Adding a Callout to a Gift Array ??

I’m sure you’ve seen enough fundraising experiments at this point to know that not every tactic works for every organization every time. (which is one reason we always need test!)

One organization had tested a “Most Popular” callout on their gift array—which we’ve often seen leads to increases in conversion. But it wasn’t moving the needle for their donors.

So our team went back to the drawing board and came up with a new approach.

We wondered if articulating the gift’s impact with more specificity would help more donors say yes to giving, and increase donor conversion.

Let’s see what happened??

Hypothesis

Using an impact callout on the $50 amount for potential donors on a donation page will increase average gift and revenue.

Why might this work?

By calling out a suggested gift amount and demonstrating the impact it will have, donors will be more likely to convert because it provides clarity and specificity on how a donation will actually be used to impact the cause.

Control

Treatment

Results:

Calling out the impact of the $50 donation amount did not make a significant impact on average gift as expected; however, it did have a significant impact on total revenue, resulting in a 201.1% increase in revenue.

Some tips for testing this concept:

1. Test what callout messaging resonates best with your audience — is it social proof, reinforcing the impact of the gift, or something else?
2. Test the donation amount the callout is used on — it might take a couple of tries to find the right balance.
3. Be careful of mixing multiple types of impact (i.e. $10 provides a meal, $50 provides shoes, $100 provides school supplies, etc.) as this can sometimes create more confusion than clarity.

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