Episode Transcript
Monica Pitts 00:00
Uh, okay, so starting from the top friends, we're going to go through three things in this
episode. Number one, the critical stuff that you cannot skip or stuff will not happen. And when I
say stuff, I'm referring to donations. They won't be coming in if you're planning on gathering
them through your website. The second thing we'll go over is your fact check list. Yeah, say
that 10 times fast. That's not easy. And then last, but not least, we'll talk about the nice stuff to
do if you have time. And really, there's still some really crucial things on there that will improve
the conversions on your website. It's just things will still work technically if you don't do them
alright. So starting off with the critical stuff, seriously, do not skip this. We're going to start with
the very, very number one thing do not skip this. Stacey, what is it?
Stacy Brockmeier 00:56
Test Your donation form like your budget depends on it, because it does. Your budget truly
depends on testing your donation form. Monica, and I may have made this mistake. You know,
we really like to get hit over the head with a two by four. That's how we learn best, is by
making our own mistakes. And we've been there, done that, and we certainly do not want you
to have that same experience, because, oh, how stressful and sad. And you worked on all of
this marketing, and you've worked on all of this stuff for so long, and then for the last stinking
step not to work, it's just so sad. And so please, please, please, make sure you check your
donation form, and don't just check it like one time. Check it on your computer, check it on your
phone, have your like spouse or significant other or teenager or whoever is like a person who is
not in your everyday stuff like test it because, you know, I sometimes find that when we test
our own stuff, we're like, yeah, it works fine because we knew how to work it. And when other
people are doing it, they're just doing it differently. And so that's tough. So have other people
test it from start to finish.
Monica Pitts 02:21
We always have my husband test it. It's kind of annoying when he finds any type of error. I'm
not gonna lie,
Stacy Brockmeier 02:28
but I would rather him find it than someone
Monica Pitts 02:32
else. Yeah, and our face plant was on our own stuff, I would like to say, oh for sure, not for a
client that was our own face plant, but yeah, no. So try different donation amounts. If you have
recurring donations, try that. Make sure they're coming through in the credit card processor,
not just showing up in the website. Try refunding things. Try make sure your confirmation email
send, look at them in your actual email, because it doesn't look the same in the email as it does
on the back end of the website or in your donation software service, whatever you're using,
right? Yeah. And if it's too complicated, especially older donors, they're just going to leave
because they feel out of control, and they feel like what they're doing isn't secure. They feel
unsafe making a donation on a form that doesn't like logically make sense to them. So you
making sure it makes sense, especially to older donors, and they're the ones with the money
most of the time, right? It's gotta work for them. So, like, if you can, like, have your parents
check it for you, right? Like, if I send something to my mom, she's going to figure out how to
break it. It's she's so good at that. We actually, okay, this is a very small bunny trail. But we
actually figured out why people started and exited the home on the homepage of a website by
watching Stacey's mom use a computer. We were like, Oh my gosh, people are just hitting the
back button until they get back out of the website, and that's why it was last visited page. We
couldn't figure it out. And then Stacey's mom, yeah, yep, I think there's a song about your
mom.
Stacy Brockmeier 04:26
There is. It's my, it's my. Been my favorite song, you know, for like, 20 years.
Monica Pitts 04:32
Okay, so the second thing is, we need to have our homepage donation link before the fold on
your website this so, you know the full that's a newspaper term, right where it folded. So on
your website, I want it to be on the screen where they don't have to scroll to get to it. So if it
has to be up in your like hero image, or in your slideshow or whatever, that's where it should
go. It should definitely be on the navigation. Look at it on your. Phone and make sure they don't
have to scroll down to get to the donate button. And it shouldn't be like you have to click to
open the navigation drawer to get to the donate button, like it should be right there, like, I don't
care. Take the video off the top of your home page on a phone if you have to, but get the
donate button there so that way they don't have to scroll to find it. Don't make them hunt for it.
Stacy Brockmeier 05:21
Yeah, and again, just make sure that that is on mobile and desktop, above the fold, like both
scenarios, make sure it's right there for people to see.
Monica Pitts 05:32
Now, Stacey, if they're running like a specific year and giving campaign, what do they need to
do with all their donation buttons?
