Recurring vs. One-time Donation: Your Default Giving Options
Experiment No. 015
Which Default Giving Option Should You Use?
Donation forms contain two main ways to give, either as a one-time or recurring gift. You have the option to choose one of these two as the default. This is a choice that feels like it has cataclysmic consequences.
If you choose the wrong default option will you lose donations? Will you offend donors?
Many an argument has happened between those who vote to set the default as a one-time gift and those who say to go with recurring gifts. Those in Camp One-Time Gift say if you set the default as recurring donations you will lose one-time gifts. That donors will get mad and not give at all. While those in Camp Recurring Gift disagree and say more recurring gifts outweigh one-time gifts.
Is one default giving option better than the other? Each organization needs to choose which one works best for them. However, we decided to run a test to find out the best solution for us.
Before we dive into the test, I asked this question on LinkedIn to get other professionals' thoughts or experiences.
Poll: Default Giving Option
This is the question I posted on LinkedIn.
“One-time donation or recurring gift?
“Which one do you choose as the default option on a landing page?
“Some companies have already tested this, but I wanted to see what works better for our audience.
“Before I do, I would love to know what you think.”
The results show most people (57%) felt the “recurring giving” default option would increase recurring donations and decrease one-time gifts. While 36% said it would increase both recurring and one-time donations.
A small number of people (7%) believed we would receive fewer recurring donations despite the default choice of recurring.
One individual commented:
“I'm curious to see the data. We have done several recurring donor campaigns and I like having the default for a single donation with a link to the recurring donor page.”
Test: Default Giving Option
With the majority of people saying the recurring default option would increase recurring donations but decrease one-time gifts, it was time to run the test.
Research Question: How will selecting “Recurring donation” as the default option on a landing page affect both recurring and one-time gifts?
Hypothesis: With “Recurring Donation” as the default we will receive more monthly donations but see a decrease in one-time gifts.
Test Element: Default give option on a landing page
Control- Default set to “One-time donation”
Test- Default set to “Recurring donation”
Both landing pages had identical copy and images.
Key Metric: Gift Type
Results & Application
Results: The landing page with “Recurring donation” as the default option garnered more monthly gifts, while the number of one-time gifts did not decrease.
Recurring Gifts - 50% higher
One-time Gifts - same amount.
Application: It is safe and even preferable to set your landing page default giving option as “recurring.”
Future Tests: A good test will often lead to more questions. This test raised a few. Test ideas include:
What language is better, “Recurring” or Monthly”
After a donor selects “One-time Gift” how does asking for a recurring gift later in the donation experience affect conversions for both types of gifts?
Do gift offers or incentives encourage more monthly donations?
Findings From Another Test
NextAfter, a digital fundraising agency, conducted this same test. They highlighted the recurring giving button and placed it before the one-time gift button. As a result, they experienced a 339% conversion rate increase for one nonprofit. The test was 99% statistically significant with a confidence level of 99%.
What This Means for You
According to this test and the one by NextAfter, when you build your giving pages and offer “one-time” and “recurring” donations, you should set the default option as “recurring.” This will encourage more people to become monthly donors and it does not detract those who still want to give a one-time donation.
You may still have a few donors who select “recurring” by mistake, in which case you will need to correct their gift. On the positive side, when you fix it for them it is a great opportunity to thank them and start a conversion. If you handle it well, the donor’s one-time gift could become a recurring gift in the future.
Still not sold that setting “recurring donations” as the default option on landing pages will work for your organization? That’s why it’s always best to test.
