Mobile Donations: Giving on the Go!

Imagine this:

Two guys walk into a bar (no, this isn’t meant to be a joke; imagine two friends literally walking into a bar).

One of the guys is built like a linebacker. His friends affectionately call him Ape because of his size and because he LOVES gorillas. The other has an average build. His name is Steve. His friends call him Steve because his name is Steve.

Ape and Steve saunter up to the bar counter, order some beers and start chatting. Their conversation covers the usual topics: work, family, sports, relationships, etc.

Steve glances at one of the many TVs that festoons the bar. The local evening news shows a baby gorilla and its mother. The subtitles read:

Nzuri, a female lowland gorilla at the Chesterfield Zoo, gave birth to her first baby last night …

“Dude, Ape, check it out. Your girlfriend had a baby!”

The subtitles continue:

 Zookeepers say Nzuri is showing all the signs of being a doting mother, never letting her baby out of her reach …

The news segment concludes with a URL where people can donate enrichment items that the baby gorilla will soon need when its able to crawl on its own and play.

“Be a good dad and donate when you get home,” Steve chides. “Your baby needs the best toys a baby gorilla could ever want.”

“I don’t have to wait until I get home,” said Ape as he pulls out his smartphone. “I’ll donate now!”

And within just a couple of minutes, Ape donated $25 for enrichment toys for the baby gorilla.

The psychology of mobile giving

You may have noticed there was an impulsiveness to Ape’s donation. He didn’t have to wait to get home because he was able to easily donate from his smartphone.

That’s the beauty of donating on the go—you can use a mobile device to make a transaction anytime and anyplace. According to studies, more and more people are doing that, especially millennials.

Usability

One of the reasons Ape was able to donate so quickly and easily was because the zoo’s website was optimized for mobile. It’s critical that a website is optimized for mobile. If it isn’t, it will be difficult to navigate. The font will be tiny. Text boxes will be too small for fingers to use on the touch-screen. Finally, users will have to constantly zoom in—and that’s really annoying. Most users will leave before making a transaction.

A website optimized for mobile, however, is very user-friendly. It removes the barriers listed above, and makes it more likely that visitors will make transactions.

Please note:

Particular attention should be paid to the checkout process. Buttons should have set donation costs to reduce the chance that the donor will punch in the incorrect amount. Moreover, your website’s check out process should be optimized. To learn more about this, check out this blog article.