Increasing donations to charity through content A/B testing

Company: National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) is a UK charity with the mission to overcome the social and educational barriers that hold deaf children back. I worked with them as a digital strategist for Forward Action, a digital mobilisation agency.

Project: Creating and delivering an A/B testing plan to optimise NDCS' donation page.

My role: Leading A/B testing, experiment design, content design, and UX/UI writing.

Tools: Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Optimize, Google Analytics, Engaging Networks.

Problem & Opportunity

I designed the user journey and wrote the UX copy for a petition for NDCS to recruit new supporters.

To break up the journey into smaller, actionable steps, I applied UX design principles such as progressive disclosure, splitting the journey into 3 core asks: sign the petition > donate ask > share ask.

People want to feel like they're part of a wider, collective movement that's building momentum, and to feel aligned to a worthy cause. To tap into this motivation, I applied behavioural science insights such as social proof by including and giving a lot of visual prominence to the signature counter at the top of the petition.

Getting people to subscribe to NDCS' email list was another key goal of this petition (as well as donations), so I approached the legal team and made the case for tailoring the opt-in messaging to be personalised and compelling, rather than cut and pasting the standard email opt-in ask. I also applied nudge theory with a messaging prompt about the benefits of subscribing when someone clicks 'no' to receiving emails.

After signing the petition, the secondary actions were then to donate, and then to share on social media. With big fundraising targets for the year, optimising the donation ask in the journey was the key, strategic focus for us.

Opportunity: how might we drive even more donations to the charity?

Process

1. Collaborating with our data analytics officer and another digital strategist, we analysed existing conversion metrics throughout the petition journey. Using this data as a springboard, we generated different hypotheses for how we might drive more donations.

2. My role was then to prioritise what we would test and when, based on which test would be the most impactful if our hypothesis was validated. This formed the basis of our testing plan.

3. I then created an A/B testing brief for our developers, outlining the test variables, metrics, and tools.

4. I used Google Sheets to create a reporting sheet where we'd store and analyse test data.

5. When our test results came in, I used a statistical significance calculator to make sure the results were not just due to chance.

6. I then wrote up the results, key insights as well as strategic recommendations for our client NDCS based on the findings.

Impact

Hypothesis: Our hypothesis was that going straight from signing a petition to suddenly being asked for money might be too big of a jump for newly recruited supporters. There's more we could do to take people on a journey.

So, we added in a 2-question poll where the supporter reflects on why they signed the petition, before the donate ask. By prompting the supporter to actively engage with their shared values with the charity, rather than immediately asking them for a donation, they're likely more inspired and motivated to donate.

Results: The click-to-donate rate was 4x higher with the 2-question poll before the donate ask. The actual donation rate was 35% higher with the 2-question poll before the donate ask (statistically significant).

Learnings & reflections

This a prime example of where small changes can have a big impact. By strategically integrating content A/B testing into our project plan, we helped a charity fundraise significantly more funds to fulfil its mission of making society fairer for deaf children.