You may have heard a famous quote that says, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” In layman’s terms, if you don’t have a plan, your chances of failing are much higher.

This sort of thought can be attributed to many things. In football, teams put together hours of practice each week – studying their opponents, honing their own skills on the field, and finding strategic ways that will lead them to victory. All of their work every week is put into their playbook for their next game. During the course of the game, each play they run is just a small part of the bigger strategy they are trying to execute. With that playbook, they have a greater chance of victory. Without it, a win is almost assured for the other team.

It's no different for nonprofit fundraising. A campaign that simply says, “Give us money,” probably won’t go over well. Why do you need the money? Where should it come from? Where will the money go? What is the story you ultimately want to tell? This is where thinking of a strategy and creating a playbook comes in for nonprofit organizations everywhere. It can be a monetary goal for your yearly back-to-school campaign, or an organizational-wide goal to completely change your donor experience for the good.

iDonate CEO Ray Gary says in his Amplify Good blog:

The single, most important factor is the absence of smart, effective fundraising “plays.” When drawn from a larger strategic plan, fundraising plays go to the heart of creating a rich, consistently relevant donor relationship.

What sort of “plays” should you keep in mind when coming up with your nonprofit’s fundraising playbook? Here are three truths to know about digital fundraising and how you can improve your donor experience.

More giving tools doesn’t always equal a better giving experience

Most nonprofits pay for duplicate giving tools, and one third of nonprofit professionals are working exclusively with inherited (and often out-of-date) technology.¹ This creates an admin nightmare that costs organizations like yours time, money, and employee satisfaction (more on that next). Simplify your digital fundraising software to create a more streamlined experience for both donors and team members, alike.

Lackluster tech leads to employee dissatisfaction

Today, 4 out of 5 nonprofits believe their current fundraising technology can’t meet their future needs.¹ When your team is frustrated, your supporters and revenue feel it, too. If you’ve ever worked with out-of-date or cumbersome technology, you know how incredibly frustrating and unproductive it can be. Invest in a comprehensive digital fundraising platform that gives your employees all the solutions they need, including easy-to-build landing pages, built-in donor growth features, advanced analytics and reporting, as well as unrivaled technical support. A supported team is a high-performing team.

Giving experiences should be frictionless, not frustrating

Do you know how much you’re losing in digital donations because of unnecessary friction? What specific things are keeping your donors from donating? Half of all nonprofits still require the donor to complete two or more steps to make a donation. While this may have worked in the past, today’s donors expect a simpler — even a personalized — giving experience; they should be able to contribute in just a few easy clicks. Still, almost all organizations (95%) have friction in their digital experience, which is proven to lower conversion rates.² Right now, 60% of nonprofit giving forms have distracting links and 30% have conflicting calls to action.³ Lower conversion rates are guaranteed with these friction-points, especially when coupled with slow load times, broken forms, unnecessary text blocks, and more.

Give your supporters the tip-top experience they deserve and expect. Make sure your embedded giving form is intuitive – add photos and descriptions, display an impact message, and suggest the most frequent gift amount – and your call to action is clear.

These are just a few truths we discovered about the digital nonprofit fundraising industry. Want to know more? Download our ebook “10 Simple Truths About Digital Fundraising Today” at the link below.

¹ GiveSmart: Insights into the State of Fundraising and Technology

² NextAfter & Fundraise Up: The Donation Page Friction Study

³ NextAfter: The Global Online Fundraising Scorecard