Today I did our family's charitable giving and I was (once again) dismayed by the number of charities that fuck up the 'now tweet about your donation please' button at the end of the process.
Many had no social buttons. Some had Facebook but not Twitter. Some had prewritten tweets that didn't include a link to the charity's donation page. Many had terrible, generic 'I donated to X' tweets.
It's dismaying to me as someone who supports the charities' work, who works for a charity, and who donates to many charities. It's such a wasted opportunity. Honestly, just spend a couple hours brainstorming some tweet templates and then ask a few donors how they feel about 'em.
And don't get me started on the idiocy of OVERWRITING YOUR DONATE PAGE WITH A 'SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAKING LIST' INTERRUPTER.
Fucking.
Hell.
Why would anyone, ever try to get someone who is about to make a donation to switch tasks to join a mailing list?!
DON'T DO THIS.
Fucking.
Hell.
Why would anyone, ever try to get someone who is about to make a donation to switch tasks to join a mailing list?!
DON'T DO THIS.
All this applies triple to insurgent political campaigns collecting donations through @actblue, @BrandNew535, etc. Put as much thought into your 'now tweet your donation please' template as you do everything else.
The 'social proof' value of seeing that a friend donated to a cause or campaign can't be overstated. Actblue and BNC should make this a priority in their briefings to campaigns.
It's just so sad to give $50 to a principled, non-rich-person candidate who's making their first ever run for office and hoping for lots of small dollar donations and to be promoted to tweet something like 'Support X in Ohio's District Y.'
You've already spent hours agonizing over campaign messaging. Just fit it into the template. Help your donors get you more donors. We want to do it, but you're better at your messaging than we are!
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