As a NGO funded in large part thanks to the contributions of our members, bequests & with very little government funding, we are constantly in search for new ways to attract income, and to improve existing ones. As our webpage created relatively small amount of money, during a full refurbishing of our webpage in 2012, we addressed this problem.
Aim - strategy Traditionally, the way to promote fundraising on a website would be by giving as much space as possible on the home page to donation buttons/banners. The Norwegian Cancer Society has chosen a different approach, with great result. We know that people visit our webpage mainly because they are in need of information about cancer. About symptoms, a diagnose, about being a relative or an employer. Very few visit our website because they want to donate. We decided that our fundraising had to be adapted to our users needs.
Process
Firstly, our primary focus in setting up our new website was to address our users needs; to give them the information about cancer they came for in the first place. We never loose this at sight. Only when this need is met, we aim to direct the attention towards making a donation or using our help line. Secondly, we decided to make one donation option the prominent one, and all others a lesser priority – thus eliminating “the paradox of choice”. Thirdly, we do our best to make all forms very user friendly, and we restrict ourselves to ask for only the most vital information about the donor - more information could be asked for later –after the donation is made.
Costs and returns
After our new webpage was lauched in 2013, we hav not nly seen an increase in the number of donations in the prominent option – but also in all others. Alltogether, our new approach have so fare more than doubled our effectible online income streams.