Hiding in Plain Sight

Amy Sewell
Executive Vice President of Creative Services

What if meaningful fundraising growth didn’t require a major new campaign, a complete website overhaul, or a dramatic change in strategy?

What if some of your biggest opportunities were actually found in the smallest changes?

New research from Douglas Shaw & Associates and Fundraise Up suggests that this may be exactly what’s happening in digital fundraising for faith-based organizations.

Consider the donation experience. A strategically timed prompt can encourage more donors to become monthly givers. Giving donors the option to cover processing fees can preserve more of each contribution. Adding familiar payment methods can eliminate unnecessary steps.

None of these changes sound revolutionary on their own. But at scale, they can make a meaningful difference.

And optimizing that experience has become even more important because of a significant shift in how faith-based donors are giving.

That means your mobile donation experience isn’t secondary anymore. For many donors, it is the giving experience.

Every extra field, unnecessary click, missing payment method, or moment of friction matters. Conversely, every improvement creates another opportunity to make generosity easier.

Our new Digital Giving in the Faith Sector report explores what the data tells us about mobile giving, recurring donors, donor retention, payment preferences, giving patterns, fee coverage, DAFs, and more.

The takeaway isn’t to change everything at once.

It’s about finding the 1%, 2%, and 3% improvements—and letting them compound.