eTapestry

Important: Keep this owner’s manual; do not discard. Should there be a change of ownership, please transfer this manual to the new owner to ensure proper assembly and safety.

WARNINGS AND SAFETY INFORMATION
Don’t ask too much of your donor.
Don’t be vague or irrelevant.
Don’t be inconsistent.
Don’t think your size or budget has anything to do with marketing.

PROPER USE
Don’t ask too much of your donor.
Clearly explain what needs to be done here, by me, to support you. Let me know what you are going to do with my information and plainly (but accurately) tell me how my money is being used. I am here, I’m interested, make this easy for me.

If at any point you ask yourself, “What else do I need on my form?”, you are done. If you are struggling to find the questions, the answers are not that important.

Don’t be vague or irrelevant.
Are you telling me about your organization on this page; explaining your mission, objectives, and ideals? Am I getting bombarded with additional campaign information and options for giving? If yes, ask yourself “how did you get here”? If the form just fell out of the sky and into my browser - sure, offering information about what my organization is about and giving me all my options for supporting the organization is great.

Get real, I followed a promotional piece or web page to get here and if you are asking me why I am here now, or deciding now is a good time to fill me in to why I should donate you didn’t do a good job with the thing that got me here. I am ready to donate and providing me with anything that will move me away from, or in a different direction than, completing my intended donation is irrelevant.

Don’t be inconsistent.
The form should be familiar to the user. If it is connected to a website and/or promotional piece it should somehow reflect those materials, so the donor feels they are still in the right location. This is the same as providing a clear path of navigation to a page on your website, and providing consistency between those different locations.

As I said before, a good form will look like the thing that got me here.

Make sure the layout of the form is familiar. New ideas are great, but when I am filling out information that is common on other forms this may not be the best time to be innovative, but instead stick with familiarity to make this easy on me.

Don’t think your size or budget has anything to do with marketing.
When your form isn’t linked to your website, or not clearly presented how will someone get there? Placing a donation button on your website isn’t enough. You should promote your website and donation page on every correspondence and promotional piece your organization creates. Small organizations can take advantage of free social networking sites. Do your research, just because a social networking site has the largest user base it doesn’t mean it is the best option for your organization.

CARE AND MAINTENANCE
Include up to date information/questions.
Just like your website your form needs to stay up to date, in both design and with content. If your form is hosted by a third party use the basics to allow it to stand the test of time, but make sure it provides that consistency and instructs plainly and clearly, not offering specific details for questions that may be needed for time sensitive material.

TOOLS REQUIRED FOR SUCCESSFUL ASSEMBLY
Website
Make it donor friendly.

Marketing/Promotions
Use email marketing, social networking sites - just get the word out.

Experienced Developer
There are many online donation form creation programs out there, but an experienced developer is always a good idea.

PARTS TO YOUR DONATION FORM
Design
Design should be consistent with your website and promotional materials.

Questions/Instructions
What do you need from me and what are you doing with the information?

Confirmation
Did you hear me? Provide a page or some way to let the donor know my donation was received.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ASSEMBLY
Research
Ask your existing donors, go over your existing marketing and correspondence; make sure your website is donor friendly.

Develop
There are a lot of easy form builders out there, but a lot of them don’t allow you to provide the consistency you should have with your website design. If you can, get an experienced developer to create the form for you or at least consult one with the development tool/company you are using.

Test
What better way to involve your constituents than to ask them to test your form, give feedback, and see what works/doesn’t work for them.

Track & Enhance
Keep track of success rates by putting tracking code on the form and the success page. Record how many people complete the form in relation to how many people reached the form.

IMPORTANT LAST STEPS
Make it easy to find.
Make it easy to get to.
Make it easy to complete.
Make it easy for me to get back.

Here are some people that can give you some more advice…
Luke Wroblewski
Jakob Nielsen
Joanne Fritz