Stacy Brockmeier 05:43
Those donation buttons actually need to go to that specific campaign. So if you're running a
Giving Tuesday or a holiday campaign or like whatever that is, don't make them go to your
regular donate page and then click again. Just link them directly to your specs your specific
year in giving campaign, people just don't want to hunt and just and you want to make it as
easy as possible for your donors, so making sure that they have prominent links again, above
the fold on your homepage, above the hero image, like right at the very top, mobile and
desktop all the places
Monica Pitts 06:27
think that this is one instance where a pop up is completely fine, because the people going to
your website at this time of year, unless you have a lot of other things going on that you're
marketing for, they are going there to make a donation. So if a pop up shows up with a easy to
click on button, I don't think that's rude or out of place at this point. I think it's good use of
technology, honestly.
Stacy Brockmeier 06:53
So you're giving people what they want immediately. And we all know, we all like immediate
gratification. It doesn't matter what age you are,
Monica Pitts 07:01
well, and one of the benefits of the pop up is it like, grays out the stuff behind it. It makes it
front and center. There's not a bunch of other words conflicting or pictures. It's like, here it is.
Here's the button. This is what you were looking for, right? And it's no Braining. I like a no
brainer. I don't think. Okay, so also, for you know, moving through this donation process, make
sure that that thank you page works correctly, that people need to know that the donation was
submitted successfully. First off, so it needs to work on the website, and it needs to look like
you care. It shouldn't just have like, a teeny, tiny thank you message and the form is still in
place. No, no, I think it should redirect to a whole new page, actually, would be my suggestion.
Stacy Brockmeier 07:51
Yeah. And I think also just making sure that people feel like you're grateful for their donation.
So what you don't want is something that is very obviously written by chat GPT, and only just
basic and generic. Like, make something that is actually like, thank you so much for your
donation of $50 you're going to help feed X number of people, you know, I mean, like, you can
do some cool things like that, and it's just neat. Or for every you know, whatever you're going
to do with the money, it's so important to let people know that you care and that you are super
thankful for their donation. And then I think also just making sure that it has like the next steps,
like, how can they keep in touch with your your organization. Can they follow you on social
media? Can they sign up for your emails, that kind of thing. And then lastly, I would say on that
thank you page, like this kind it's thank you page slash email confirmation, right? So can it send
them an actual like receipt with your tax ID on it, so that they don't have to wait for that,
because a lot of people will make their year end donations, print that off, put it in their folder
that they're going to use, you know, February, March, April, to file their taxes. Now we don't
want that to replace, like, your personalized thank you note, but if that, if you can get that tax
letter to them, automate, automatically, like that is really helpful,
Monica Pitts 09:25
well, and so when Stacy is talking about these personalized thank you notes or not, thank you
notes, but thank you messages on the screen and a personalized receipt, the way it works is
when people enter their information into the different fields on your website. That information
is captured and it's saved in a database. Now it shouldn't be saving their credit card
information, and if it is, we have a way bigger problem then we can solve on this podcast, but it
should be saving that information so. You should be able to pull that information out and use
kind of little tokens in your email, so that way they can see it, and little tokens on the thank you
page, that way they can see it and personalize it and make it feel more special, because it is
really special, and they just gave you a really great gift. Yeah, so last but not least, on another
very technical note, our fifth. And yes, this is it. Fifth must have is you need to make sure that
your SSL certificate is properly on your website. If it's not, they might not even get to your
website, quite frankly. So just go out to your website and look and make sure that your URL or
your domain name, your website, address, whatever you want to call it starts with HTTPS. It
needs an S on it, my friends. And if it doesn't have an S, you don't have an SSL certificate, and
that sucks. And at that
Stacy Brockmeier 10:53
point, just call your web developer. You don't need to know how to fix it on your own. You don't
need to spend six hours while you're in you're in giving campaign mode, you just need to ask
for help on this one.
Monica Pitts 11:05
Yeah, and what's tricky is Google's really fickle about whether it cares or not, like Google
absolutely cares. It really does want you to have a SSL certificate, and it has for years. If this is
not something new, and sometimes it's going to block people from getting to the pages, like
your donation page, because you don't have one, but it doesn't block everyone. It just blocks
some people. So it's fickle, and we don't like that. Okay, so the five must have things. Number
one, test your donation form. Test all the things about it. Test it 17 different ways. Have other
people test it for you. Have it on a mobile device. Do it on a desktop. Do it all. Two, get that
donation link at the top of the page, above the fold on your website, link to your specific year
end campaigns. Make sure you've got them funds going to the right things. Four, test your
thank you page. Test your thank you emails. And five, make sure you've got that SSL certificate
on there so that way people can actually get to the page. Okay, so those are the must have
things that's pretty doable. I mean, the testing the form sounds really tedious, but it's kind of
important.
Stacy Brockmeier 12:20
You got this. We have faith in you that you can do these must do items.
Monica Pitts 12:25
Yes, okay, so moving on to the fact check list. Fact checklist. So Stacy was talking about earlier,
how you know you you're getting this donation in, but then you want to follow up, and you want
to make sure that you are telling them how to keep talking to you. Because what you're trying
to do is you get your donation in, and then you want to, like, build a relationship with this
person, right? It's not just about this one transaction. It's about a relationship. It's about
building upon this asset of this relationship. And there are a lot of pieces on your website that
could build trust or not build trust based on their accuracy, right? So this list is to make sure
that you can continue a relationship with someone, really, that's what it's all about, right? So
the first, and I would say this probably isn't the most common problem, but I do see it on a lot
of websites. What? What is it?
Stacy Brockmeier 13:32
Stacey, the social sharing buttons just link to like facebook.com/hashtag,
Monica Pitts 13:38
well, or they just don't or don't link, they don't link to anything. Yeah, and then also, like,
sometimes there's like, the share, but the share doesn't work. Like, I'm not just talking about
the little icons at the bottom of your site. Those, I often see, they're there and they don't link to
anywhere. They're just like, it's like, when people put them on a menu. Like, yeah like, that's
supposed to help me find you.
Stacy Brockmeier 14:09
on their business card. That's my favorite. I don't know if I've ever been so mad than the day I
had to talk about why you shouldn't put your social media icons on your business card, on the
most expensive business cards ever, because they took weeks and weeks and weeks to design,
but still, because
Monica Pitts 14:27
they don't actually link to anything, they don't link anywhere. No, they don't
Stacy Brockmeier 14:32
come on. Make sure your social share buttons work. Make sure your social icons link to the
appropriate place.
Monica Pitts 14:39
If you can, a lot of websites let you put like a default graphic in. And if you don't have the
power to put a default graphic in for like, that specific thank you page, you can put a default
graphic in for the whole site. And so maybe for the last month of the year, you update that
graphic to be like I donated or. Yeah, you know, maybe not. I donated. That seems a little
braggerty, but like, spread, like, I don't know, something awesome that people are really going
to want to share, a great success story, something that gets people buzzing, and it's like, Man, I
want to, I do want to share this. This is great. Okay, yeah, okay. So one thing I would say that
this is actually the most likely out of date information on your website, yeah, your staff and
board and their contact information. It's like, it's always out of date, right? So
Stacy Brockmeier 15:35
I think it's out of date for everyone all the time, like, yeah, it's just such a bummer. We do the
same thing. I get our own worst client, to be really honest when it comes to this, but man, we
made a really concerted effort just in the last couple months to make sure that everything on
our site is up to date. So it's happening friends.
Monica Pitts 15:57
I'm putting people in timeout. I was like, if you don't have your bio on this website and have it
handed into the person putting it on the website. I'm putting you in timeout. That is what's
going to happen. Move to the front of us. You don't get to hand with your friends anymore.
