The Navigators

Does Framing the Donor as the Hero for One Child Increase Conversion Rates During a High Urgency Campaign?

Experiment ID: #198832

The Navigators

Experiment Summary

Timeframe: 07/10/2025 - 07/29/2025

During the Navigators’ Eagle Lake 2 campaign, we ran an A/B test to evaluate the impact of emotional storytelling on donor conversion.

Specifically, we tested whether a donor-centric, story-driven donation page (Treatment) would outperform a more informational, ministry-focused version (Control). The Treatment focused on the experience of one child at camp and highlighted how a donor’s gift could directly transform that child’s life—designed to create a stronger emotional connection and sense of personal impact.

The experiment ran for approximately three weeks, with traffic evenly split between the two versions. Our goal was to determine whether inviting donors into a specific story would increase motivation to give and ultimately drive more donations to support Eagle Lake.

Research Question

We believe that positioning the donor as the hero and emphasizing the life-changing impact their gift can have on a single child for Eagle Lake 2 donation page visitors will increase donor conversion metrics by creating a stronger emotional connection and a clear, tangible outcome. We expect more visitors to feel compelled to give. Because it creates a stronger emotional connection and a clear, tangible outcome, we expect more visitors to feel compelled to give.

Design

C: Control

T1: Treatment #1

Results

	Treatment Name	Conv. Rate	Relative Difference	Confidence
C:	Control	17.2%
T1:	Treatment #1	15.6%	-8.9%	72.6%

This experiment has a required sample size of 4,464 in order to be valid. Unfortunately, the required sample size was not met and a level of confidence above 95% was not met so the experiment results are not valid.

Key Learnings

The key learning from the A/B test on emotional storytelling for donor conversion during the Navigators’ Eagle Lake 2 campaign is that the treatment, which focused on donor-centric, story-driven content, did not outperform the control, which had a more informational, ministry-focused approach. The treatment saw a 8.9% decrease in donations for all traffic with a 72.6% statistical level of confidence. However, since the statistical level of confidence is below 95%, these results cannot be deemed valid for future decision making. In future experimentation, it is important to consider the following takeaways from this experiment: 1. The hypothesis that emotional storytelling would increase donor conversion metrics did not hold true in this instance. This indicates the need to reassess the effectiveness of emotional storytelling in the context of donor engagement. 2. It is essential to conduct experiments for a longer duration and with a larger sample size to ensure statistically significant results that can be relied upon for decision making. 3. While it is important to test innovative approaches, it is equally important to evaluate and learn from unsuccessful experiments. This failure provides valuable insights that can inform future strategies and experiments. Overall, while the experiment did not yield the expected results, it serves as a learning opportunity to refine future strategies, experimental designs, and hypotheses to better understand donor behavior and improve conversion rates.

Experiment Documented by NextAfter

Question about experiment #198832

If you have any questions about this experiment or would like additional details not discussed above, please feel free to contact them directly.