Your letter landed. The donor read it. They decided to give.
Then they picked up their smartphone, went to your website…
And the gift disappeared. The end.
We know from our research that 44% of donors who respond to direct mail now give through the charity’s website – up from 36% just two years ago.
Among Millennials, 53% have given via a smart device. For Gen Z, 78% have given online.
Now, you know as well as I do: These donors are working on a screen the size of a playing card.
The question to ask is whether your website’s ready when the donor arrives.
Many charity websites were not designed for this moment. They were designed on a desktop, for a desktop, by someone sitting at a desk.
The mobile experience is an afterthought – a shrunken version of something that was never built for thumbs.
And Amazon has ruined it for all of us.
One-click checkout is now the standard. Every extra field, every unnecessary page load, every moment of confusion is a reason to abandon the gift.
Cart abandonment isn’t just a retail problem – it’s a nonprofit problem.
And here’s what makes this so costly: you might not even notice until deep diving the campaign metrics later.
In the meantime, the donor and their donation simply disappear.
And you attribute the shortfall to donor fatigue or economic headwinds.
Your letter earned that donor’s attention. Your appeal earned their conviction.
If your mobile giving page then asks them to pinch and zoom, scroll through a cluttered form, or guess where the donate button is – you’ve wasted all of it.
Before your next appeal goes out, open your giving page on your phone. Try to complete a gift. Time it. Count the steps. Notice every moment of hesitation.
If you’re not thinking mobile-first, you’re not thinking about your donors at all.