Okay? So just make sure that you have your recent bios and your recent photos and recent
contact information for staff and board members on there. It builds trust. It shows people who's
involved in your organization. They might see somebody that they know, that might like,
inspire them to give, right? Yep. Okay, very good. Okay, what's, what's the next thing, Stacey,
Stacy Brockmeier 16:39
the next thing that could potentially be the most out of date thing on your website is your
contact information. Does your phone number still work right? Is the email address still going to
the right people? Is your mailing address current? Oh, man, I just feel like when someone goes
to contact you and they can't get through like, nothing makes you feel like a company or an
organization, like, isn't legitimate, or maybe they're just super disorganized, like, the wrong
contact information,
Monica Pitts 17:14
yeah. Or it's just not listed where you think it's going to be listed, like, right? It's not on the
footer of the page. It's not on a contact page that you can easily find. It's the bottom of the
about page. And you're like, Why did I have to go here for this? Is, I'm like, that sucks.
Stacy Brockmeier 17:28
Well, I never would have gone there for it. So there's that, like, I am not your, like, average,
like, I'm going to dig for this. Like, especially when I'm trying to give you something, it's like, Man, I just, I need the easy button. Yeah, so give them the easy button on your contact
information, and
Monica Pitts 17:46
if you know a piece of your information has changed. Did you know that chat GPT can crawl
your site? I have chat GPT crawl sites for me all the time, and I'll be like, hey, chat GPT, will you
show me every instance of this email address on a website, and give me the links to all the
pages. And it's like, sure, yeah. So got you girl, you can use AI for it, yeah, yeah. Let's make
sure they're right though. Yes, alright. And then I also feel like updating your impact numbers
for the year makes a huge difference. You do so much good work all year long. We need to
make sure that people know that, especially if you're a younger nonprofit, because your impact
numbers could double, they could triple in a year like that's incredible, right? And we need to
make sure that people are seeing that you are investing their donations into the promise that
you made, and there's no way you can do that faster than by updating your impact numbers.
So make sure that you are letting donors know that you are a great steward of their money and
that investing in you is making a difference, and like allowing you to do things that meet their
core values. That's There you go. Okay,
Stacy Brockmeier 19:04
100% I mean, I think we all value nonprofits, and nonprofits are what our communities are built
on, that make them better. You know, whether your nonprofit is helping feed the hungry or
helping raise money for the school or helping build mobility carts for third world countries like
you. I mean, you got to show people that you're doing that, because we wholeheartedly believe
that nonprofits make our communities better, and I think that's like a general consensus. So if
you can show us what you're doing, man, we're so compelled to donate to you.
Monica Pitts 19:39
Yeah, it's just so easy to lie now, right? And so having that, like updated information, having
correct information all over the site, maybe some testimonials, if you've got them, like it's it's
important. We need to build a story that resonates with people and that feels real, right? So it's
important. Okay, so the fact check list, there's only four items on there. You can do it. Click on
your social sharing buttons, the ones at the bottom or at the top of your site, and like the actual
LIKE, SHARE this thing, right? Make sure your staff and board bios are up to date. Double check
your contact information everywhere and update your impact numbers. That's it. You can do
that. You might even be able to delegate it like, I mean, I delegate it to chat. GPT, oh,
sometimes he, sometimes he meets my expectations, and other times I'm like, dude, really,
that's not what I asked you to do.
Stacy Brockmeier 20:43
Yeah? Some sometimes chat GPT is like the best intern you ever had, and sometimes it's like
the worst intern that like fell flat. But give it a whirl, if you can save you time, we condone it for
sure. It
Monica Pitts 20:58
just depends on what Moody's in and if he had a snack, if you had a nap. Yep, yeah.
Stacy Brockmeier 21:02
I mean that. That makes us less rusty, you know,
Monica Pitts 21:06
it is. And cookies. Okay, so then the nice to have things. Here, we've got five nice to have
items. So while you're at it, if you got some time and you want to invest because you're, you
know, listening to this, maybe a month before it ends. Or, hey, actually, you can add these
items to your beginning of the year list. All right, you could do this. This could be like, next
year. We're going to do this next year. So the first thing I think you need to do is make sure
your needs list is updated. And if it's easy to do it right now, if you got a good cycle to do it, make sure it's updated. Because not everybody can donate money, but some people can
donate other things. Some people don't like to donate money. Like, I mean, my kids would
prefer to, like, make you something or buy you something with their money and give you that
thing, because to them, it feels like they've done more good if they donate a hat that they
bought instead of giving you the money to buy the hat, right? That's their mentality. I think
there's a lot of people like that. So update your needs list and be really specific on your needs
list. Make sure it's not just like clothing donations. Tell me, what kind of clothes do you need?
