More Reasons to Include Online Giving on Your Planned Giving Website

This is a follow-up from last week’s post on reasons to include online giving on your planned giving website. I wanted to share with you two more ideas from one of my readers:

“Nice blog post. I will give you two more reasons for putting current donation capabilities on a website:

(1) Donors may have a desire to give cash gifts that might be small compared to the size of previous planned gifts. Would you tell someone who made a $200,000 planned gift last year that you don't want a $5,000 cash gift from them this year?

(2) December 31st is a Saturday and someone who is told by their accountant to make additional year-end gifts might not have time to do a planned gift. If a charity's office is already closed for the holidays, donors will look to give to charities that make the giving process easy and accessible. There is nothing easier or more accessible than going to a charity's website and making a cash donation to a charity that you support on December 30 or 31st.”

Are you currently offering online giving on your planned giving website? Is it easy to make an online gift? On the second point above, I know that I am often more willing to give to a charity that makes online giving accessible and fast. For example, when I find a charity that accepts gifts made by PayPal, I am inclined to make a gift to that charity over others because I already have a PayPal account linked to my checking account. By offering online giving options that make giving easy, you can increase gifts for your organization!

If you have additional thoughts or stories about how online giving has helped your planned giving program, please comment on my blog or email me at kristen@cresmail.com