{"id":17611,"date":"2019-12-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.causevox.com\/?p=17611"},"modified":"2024-05-08T23:38:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T23:38:01","slug":"givingtuesday-was-a-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/blog\/givingtuesday-was-a-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Why GivingTuesday Was a Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GivingTuesday is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the next few days, you\u2019ll hear about how this year\u2019s GivingTuesday was bigger than last year and the years before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

$2 billion raised<\/a> from thousands and thousands of charities of all sizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At CauseVox, our users raised more than 2x more than last year. There\u2019s much to celebrate all around on how much impact this can enable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when you dig a bit deeper, I believe that most nonprofits failed on GivingTuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On GivingTuesday, I received three dozen emails from nonprofits. It\u2019s the typical, \u201cHey it\u2019s GivingTuesday, please donate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some folks did a great job of adding in content about impact and making a specific ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made it an effort to read and click on the donate link in all of those emails. I donated to some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 10% of folks gave me a seamless donation experience. I click on \u201cdonate\u201d in the email, a browser window opens, and I can make a donation in two or three clear easy steps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people were using CauseVox, others were using competitors, but still easy to use. Hooray for frenemies (and thank you for your service).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, I was horrified at the rest.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

90% of the folks had something that was clunky and unprofessional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I was lucky, I got a form they typically use for their website that was not appeal specific. Some of these were not mobile optimized and had the tiniest radio buttons ever. How do I not fat-finger this process and have to start over three times!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I was unlucky, it just took me to their homepage where I had to hunt down where the donate button was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for the scavenger hunt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since it was so hard to figure out how I could give, it seemed like my donation wasn\u2019t important to them at all. Bummer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the truth. Donor stewardship starts before a donor donates and is still an afterthought for many nonprofits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the point of conversion, most nonprofits gave their donors a terrible experience that fell way below what they experienced shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday on other websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what you\u2019re telling your donors: I don\u2019t care about you. Just give me the money because today is the day when I\u2019m supposed to ask.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonprofits, you can do better than this. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n\n\n\n