A large item we tackled in combination with the smaller enhancements that were rolled out last month was a fundamental change to the DonorDrive online donation process.

The Problem

If a donor had not yet created an account or was not logged into the system, they would be taken away from the donation process to perform either of these functions before completing a donation (Figure 1).

Figure 1

We affectionately referred to this account creation/login screen as the “Hump”, since it proved to be a major obstacle to the donation process. Donors became confused when they were taken away from the action they were trying to perform: make a donation. They asked, “Why do I need an account? Do I already have an account? How do I request my password? I just want to make a donation. I don’t need all this account stuff.”

Frankly, nothing else in DonorDrive really matters if we’re preventing our users from completing donations quickly and easily. So we immediately set out to fix things.

The Research

We conducted usability testing on both our registration and donation processes. We then conducted “deep dive” personal interviews with DonorDrive clients to get a more focused picture of the problem at hand and potential solutions. We discovered that:

• Users generally did not want to create an account. They simply want to give a donation.
• Users thought the amount of information required on our donation screens was excessive. I.E. Salutation, birth date, business address and phone, etc.

The Solution

Sayonara Hump! Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out. The first order of business was to remove the Hump screen altogether, but this would reintroduce systematic problems that the Hump was intended to solve in the first place. If the user hadn’t logged in or created an account yet, how could they complete their donation? We worked through many iterations of designs, exploring ideas and potential paths to take to integrate a method of logging in or creating an account.

First, instead of taking the user away from the donation process to login to an existing account, we placed a small, convenient login box at the top of the donation form (Figure 2). When the user logs into the system, the page simply refreshes and they remain on the donation form to continue the process. The system even pre-fills most of their information for them. Easy as pie. That solves logging in for existing users.

Figure 2

Second, how to handle new accounts. Our thinking when we first built the donation process in DonorDrive was that users would appreciate being able to come back to the website to check on previous donations, to see how the organization is doing fundraising-wise, and possibly interact in other ways with the organization, such as participating in an event, etc. However, our user research and interviews said otherwise. We commonly heard that donors really didn’t care about having an account. They just wanted to give their hard-earned money to the organization. So we made account creation when donating an optional process to the user after they’ve completed their donation.

At the end of the donation process, the donor is asked if they’d like to set their password for their account (Figure 3). If they do set their own password, they’re good to go and can login to the My Account area of the website to see their donations. If the donor chooses not to set a password, they can come back to the site to make subsequent donations without having to log in.

Figure 3

Third, we greatly reduced the amount of information being asked for from the user. The form consists mainly of billing information now. Extraneous info is out.

Did It Work?

All in all, this enhancement has shown an excellent improvement. We’ve seen a strong increase in completed donations after we rolled it out and continue to fine-tune things.

We’re constantly working to better DonorDrive. If you have any ideas, please let us know!

A recent study by the Foundation Center shows a growth trend in foundation grant making over the last three years which suggests continual growth through 2008 despite the nation’s economic problems. More than half (54.3%) of organizations responding to the study said they plan to increase their giving. Of that percentage, the largest organizations – those giving $10 million or more – are the most likely to see the increase.

For more details, head over to the Foundation Center’s website.

By Dan Volkens, Interactive Designer