Charity Digital Strategy

At a recent fundraising conference I attended, one of the speakers mentioned a golden rule for fundraisers being to speak with five donors a week to keep your fundraising grounded and focussed on the needs and wants of your donors.

I think the same is true for any Digital team in a charity. It’s very easy to hide behind Google Analytics and Survey Monkey and never actually talk to the people who are using your website. Or even then to use usability agencies and remain one step removed.

For me, talking to users gives a much deeper insight into their actual behaviour and gives a perspective on your digital activities which is impossible for you to have as someone on the inside of the charity. There are also lots of ways that user insight can help you with the big questions we all grapple with such as:

• How to structure the site
• What to call different sections
• What features to prioritise
• What’s missing from your site that users want

A very good way to get started with user engagement is to pick at random between 1 and 5 users a week and give them a call. They may be donors, campaigners, registered users or simply enquirers through the contact us form. I bet you will be surprised by what you learn and at the same time, each one of those supporters will feel positive that you have taken the time to talk to them and asked them for their opinion.

Online security is an ongoing source of annoyance, concern or over-excitement, depending on whether you’re a donor, charity or newspaper editor, but what will the latest development: 3D secure do to change our perceptions?

A recent trial for a UK charity put 3D secure forms head to head with their non 3D secure equivalents in a double blind randomised trial.  Although the 3D secure pages were able to accept more card types (Maestro won’t work through many non-3D secure transaction systems), fewer people completed a donation.

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