Increasing online donations to charity websites through donation form design: a Catholic Relief Services case study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether design changes to a charitable organization's online donation form can lead to an increase in online donations. Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a leading international aid and relief charity located in Baltimore, MD, was the main subject. This research consisted of a literature review of topics, including the psychology of charitable giving, the economic environment of charitable giving in the U.S. and best practices for interaction and form design, and two areas of testing. The first testing portion of this study conducted in-person user testing on the existing monthly donation form for CRS, in order to determine areas for improvement. Next, a multivariate test between the original donation form design and proposed, improved design was conducted on the main CRS website to find which form had a higher conversion rate for online donations. The results of this study were evenly split and warrant further research and discussion in the future.