The Salvation Army
www.salvationarmy.org.uk
The Salvation Army is one of the most famous and respected Christian charities across the world. We are working with them to ensure they have an online presence that befits their reputation and makes it easy for people to engage with and support them.
The Challenge
- Increase online donations through a faster giving process and a more engaging and personalised user experience
- Update the UK and Ireland website so that it is more contemporary, engaging and easier to navigate
The Solution
- Created a new online fundraising platform for Salvation Army UK with fully branded and customisable donation forms to process both Direct Debit and one-off credit/debit card donations
- New forms are designed to have more visual impact in order to connect emotionally with donors and aid conversions – using photography showing the Salvation Army in action on the streets
- Donors shown clearly what specific money amounts will be used (e.g. £19 for a food parcel, £28 for a Christmas lunch etc.) which enables them to make a more informed choice about how much to give
- Tools and training provided for Salvation Army UK so that they can create and build forms to support future campaigns, including setting up emails, thank you pages, changing text and imagery and accessing donor data
- As a separate project, Convio hosted a design workshop with the Salvation Army’s UK team, to create new page templates for their existing website, which could be implemented without them having to do a major redevelopment
The Results
- It took just four weeks from the first project planning meeting until the go live date for the online donations platform, meaning that customised forms were ready in time for the Salvation Army 2010 Christmas appeal
- The 2010 Christmas Appeal led to a 47.5% increase in the number of donations from the previous year’s appeal – testament to the improved conversion rates and success of an integrated fundraising campaign
- Secure hosting environment is able to cope with the seasonal spikes in demand
- The UK website has a totally refreshed look and feel, which is more engaging for supporters
