Four things The3Day.org website could do to get more donations
I recently got an email from a family member, Kathy, asking for donations for her Three Day walk in October, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund (which oddly does not have a wikipedia entry). So I went to go donate at http://www.The3Day.org and noticed quite a few issues throughout the process and came up with some suggestions:
1) Make the link to donate more visible.
I mean, the whole point of all this is to raise money... right?
I was expecting there to be a large "Donate Here" button, and not for it to be a menu item. In fact after quickly scanning the page and the bottom footer links, I incorrectly assumed that the Register box was how I got to the donation form. Even If it is in menu bar, it should be the far left item since that is where users look first. A different color would be nice too so it is not lost in the sea of pink and purple.
The Donate link should be in as many places as possible. They should add a big bright button in the homepage body, a link in the footer, and in the upper left in the wasted space in the black login bar. Another thing they could do is to make the link shorter, something like "http://The3Day.org/donate" instead of the nasty "http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Events/General?fr_id=1170&pg=pfind".
It should be painfully obvious how to give money, and not blend in on a fake button surrounded by more attractive & irrelevant buttons and action items as it is on the fundraiser's personal page:
2) Give fundraisers an easy way to share a link directly to their page
I think the link was supposed to be automatically inserted into the email I received, but it wasn't. Even so there are now infinitely more alternatives to email to get the word out, especially to social networks like Twitter and Facebook. A quick and easy way to do this is to drop an Add This widget onto the page.
3) Accept more payment options other than credit cards.
You want people to donate in as many ways possible because many people are not comfortable giving credit card info to many different websites. Heck, many people are getting rid of their credit cards altogether! Yeah sure they can pay over the phone, or mail in a check, but most people won't take the time. You should accept as many payment types as possible, and there are many to choose from (many of which have lower fees and provide special services for non-profits):
4) Do not stop people from donating.
I got this message when attempting to go back to the donate page.
I assume this was work around some strange technical issue, but it should be avoided at all costs. Donating a second time should be easier than the first, not harder.
The three day site is great and has lots of helpful information and tools for the fundraisers, but it is easy to overlook the small details that can have a big impact on the main goal to raise money for charity.
If you want to help encourage Kathy as she walks 60 miles to raise money to cure breast cancer, please donate here or click the image of Kathy and her daughter Aubrey:
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