Everytime I review this study I am shocked at what people really want and what nonprofit websites deliver.  In summary the Neilsen group found that giving money on charity websites is 7% harder than spending money on e-commerce sites. Donating physical items was even harder.  The study further looked at:

• Choosing a recipient: Participants used two non-profit sites in a given category and decided which of the organizations — which had roughly similar missions — was most deserving of a donation.
• Making a first-time donation: Using their own credit cards, participants made an online donation to the chosen charity. We reimbursed users for this expense after the study.
• Making a repeat donation: Participants gave money to a charity that they’d previously donated to (prior to the study).
• Making a non-monetary contribution: Participants located information about giving a tangible item, such as pet food or used toys. For this task, we didn’t direct users to specific sites; they used the Web to find a suitable charity to receive their item.
• Purchasing a product: Participants were asked to buy an item for themselves that a nonprofit sold on its website — such as a cookbook from the American Diabetes Association.
• Volunteering: Participants researched information about volunteering at one of the organizations in the study.
• Using Facebook to research charities: Participants compared two similar nonprofits on Facebook and selected one to receive a donation.

My least surprising find from reading the study was that users were more interested in hearing from people who’d benefited from the organization’s work in social media settings.  Other objectives like newsletter sign ups and donation requests were annoying.  Amen!

Now if we can just get more nonprofits to read and implement some changes based on these findings.

Take-away:  Go read the study.

Info shared from: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/non-profit-websites-donations/