Do you need winter coats? Do you need boots? What sizes girls or boys like? Because I don't
know. It's kind of like buying a gift of baby clothes for somebody before the baby's born. You're
like, I don't know what size they're wearing. I don't even know what they need. Like, she's had
three kids before this. I think she's got everything, but maybe not. Okay, so let's get specific.
Alright, the second one, Stacey, this is an important one, and we talked about this a lot in the
past. It was hard to put in this category. But
Stacy Brockmeier 23:02
yeah, we really, if you have a year end goal, like making that known, because the people who
are really invested in you will push to get you there. And so I know that we have it in the nice to
have list, but man, it just makes such a difference if you can put it out there and let people see
you know where you're at, what your momentum is like, how they can help and get and get you
there. So that's going to help with your conversions. For sure. It really does. It really, really
does. And especially
Monica Pitts 23:37
if you're nearing the end of the campaign and you don't have very far to go. That's like, an easy
thing to show people right there, like you can help us get to this spot, which will allow us to do
this thing right. And then also, another way that you can absolutely increase conversions is to
add matching gift information, especially if there's, like, a specific organization or person that's
matching gifts for this time frame. And that's great information to include, because then they're
like, oh my gosh, if I give to give a gift, right now, I can only give $20 but it turns into 40, right?
So then they feel like they're doing a really big thing. So if you have time to add that to your
site and switch it out during the campaign. Do that. And if you need to do that kind of stuff and
you work on WordPress, there's plugins that will hide and share information based on the day.
Oh, yeah, you can work smarter, not harder. Friends, you don't have to log in. I love a good
scheduler, yes, and Stacey photos. So I think one of the challenges with nonprofit sites is a lot
of the times they have, like, lots of stock imagery on them, or they feel very summer heavy.
Stacy Brockmeier 24:52
Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you can freshen up your site with photos of the. Pack that you have, and
not just like, oh, we have that one event that we had a photographer come to, and so all the
photos on our site are from that one event. You know, if you can spread those out and have
some seasonal photos or appropriate photos up there, man, that's just so good, and to show
them the work that you're doing now,
Monica Pitts 25:21
and this is another great one to put on next year's list, because in this year, you're like, you
know what that sounds actually like a great idea. We have a lot of year end activities that go
on, but we don't do a very good job of taking photos of them. That's awesome. And you can
even delegate that to a board member or a junior board member, because I'm telling you,
young people. I sound like an old person right now, but I can delegate photos to like any kid,
and they're super happy to take 100,000 of them. It's like they want to be part of that, and
that's easy for them to do. We actually did that at a retreat this year to make Alene feel more
like Aveline is what is she 11 now? Wow. But we wanted her to feel like she had a part in our
retreat, and she doesn't always like latch on to everything we're doing. So we gave her a
camera, and we told her to take pictures, and some of them were really weird,
Stacy Brockmeier 26:11
but she had some really good ones too,
Monica Pitts 26:15
she did. And so you can make that a goal for next year that you need to have more seasonal
photos, or more actual photos, and just start throughout the year doing that. Okay?
Stacy Brockmeier 26:28
I think another, yeah, go ahead. I think another way to just increase your donations is to
highlight your recurring donation options. So if you can get someone who, even if they're going
to give a smaller amount, maybe they're only giving $10 a month. Well, the likelihood that they
would only give $50 at the end of the year is pretty high. But now you're getting $120 because
they signed up for recurring donation, you know. So those are, those are gold. They're so good.
So if you have the ability have some recurring donations that is really helpful,
Monica Pitts 27:04
yeah, especially if you can explain where those funds are going to go, how these little
donations help, like, give them the backstory and make sure it works. I've seen some of these
recurring donation forms that look like they were cobbled together, and I'm like, this does not
make me think I should be putting my credit card in here for you to use into the future. For
sure, it doesn't for sure. And then, last but not least, I know we talk about this like a lot on this
podcast, like a lot, a lot. So when I tell you that I want you to go out and test your site speed,
you're like, not even surprised, if you've listened to us speak before. But here's the trick, the
stuff needs to work on a mobile phone, because that's where a lot of people are going to give.
