5 Biggest Reasons People Leave your Donation Page

I think we can all agree that when it comes to actually getting donors to complete their donations, the struggle is very much real.

In fact, a whopping 60% of donors abandon their donations. That’s right, they leave the process midway through. Just think about that for a second. How many more donations and how much more of an impact could you have if you were able to increase your donation ratio by 60%? It's safe to say that it would be a JUMP!

The thing is, many people have the intention of coming back to finish their donation but life gets in the way. You know those “omg, let me go deal with this” moments that just seem to happen at the most inconvenient time.

Do us a favour. Picture this:

Scenario #1: The doorbell rings… It must be that super cool thing you just ordered on Amazon. You HAVE to go get it. You don’t have time to chase after porch pirates!

Scenario #2: Your kid drops a glass of juice. OMG, the rug! Gotta soak that up ASAP.

Scenario #3: Basically, any other everyday event that takes us away from all the things we intended on doing but then gets added to our to-do list that, well, never ends.

You might be sitting there thinking: “Ok, well how am I supposed to get donors to complete their donations even when these everyday things seem to be fighting tooth and nail to pull them away? It’s not like I can magically appear in their living room to mop up their kid’s juice spill… right?”

Don't worry, you don’t need to mop up any juice or stop porch pirates to get those donations. We’ve compiled the five biggest reasons why they are completely abandoning your donation page versus making it to that “complete donation” button. Hint hint: Porch pirates are the least of your problems!

Here are the 5 Biggest Reasons People Leave your Donation Page

1. You Have Forced Account Creation

Your donors are ready to make a donation… They’re on your donation page, after all. But, and this is a BIG but, when they go to hand over their hard-earned cash, or plastic (I mean, who carries around cash anymore), they’re told they need to create an account.

Ugghhhh! Just another account that they won’t remember the login info for. Enter the whole “forgot password” process. No thank you.

Why is having them create an account a bad thing? It breaks the momentum you created when you made that heart-centered connection, which compelled them to take action. Think about when you’re on a roll with something. Maybe you’re reading a really good book or writing an email, and then someone comes into your space and interrupts you. It completely pulls you out of the mindset you were in. Not only that, you now have to get back into that mindset to finish the task. Easier said than done, right?

Ok, let us blow your mind a little bit with this statistic:

24% of people abandon their checkout because the site wanted them to create an account.

We know you want that precious donor data but we have a sneaking suspicion that you would rather have that extra 24% in donations. In a world where it seems like no answer is ever simple, we’re here to actually give you a simple answer to the problem: Collect the data after they’ve hit that “complete donation” button.

2. You Have a Complicated & Time-Consuming Checkout process

When a donor clicks that “donate” button and is faced with an endless abyss of form fields, their motivation to help your organization make a difference in the world slowly dies off. Just imagine the “wah-wah-wah” sound as your donation numbers slowly decrease every time your form questions increase. With every “Mr. and Mrs” field or “when is your birthday” question, your ability to motivate them becomes more and more endangered. 18% more endangered, actually.

18% of people abandon their cart because of a long and complicated process. If someone has made the choice to donate to your cause, taking unnecessary steps to complete the form is going to decrease the number of people who actually donate.

Don’t worry if you have a TON of question fields. You’re not alone. Around ⅓ of nonprofit organizations ask 20 questions on their donation forms. Yikes!

What should you actually do to decrease your loss rate? The key is to:

1. Minimize the number of fields donors have to fill in
2. Use autocomplete features
3. Leverage auto-fill forms

Make it easy and simple for people to input their information. Also, if the information is not essential for making a donation then leave it out. If you’re really struggling with leaving out a question from your form, then make sure you ask yourself what it is about that question that would help GET a donation.

What are the fields you MUST HAVE on your donation page?

Once someone has donated, you can always gather information from them over time. It doesn’t have to all happen at once.

