During the corona virus pandemic, many charities have received an influx of calls from donors requesting to cancel their monthly donation - because that's the only way it can be done. Charities are offering donors the option to PAUSE or DOWNGRADE their donation as a first option, in an effort to retain donors. But should non-profit organisations give their donors the option to pause or cancel their donation from the website, without having to call? In this presentation, Parachute Digital have mocked up 2 different ways this could work for your donors.

1. Allow your RG Donors to
PAUSE
their monthly gift onlineShanelle Newton Clapham
April 2020

3. “My situation has changed”

4. my monthly
donation

5. You win back more donors
when
you offer a PAUSE option
XYour donor wants to cancel their monthly donation
XYour donor tries to do it on the website, but can’t.
They call you frustrated or embarrassed.
When they call, you thank your donor and offer them
the option to PAUSE their monthly donation for X months
^ You’re doing it already
If your donor cancels, you keep them engaged
After 6 months you call your donor to reactivate them.

6. Same strategy, different
channel

7. COVID-19 is a good reason to have this conversation.
This crisis will pass, but in the future, you will have more
donor’s whose financial situations change. If your donor
wants to cancel – should they be able to do this online?

8. Subscription businesses win
when they offer a PAUSE option
1.It’s a mindset. If I’ve PAUSED my monthly gift,
I’m still a donor to your org. I’m just paused.
2.Retention/ reactivation increased 22% when customers
could PAUSE their subscription (Blinker.com.au)
3.9% better retention/ reactivation when offering customers
the option to downgrade their subscription (Canva.com)
4.Offer donors an annual donation.
2.3x retention rate and 2.1x lifetime value than Monthly subs
5.Improve retention by 5% & profits increase by 25-95%.

9. Two options
1. Manual
2. Personalised &
semi-automated

10. I’ve used ASRC
to mock up
OPTION 1
which is manual

11. OPTION 1 - Manual
Allows you to make it quick & easy for your
donors to complete the task they need to
do.
Allows you to collect
requests for a bulk
manual action.
Allows you to export report
to follow up donors.

12. 1. Homepage block
‘Manage my Donation’
block

13. 2. ‘Manage my Donation’
Landing page
Subtle Cancel option.

14. 3. PAUSE
my donation
form
Deliberately plain form.
No guilt. Just allow the donor
to complete the task they
came to do.
This form would allow
your organisation to collect
requests from donors to
PAUSE their monthly
donation.
Your org can export them
all and process in batches.

15. 4. Reduce my donation
5. Increase my donation
Same form format, different action.

16. 6. Cancel Online
OPTIONAL
To be truly donor centric, I
believe organisations should
offer your donors the ability to
cancel online.
But I also believe that offering the
PAUSE and Reduce options
gives donors good options.
But to be clear – if you offer this form,
your donors will feel they have
cancelled when they hit submit.
I do not recommend that you put this form
on your website if the strategy will be to call the donor
and try to claw them back.

17. 7. Thank you page for
PAUSE/ Reduce/ Cancel

18. I’ve used
Vision Australia
to mock up
OPTION 2
which can be
personalised &
connected to
your CRM
(semi-automated)

19. OPTION 2 – Personalised &
semi-automated
Allows you to make it quick & easy for your
donors to complete the task they need to
do.
Allows you personalise
the request so the donor
has full visibility and options.
Allows you to export report
or flag donors in CRM for
follow up and reactivation.

20. 1. Homepage Header Strip
‘Manage my Donation’

21. 2. ‘Manage my Donation’
Landing page
Subtle Cancel option.
Your choice whether
it clicks donor to an
online form or contact
pg. or call only

22. 3. PAUSE my donation form.
Integrated with CRM for
personalisation
Deliberately plain form.
No guilt. Just allow the donor
to complete the task they
came to do.
This form would look up the
donor’s record, so the
experience is personalised
to the donor.
This form can also capture
data to be exported.

23. 3.a PAUSE my donation
eDM to donors
Donor centric. Check in with your donors.
R U OK?
Deliberately plain. No guilt or emotion.
Support your donors if they need it.
This eDM would use Personalised URLS
(PURLS) to send the donor to the next
step where the experience is personalised
with the donor’s details.
*NB. During Bushfire season, ASRC sent
an email like this to bushfire affected
post codes and they raised more money
than they lost.

24. 4. PAUSE/ Reduce/ Increase my
donationSame form format, different action.
Personalised
as previous
form looked up
record.

25. 5. Cancel my Donation Online
OPTIONAL
You offer your donor the ability to
cancel online.
But you still try and guide them back
to PAUSE.
This follows the subscription
business model that showed a
22% better retention in
reactivations when they offers
customers the PAUSE option.

26. 7. Personalised Thank you page
for PAUSE/ Reduce/ Cancel
The only time you use
emotive imagery is on
the thank you page.
We want to show true
gratitude and respect for
our donors.
We want them to be left
with a good experience
of your organisation.

27. Two Options for how you can allow
your donors to PAUSE their RG
online
Which online option do you think could work for your organisation?

28. To be truly donor centric, means
putting their needs above our own.
You should still give
your donor the option
to PAUSE….
As you’re already doing.

29. Would this be something
you would be willing to
PILOT for your RG donors?
During COVID-19?
Or after?