Here's a nightmare scenario: You've put in weeks of preparation for a major online fundraising campaign. You've sent out the e-mails, promoted it on social media, and encouraged your supporters to share with their family and friends, all building up to an exciting fundraising blitz... And just as the campaign is set to launch, you're hit by technical difficulties!
Maybe it takes a few hours to sort out the issues and you miss out on some key time. Maybe your website has loading issues, and some supporters get impatient and give up. Perhaps this means having to reschedule or extend the campaign, meaning more hours of tireless work and some lost interest by your supporters. This nightmare recently came to life for DoMore24.
How can your nonprofit ensure technical failure doesn't impact your next short-burst online giving campaign? Here are three tips you can't ignore!
It is hard enough work to reach potential supporters, gain their interest, and then compel them to consider donating. No nonprofit wants to take the chance that those who have decided to donate won't be able to give!
Ensure your online donation provider has proven "up-time" capabilities. That means that whenever your campaign is scheduled you can be comfortable knowing that their service will stumble at any point in the donation process.
The Technical Take from our Sr. Director of Infrastructure and Strategy:
A successful campaign should result in a surge of activity to your campaign website. Some web hosts may not have the capability to process large volumes of traffic, and your website could go down.
If your charity's website crashes, visitors will not be able to reach your donation form... and it won't matter how reliable your donation provider is!
Protecting your campaign takes some foresight. If a nonprofit can project how much traffic their website will receive, based on the data and conversions from previous campaigns and the number of supporters reached in marketing and communications, it can compare that to the load guaranteed by their web hosts.
Check out some of the online services available that can analyze your website's ability to handle stressful loads, such as Load Impact.
The Technical Take:
If you're collecting online donations, PCI compliance is incredibly important. In most cases, online donations require the donor to share credit card and addressing information. If proper steps are not taken during the donation process, donors could be at risk of having their personal information stolen.
For all of the positive publicity a fundraising blitz can bring, a data-breach can undo all of it and then some. PCI Data Security Standards are the most stringent practices to protect your donors, their data, and your organization.
To avoid a data catastrophe, it is crucial that nonprofits ensure that their donation processing vendor is certified as PCI compliant.
The Technical Take: