Should You Ask Your Monthly Donors to Create an Account or Login?

By Erica Waasdorp

As you may know by now, when it comes to monthly giving, I’m all about making things easy and simple for both monthly donors and the organizations.

So when I start working with an organization on growing their number of monthly donors, we first look at the online donation forms to see what’s already in place.

And that’s sometimes where the big pause comes…

I call it the “stopper,” “the donation preventer” or the “I’m-not-so-sure-about-making-a-donation-right-now” piece that sits on the donation form.

Here are just a few examples of what this looks like and it’s typically located above the amounts.

It’s the first thing the donor sees, and it causes him or her to think. And maybe think twice!

“Do I want to create an account right now?”

“Did I already make an account for this organization? I think I may have. What the … did I do with the login and password?”

“Oh, where did I write down the password?”

“Nah, I’m not comfortable creating an account. But I’m not sure if I can donate without that. Nah, I don’t want to spend the time going through that whole process when it then forces me to create an account. Let me think about this some more.”

So, what just happened? You lost the donor and the donation.

Now, donors are wonderful people, so if they’re not comfortable online, they may call you and make a donation that way.

Or if you have the option of downloading a PDF form to send in with a donation or monthly gift, great! That’s another good approach, so be ready!

But, if you can at all get away with not having to create an account, that’s so much better. You take away that “stopper,” and you allow the donor to fill out their information and hit submit. Et voila, now you have a new monthly donor.

So, today I have a question for you: What is your experience? Does your donation form have the account creation option built in? Is it required or can you hide it? And if your system has it, how many donors start the giving process and never finish? I’d welcome your insights at erica@adirectsolution.com

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Monthly Giving

Erica Waasdorp Author's page

Erica Waasdorp is one of the leading experts on monthly giving. She is the president of A Direct Solution, a company serving nonprofit organizations with fundraising and direct marketing needs, with a focus on monthly giving and appeals. She authored "Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant" and "Monthly Giving Made Easy." She regularly blogs and presents on fundraising, appeals and monthly giving — in person and through webinars. She is happy to answer any questions you may have about this great way of improving retention rates for your donors.

Erica has over 30 years of experience in nonprofits and direct response. She helped the nonprofits she works with raise millions of dollars through monthly giving programs. She is also very actively supports organizations with annual fund planning and execution, ranging from copywriting, creative, lists, print and mail execution.

When she’s not working or writing, Erica can be found on the golf course (she’s a straight shooter) or quietly reading a book. And if there’s an event with a live band, she and her husband, Patrick, can be found on the dance floor. She also loves watching British drama on PBS. Erica and Patrick have two step sons and a cat, Mientje.