It’s astonishing how hard it can be to give people my money.
Consider the following scenario. I sit down in front of the computer and something pops up: an article, an ad, a terrible situation in the world. I decide to donate some money. So, feeling like a saint, I go to the donation page, where I’m faced with a long form to fill out. My name, my address, how I heard of the thing in question, what my shoe size is, how many hats I own, my least favourite bird…
That is where I, personally, usually bail. Because I came here to do a good thing, to give you money, and now you want to make me do all this work. To which I say: no, screw you. You should be glad for me being here. You should be doing all the work, not the person taking their time to do a good deed. And so I leave the page, in a huff, and go watch some youtube instead. You can always rely on youtube.
I have no idea how much money donations sites lose through making it hard to donate, but it must be a lot. Based on a single data point (me) I’d estimate that maybe a third of the people turning up at donation pages leave without having donated if they are faced with a form to fill out or a registration to complete. And they also take with them a bad opinion of the organisation in question.
So that’s a problem. And when I point that out to organisations, they always ignore me (I suspect my mail gets moved to the “Ranting middle aged men” folder). But why, if you want people’s money, do you make it so hard for them to give you their money? I suspect it’s because those who own the website, and those who designed the website, have never tried the donation flow from the other end. They’ve designed it from their needs, not from mine. And so they don’t get my money.
And of course, even if you do mange to make a donation, it doesn’t stop there, no sir. Because then the organisation begins to contact you. They send you mail, post, SMS, telling of the massive horror in the world, pushing you to give even more. I was of the opinion that once I donated, my job here was done. But no. As a reward for my kind deed, I now have to endure a stream of horror stories, each one leaving me with the guilt of not donating. Making it better to have not bothered in the first place.
I understand, I do. Surely the people most likely to donate are the ones who’ve done so before, right? But this totally misunderstands why people donate. We do it to feel good about ourselves, and to not have to worry about situation X for a few weeks. It’s like when you give money to a beggar to salve your conscience, and from that point on the beggar start pouncing on you whenever you pass. This was not the deal, buddy. I give, you take, I feel good, I get on with my day until the next time I decide to donate. By forcing me to do it, you’re taking away all the pleasure of it for me, and soon I’ll stop.
I’m not sure how to solve this. A training course for beggars before they’re allowed to beg? It sounds like a joke, but if we’re anyway going to have beggars, and we always will, shouldn’t they at least be trained? And hey, we could give the same course to the politicians who are asking for our vote. Another suggestion (and this should be standard) is that all donation websites have a fast-track, a way for people to donate with zero friction. Like the Amazon “Buy now!” button. One click, particle effect, done.
Or how about this one? Allow me to add 10% to my proposed donation and for that you promise to not contact me for a whole year. No email, no texts, no nothing. I am paying you to not have to think about this for a while, so let’s make that official. I would definitely give these people my money.
And as for the orgs who hide their “Donate!” button in some obscure sub-menu, and instead waste the front page of their website telling me about their history and their vision … you, I’ll see in hell.
/ Paddy
Paddy K 