How to improve fundraising outcomes with the Donation Station

Learn how to create more chances to capture donations through contactless payments, and optimise your Donation Station's performance for your cause.

🔶 Why am I not getting the income I expected?

All technology needs our attention to get the best from it - even the most intuitive apps or latest mobiles rely on our interactions, and basic maintenance skills. 

The Donation Station is no different. There are a few common problems people face when trying to create a steady income through their contactless payment devices. 

🔸Low Income: your donations aren't matching your expectations - either the frequency of donations or their value aren't meeting your targets for fundraising.

🔸Digital Skills: sometimes confidence in technology is low, or some training is needed. We know that within every charity there will be a mix of skillsets and enthusiasm for embracing new challenges - particularly when new technology is introduced.

🔸Technical issues: sometimes very frustrating, however there will be times when Wi-Fi signal, event locations and power supply glitches sometimes get in the way of creating income.

 

🔶 How can I improve my fundraising income generation?

There are a lot of things to try, but we recommend not doing everything at once, so we can help you identify what to tackle first such as fundraising environment, team and device setup.

Some important things to consider are:

🔶 Environment:

🔸Where is the device situated: have you assessed the visitor or donor journey in your setting? 

🔸Where do people dwell or pause within the space during their visit? Or, where are you most likely to catch someone's attention?

🔸Have you tested a few different locations to see which delivers better income?

🔸Is there a reliable power supply, Wi-Fi connection or Mobile Signal for SIM enabled devices?

🔶 Visibility:

🔸What's around the device? are there competing messages or branding?

🔸Do you have branding on the device?

🔸Are there any colour/visual issues that are happening?

🔶User Journey

🔸What's on screen? Are you using the right features for your donor types?

🔸Do you need to shorten or expand your donor journey to capture more information?

🔸Are you making use of the Gift Aid capture - do you know how many donors are giving?

🔸If you've changed setting, or event type, do you need to adjust the values you're asking for donations of?

🔸Can you add the transaction fees request so donors cover this for you?

🔸Do your messages on screen reflect the cause your campaigning for? Do you need to change your Attract Loops or Branding?

🔶Expectations Reset

🔸What were your original expectations in respect to income?

🔸Have donors, activities and events been attended as expected?

🔸Have you looked at your donation average, vs. other income streams? Does it reflect donor behaviours you expect?

🔶 Monitor, Review and Refine

It's useful to review progress after one month, three, then six usually, comparing income year on year, or seasonally too where you know your donations vary significantly.

Related Help Centre Articles:

➡️ How to use Offline Mode

➡️ How to create good Branding

➡️ What to do if your device isn't taking payments