As we head into the end of 2019 and prepare for a brand-new decade, we’re breaking down the ins and outs of online giving and why it’s such a great option to offer your donors during the final months of the year. In fact, one-third of giving occurs in the month of December alone and of that, 12 percent of donations come in during the last three days of the year!
What does that mean for your organization? Well for starters, this is the time of year that gives you the most opportunity to raise the most money—and when your donors are most open to giving. What better way to make the process easier for your donors than to offer online giving options?
Need proof? Here are three reasons why online giving and year-end gifts make the perfect pair:
1. Online giving is cost-effective
Think about it. How much money do you spend on printing and postage to send out year-end asks through the postal service? If you utilize email marketing and social media solicitations as the main channels to make your year-end asks, you’ll spend pennies on the dollar compared to your print campaigns. And, you put the donor in the driver’s seat—they’re doing all the work (well, most of it, anyway). You don’t have to process credit cards or checks by hand and you can even automate the thank-you letter/email process. This saves you time and money through the entire donation process.
2. It’s what your donors want
Your donors are looking for ease and convenience—even the ones that receive offline solicitations. In fact, 50% of Millennials and Gen X donors say they’ve given online in response to a direct mail letter. Be sure to cross-promote and make it easy for donors to make their donation online even if they come across you in print.
Online giving is not exclusive to younger donors, either. Ten percent of online donors on the 4aGoodCause platform are over the age of 65. In fact, donors in all generations—Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers—are inspired to give through digital channels (social media and email) over direct mail channels to the tune of anywhere between 52 – 64%. You’ll raise more money if you offer options in ways that your donors want.
3. Results are easy to track
Monitoring the results of online giving (and online communications to provide information about online giving options) is easy to track. You can monitor email open rates, donation pageviews, real-time donations that process through your donation landing page, etc. You can dig in to which pieces of content or content themes seemed to entice a click and which pieces did not.
While online giving isn’t a replacement for your offline solicitations, it is something you want to encourage—especially at the end of the year when so many of your donors are thinking about their last-minute gifts to round out the year (and their taxes!). Providing ways to drive as many potential donors as possible to your organization’s website and online giving pages is a great way to bump up your strategy for the end of the year and, quite possibly, see those monthly averages increase as you close out 2019.
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