on their smartphones during any part of the buying process. These mobile sites also typically use responsive design, which means that the layout changes depending on whether you're viewing them on your computer or phone. This is important because people expect their online shopping experiences to be similar across devices.

The same is true of charity websites—donors expect you to have a simple, mobile-friendly website that makes it easy for them to find what they're looking for and make a donation. Your website should be easy to navigate with your donate button prominently displayed.

Lesson 2: Donors Expect Personalized Content

Many e-commerce sites have already adopted new technologies that allow them to personalize customers' shopping experiences based on their behavior or preferences. For example, Amazon uses purchase history and browsing data to recommend products that it thinks people like you will like.

The same concept can be applied in online fundraising. If somebody donates $25 once every few months, why not send them a notification during off months, asking if they want to make another donation? Instead of assuming that donors want to make monthly gifts, you can automatically send them different types of appeals based on their previous donations or encourage them to set up a monthly gift by outlining the benefits in doing so

You could even set up your email marketing software to allow donors to create their own preferences, so they can opt in to the kinds of emails they want to receive whether it’s the frequency of updates from your charity or types of content they are interested in.

Lesson 3: Donors Expect to Have Options

Donors don't want to be limited when making a donation. Online shoppers often try out different options before they make a purchase, and even if they ultimately buy from one site, they will have compared prices or services on multiple sites first. It's important for your website to provide visitors with options, including both general donation forms and the ability to give in different ways.

Donors want their favourite charity to offer several ways for them to engage and support your work, including one-time donations, recurring donations where possible (e.g., monthly giving), monthly sustaining donations (for ongoing operating expenses), and planned gifts like bequests, pooled income funds, or donations of securities.

Always be mindful of keeping in contact with your donors. This is great for those who are excited about your mission but aren't in the position to donate right away. Some organizations offer an email subscription that allows people to stay connected with their work without being asked for money every time they visit their site.

Nobody likes feeling pressured to give, so you shouldn't use this email list to ask for money unless it's clear that people are interested in being part of the solution. It's up to you to nurture these relationships over time by staying top-of-mind without asking for anything in return.

Leveling Up Online Fundraising

There you have it: three e-commerce best practices that charities can learn to meet and exceed donor expectations to ultimately raise more for your charity. Keep them in mind when putting together your next campaign, and the results will speak for themselves!

Philip Manzano is a Senior Client Marketing Manager at CanadaHelps, a leader in providing powerful fundraising and donation technology to charities and donors since 2000. Philip has been working closely with charities and small nonprofit teams to adopt nonprofit technology for the last nine years. www.canadahelps.org

Cover photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash