Most of us don’t still believe that, but the fact remains that many seniors and other visitors don’t like to give via credit card. If that’s the only option you give them, you could be missing lots of opportunities to convert donation page visitors to donors.

Maybe they don’t trust sending credit card information online. Maybe they just can’t be bothered to find their credit card. Maybe they’re trying to cut down on credit card purchases to avoid high interest charges.

We encourage organizations to offer a multitude of alternate ways to accept donations online, including:

• Call a phone number (show the hours during which you can take calls);
• Print a one-page, self-sufficient PDF donation form and mail it in;
• Use the donor’s PayPal account;
• Use the donor’s Amazon one-click account;
• Online check processing.

The results? For one of our clients, only 61% of all 2009 “online” gifts came in via the online credit card processing option. 23% came in via PayPal, and another 16% via the PDF file. Overall, four out of every ten visits to the donation page result in a gift – better than twice the industry average.

courtesy Amergent