3. Payment Methods Are Inconvenient

Gone are the days of having to type out long card numbers into online checkout pages. In fact, do you even have your credit card by your side when you see a compelling story about helping the hungry families in your community, disaster relief, or sheltering the most adorable animals? Probably not.

Who wants to get up off the couch after a long day of doing all the things, or while they’re binging the latest episode of House Of The Dragon, to find their wallet, input their information, and then REMEMBER to put their card back. No one wants to realize they forgot their credit card when they’re picking up their morning coffee.

Enter Digital Wallets.

Digital wallets allow users to store funds, make transactions, and digitally track payment history. All of your payment information (name, credit card number, shipping address, billing address, etc) is saved and can be used to complete a transaction, including a donation.

Digital wallets come in the form of ApplePay, which is available on all Apple products, and all information is stored safely on the cloud. In fact:

ApplePay had a whopping 507 million users worldwide as of 2020.

People can also use Google Pay, which is the Android equivalent.

Basically, make sure your donors can use their digital wallets if this is their preferred method of payment. If Starbucks can let you tap your phone to buy a coffee, you can let them donate to your organization through their digital wallet.

Bonus Tip:

Make sure your donors know how much they can, or should, donate. The donor made the decision to give but they don’t always know what amount will make an impact. Guide them.

Givecloud has predictive amount selection technology to populate the default amount the donor first sees. Based on a ton of data points including location, device, donations, demographics, etc. You will surface the recommended amount with the highest conversion expectation. The donor can then swipe through and adjust their amount. Easy peasy!

4. You Have an Untrustworthy Donation Experience

We get those spam calls, the seemingly legit text messages and emails from our banks, and we’re constantly being told to be extra careful about who we trust online. This has led to people being overly (and for a good reason) cautious when it comes to handing over their payment information.

17% of people abandon their online shopping carts because they didn’t trust the site with their credit card information. There are a few key things you can do to put people’s minds at ease and make them more comfortable donating:

Installing SSL certificate:

This tells people that your site is legit and not something a random person tossed together to gather funds and disappear.

Highlighting your impact:

Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn a little bit. Show some statistics and information that showcase what your organization has done so far.

Make your FAQ and Privacy Policy easily accessible:

Don’t disguise or hide it. Let people see the information and work through their decision-making process. 

Use a reputable platform that is built with your donors in mind:

By using a reputable platform and creating a positive donor experience, you’re building those heart-centered relationships that ultimately lead to a bigger impact. 

5. You Have Website performance issues 

The reality is, digital donations without a mobile-friendly site are turning donors away. Let us ask you this, how many times have you gone to a website and quickly clicked away because:

• It didn’t load fast enough
• The ads were all over the place so you could barely see the content
• Pictures were cut off
• Logos were way too small
• Buttons weren’t working

Basically, the site makes you say “screw this” and move on with your day. This is what happens when your digital donation pages are not optimized for mobile use. **Cough cough** We’re talking about smartphones, here! 

In the past year, mobile donations have increased by 205%. Remember when we said you need to get with the times to increase your conversion rate, well, this is another example of that. 

In 2021, an estimated 28% of online donations were made using mobile devices. To put this into an even better perspective, in 2022, mobile phones have generated 60.66% of website traffic, while desktops and tablets are only responsible for 39.34%.

This means that to really capture these mobile users and turn them into valuable donors, you need to make sure you have a strong mobile experience. Otherwise, you’re going to see a higher abandonment rate.

Our advice? Optimize your donation pages and entire website with mobile use in mind FIRST, and then think about the other devices like desktops and tablets.

Decrease Your Abandonment Rate With These Donation Page Best Practices

Your goal is to have the biggest impact possible through your organization. This means that every time a potential donor abandons their donation, that is a loss of impact. The good news is your abandonment rate can be decreased, and donations can be saved, by something as easy as simplifying the number of fields your donors have to fill out to donate to your organization. 

By keeping your donor experience top of mind, and making their donation experience smooth and easy, you will be able to maximize donations and make the biggest impact in our world.