I’d Like To A/B That!

Philanthropy.com published an article on 12/10/2010 by Raymund Flandez that reports nonprofit orgs raise more money directly through their own websites as opposed to third party portals. At the same time, the article indicates that donation pages and shopping carts managed by a third party provider that maintain the organization’s branding and/or display the name prominently are just as effective…

This isn’t earth shattering news but it is wonderful to have some reliable statistics to reference. For many nonprofit organizations, especially those in the orchestra field that don’t control their own box office, using a third party provider to process online donations is a godsend. As such, it is clear that when choosing a provider, organizations need to investigate whether or not the provider offers cost effective options that provide the branded or integrated options.

If nothing else, it would be interesting to find a few groups that haven’t engaged online giving or are in the process of redesigning their existing offering to see about putting together some A/B testing to determine which options/configurations and checkout processes are the most effective.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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