donation form upsell to allow onetime gift + start monthly gift?

Gaby Gollub

I would love to know if anyone has tested a modal/upsell on a donation form that pops up when a donor has completed the form and clicks to submit a onetime gift, but is then asked if they want to make that single gift AND start a monthly gift (of a smaller amount) in a month? As an alternative to the more traditional upsell of: make your onetime gift OR make a monthly gift.


Any examples and insights would be very welcome!


thanks very much,

Gaby Gollub

Manager, Integrated Marketing

World Wildlife Fund

Brian Mucha

Our form does this, but we didn't A/B test it.


https://luriechildrens.org/donate

Gaby Gollub

Thanks for sharing that link, Brian. I was actually wondering about a different option for the donor, where the person can make the single gift as intended AND agree to start a monthly gift in a month. But I am also interested in how much other nonprofits use a monthly upsell modal and what they look like. All examples are welcome!


thanks,

Gaby

Brian Mucha

Oh, I see. Hmm, I don't think I've seen this. I have a feeling it isn't possible.


I think you could probably make two API calls on submit and start two different gifts from that one form. (The anti-spam system might object to that though.) The bigger issue is starting the monthly gift in the future. I think your only option with the Luminate Donate API is for the initial gift to happen right on submit.


You also couldn't offer Paypal, or at least it would be complicated. The payment part happens at Paypal, so you would have to redirect them there a second time after returning to your form from the first gift payment.


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Dale Anania

Similar to Brian Mucha, we have a pop-up that asks donor to consider monthly once they have selected a one-time gift. We also did not a/b test. We used the vendor Cathexis to create this. https://secure3.convio.net/tmmc/site/Donation2?idb=1272672317&DONATION_LEVEL_ID_SELECTED=1&df_id=6319&mfc_pref=T&6319.donation=form1&idb=[[S76:idb]]


Gaby, kind of along the lines of what you wanted to try, we wanted to try an automated email a few days later. This would invite the one-time donor to become a monthly donor; the ask amount would be personalized based on the amount of their one-time gift. Has anyone tried this? What coding did you find that allowed you to create an ask based on a % of their last one time gift?

 

Mike Lewis

Giving this a little thought, and like Brian said, I'm not sure how you'd start the monthly gift in the future. Just a thought, but one way around it might be to take a portion of the one-time gift to start the monthly gift immediately. Let's say someone gives one-time gift of $100 and you want them to start monthly at $10. You could recalculate the one-time gift to be $90 and then start a $10 monthly gift at the same time. You could possibly do it with two API calls or just passing through the Additional Amount field. Not the prettiest solution, and you'd really need to think out the UX.

Brian Mucha

> What coding did you find that allowed you to create an ask based on a % of their last one time gift?


This would start with the [[S1:last_trans_amount]] tag.


Then you would be using the S130 tag, which can do math with Polish notation.


Without testing, I think it would be something like...

    [[E130: [[S1:last_trans_amount]] .25 *]]


Now, to pass the amount to your form you can use URL Setters. For your example form that looks like:
https://secure3.convio.net/tmmc/site/Donation2?DONATION_LEVEL_ID_SELECTED=12683&df_id=6319&mfc_pref=T&6319.donation=form1&set.OptionalRepeat=TRUE&set.Value=2050


Notice that passing 2050 sets the field at 20.50. So we need to adjust our 130 math. So I think this should do it.

https://secure3.convio.net/tmmc/site/Donation2?DONATION_LEVEL_ID_SELECTED=12683&df_id=6319&mfc_pref=T&6319.donation=form1&set.OptionalRepeat=TRUE&set.Value=[[E130: [[S1:last_trans_amount]] .25 * 100 *]]


BPM


PS - The last trans amount is not necessarily the last ONE-TIME amount. I don't know if you can get that so easily. You might consider using the largest trans amount instead.


EDIT: Was going to add a link to S130. https://www.blackbaud.com/support/howto/coveo/luminate-online/Subsystems/S-Tags/S-Tags/S-130-reverse-polish-notation.html


In looking at that I would correct my tag to something like:


[[E130:[[T8:[[S1:largest_trans_amount]]]] .25 * "$5.00" max 100 *]]


Take the largest past amount times .25

then take that amount or $5.00 - whichever is larger

multiply that by 100 to move the decimal


EDIT 2: The super epic S130 post by Chris: https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/1/961?post_id=15686

 

Gaby Gollub

Brian, thanks for your thoughts on this option and what problems (e.g. PayPal) may exist. Someone I consulted said we could try this out. Does this look like it might work to you?

We add the Additional Amount field to the form. If you include an Additional Amount in a recurring gift, the Additional Amount is charged only for the initial gift, not for any subsequent recurring gifts.

Then, for example, if the donor is making a $50 onetime gift, we open the modal and say, “You’re making a $50 gift! Great! Would you also consider giving an additional $10 gift per month starting next month?”

If the donor accepts, we use the Additional Amount field to record a $40 gift and then the “Other” field and the recurring gift checkbox to set up a $10 recurring gift.

The donor is thus charged her originally chosen gift amount of $50 today and then in subsequent months is charged the $10 gift amount.

Brian Mucha

> Does this look like it might work to you?

Yes, I think this is exactly what Mike Lewis was hinting at when he mentioned the Additional Amount field. I think it could work, but there will be implications.


That first gift will really be a sustainer, so that would get the initial sustaining gift autoresponder. And it would be a sustaining gift in the Gift Service Center too. And the transaction summary on the thank you page might be confusing as well. ("I said $50 one time and $10 monthly later, but my receipt says $40. And the monthly started too soon!")


Paypal says this is an $XX monthly transaction on sustaining gifts, but I'm not sure what it looks like with an additional donation on that first payment. You'd have to experiment to see if/where it gets confusing.


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Brian Mucha

If you do build this, be sure to post a link. We'd also love to hear how well it does if you test it, I'm sure.


BPM