Every year, I give at the end of the year on my phone to nonprofits. It's on my phone. I never
you know why, because I took the week off. Okay, I did, and I'm not sitting down at my
computer. You would literally have to drag me there and chain me to it, not doing it and so, and
a lot of people don't even have home computers anymore, they'd have to take out their laptop.
It's just easier to do it on a phone. Okay, so things load even slower on a phone. Now I'm sitting
there waiting it. It could be Christmas Eve. I might want to make a gift. I'm waiting, and then
suddenly dinner starts or a kid interrupts me. Can we open presents? Hey, Mom, come over and
look at this cool thing I just built with my new Legos. You know what just happened? You didn't
get your donation because I was waiting for your form to pull up. Yes, yes, okay. And last, but
not least, those donation forms require more processing power than a normal page, so they
load slower than a normal page. Test them. Yes.
Stacy Brockmeier 28:55
Use, use Monica's FIRK. First work, boyfriend, chat, G or not chat, GBT, that's your second that
was your second work. Boyfriend. GT, metrics you could use. There's other tools, like Google
page, page speed insights
Monica Pitts 29:12
that one does really good for mobile, because it runs a separate report for mobile that yeah,
and you'll cry when it tells you your mobile score.
Stacy Brockmeier 29:20
It's so sad. Monica's third boyfriend was Claude AI is is current. That's our current boyfriend or
current work boyfriend,
Monica Pitts 29:31
yeah, those are all, those are all software's. Okay.
Stacy Brockmeier 29:36
They're all software's. There's no even actual humans. They're
Monica Pitts 29:40
not actually, but I talk about them enough that my my husband is probably like, Oh, so you
were playing with Claude again today, huh? Yes, and you can see all the things that I can get
Claude to do. It is just amazing.
Stacy Brockmeier 29:58
If only Claude could fold the laundry and do. The dishes, or
Monica Pitts 30:01
pick my kids up from their activities and drive on to another town that would be so helpful that
would be great.
Stacy Brockmeier 30:08
All right, that was a bunny trail, but use Monica's first work, boyfriend, or Google Page Speed
Insights or something like that to test your site speed.
Monica Pitts 30:17
Yeah, it's not hard. You literally just type in your URL, and it'll spit out a report for you. So there
you go. Okay, and the reason I put that at the end was because I really don't think between
now and like, the kickoff of your campaign, or even now in the end of your campaign is the
right time for you to deal with a bunch of load time issues. There are some small things that
you might be able to fix, but this is another thing that's gotta go on next year. So if you find
that the page loads really slowly and you didn't get as many online donations as you wanted to,
then that could be a problem that you need to fix before next year, so that way you can
improve your results next year. Because this isn't the only time you're doing year end giving.
You're gonna do it every year, and it's gonna get better every year, and it's going to be
awesome. All right, so let's wrap up this awesome costume party. We talked about it. I must
say it one last time. You probably can't do all this stuff before year end, giving kicks off. Make
sure that you do the mission critical things. Tackle the rest as time allows, delegate some of it. Make a list for the new year. This could be a goal setting list. I mean, a slightly outdated,
looking, working donation form definitely beats out something there that like doesn't work, all
right, so just make sure it works. And yeah, especially if you use this as like a future pacing list,
you can improve your results exponentially next year by just making sure that you get it all
done. All right, so our next episode. I mean, Stacey may or may not hang out with me again to
record the next episode. It kind of depends on how much time she has, but we're going to talk
about homepage design tips.
Monica Pitts 32:09
I have a feeling that some of these tips that we gave you here may resurface on that list, for
sure, yeah, but we're going to, we're going to talk about it at the beginning of the year,
because we find that a lot of people start assessing their website at the beginning of the year,
and they always start on the homepage. And a lot of the times, that's like the most involved
page on your site, there's a lot of trends coming forward. There's a lot of things that you
probably shouldn't be doing anymore, and we will talk about all of them in our next episode. So
Subscribe, stay in touch, and we look forward to hearing from you, and until next time, go forth
and market with purpose. Bye. Friend.
