Here’s Our New Year’s Digital Giving Resolutions to Provide A Better Donor Experience

Whether it’s enhancing crowdfunding, your giving day, or providing better online giving pages, investing in digital giving for 2022 will be important for every fundraising shop. I gathered the RNL digital giving experts and asked:

“What would you suggest as a new year’s resolution for digital giving in 2022?”

Here’s what the RNL team said along with examples of institutions who have already been making it happen.

Try something new with online giving engagement…and yes, that might mean a second giving day

From Maile Juranits:

“Try a new campaign or initiative in 2022. Your donors may be used to online appeals now, but don’t rest with the status quo. For example, many of our clients are doing second giving day campaigns or are trying out new crowdfunding focuses. This can be a great opportunity to engage new groups.”

Here are some great examples:

• UCLA Athletics Day of Giving
• New York University Reunion Group
• CSU Stanislaus State Library Group

Engage volunteer ambassadors in new ways to fuel fundraising success

From Janice Ridolfi:

“Find one new thing to try with your volunteer ambassadors for a giving day or crowdfunding campaign. And step outside of your comfort zone and test some new engagement tactics for project owners and repeat project sponsors.”

One RNL partner university is doing something new this year by testing a peer-to-peer campaign by city. They plan to ask key alumni in five different regions to be the signee for an email that will be sent to those specific areas and then also plan to add an additional social media layer to the outreach. On campus, they are also diversifying their training and testing out specialized training for departments, students, faculty, and staff ambassadors. This is great strategy that should bring more projects, better volunteer engagement, and a broader social reach.

Make it easy to give, in the ways donors already pay their bills

From Theresa Jubert:

“Make it easy and fun to give. Incorporate digital wallet options into your digital giving strategies. Our Braintree and PayPal Commerce integrations allow donors to give through Venmo, PayPal Checkout, and Apple Pay. This is how we all pay for things, and we need to let donors give in the easiest way possible.”

Giving through digital wallet options made up nearly 1/3 of all transactions during Virginia Tech’s 2021 Giving Day. Everyone is looking for that easy Amazon one-click experience. Boost your conversion rates by making it easier on your donors to quickly make a gift via digital wallet.

From Eric Billings:

“With a digital wallet you can have donors completing gifts in less than a minute. Add in new features like multi-gift checkout and we’re really reducing friction for donors. You want giving to be the easiest thing a donor does that day, and every institution should make the switch to this technology.”

Make a better digital giving platform your new year’s resolution in 2022

We’ve implemented hundreds of enhancements to the RNL platforms in the past few years, all geared around a better donor experience and making the fundraising job easier. A new year is a great time to investigate upgrading your digital giving stack. Reach out and we’ll set up a demo and answer your key questions so you can go into the new year with the best donor engagement tools to meet your goals.