Focus on the Family

How defaulting to a recurring gift on an acquisition donation page, Proof You Need, impacts recurring donor conversion

Experiment ID: #195461

Focus on the Family

Experiment Summary

Timeframe: 02/05/2025 - 03/05/2025

Focus on the Family is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing guidance and resources to support families. To increase recurring donations, we tested defaulting to a recurring gift option on the donation page for the high-traffic “Proof You Need” acquisition funnel, an ideal setting to measure the impact of this default on donor conversion.

We hypothesized that defaulting to a recurring gift option and emphasizing the impact of monthly donations would increase the number of donors choosing recurring contributions, ultimately boosting donor retention and long-term support for Focus on the Family’s mission.

This experiment was previously tested from October 16 – November 12, with the original test defaulting to a $15 recurring gift. The results showed that defaulting to recurring significantly increased recurring donations—the treatment group, which defaulted to recurring, had 34 conversions compared to just 8 in the control group, marking a 330.0% increase in recurring donations at a 99.9% confidence level. Based on these results, we initially moved forward with defaulting other pages to recurring gifts. However, as we continued monitoring performance, we observed lower ROIs and encountered limitations in the donation form’s gift array, which restricted customization for one-time and monthly gift amounts. As a result, we ultimately reverted the default back to a one-time gift.

Towards the end of the year, we saw a noticeable increase in sustainer giving, prompting us to revisit this test.

For this iteration, we configured a VWO Split URL test with a new control and a variation, each receiving 50% of traffic. This setup ensured users blocking VWO redirects were excluded, preventing data distortion in the control group and yielding more accurate results.

Control: Defaulted to a one-time gift, with language asking for a one-time donation. The gift array included “$30, $50, $100, and $200,” with no pre-selected amount. The copy specifically asked for $30, while $50 was highlighted as a “popular” gift option. Note: No changes were made to the current live pages for Proof You Need for the control group.
Treatment: Defaulted to a recurring gift, with a gift array of “$15, $30, $50, and $100,” with $30 pre-selected.

Research Question

We believe that defaulting to a recurring gift and emphasizing its broader impact for Focus on the Family donors will increase the number of recurring donations because it presents a manageable commitment and highlights the significance of ongoing support, encouraging more donors to commit to long-term giving.

Design

C: Control

T1: Treatment

Results

	Treatment Name	Conv. Rate	Relative Difference	Confidence	Average Gift
C:	Control	0.09%			$39.02
T1:	Treatment	0.80%	830.7%	100.0%	$36.70

This experiment has a required sample size of 668 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 4,688, and the level of confidence is above 95% the experiment results are valid.

Flux Metrics Affected

The Flux Metrics analyze the three primary metrics that affect revenue (traffic, conversion rate, and average gift). This experiment produced the following results:

0% increase in traffic
× 830.7% increase in conversion rate
× 6.0% decrease in average gift
775.3% increase in revenue

Key Learnings

Through this experiment, we observed that defaulting to a recurring gift option significantly increased recurring donations. The treatment group, which defaulted to recurring gifts, had 17 more recurring transactions than the control, resulting in an 830.7% increase in recurring transactions at a 100% confidence level.

However, overall transactions decreased slightly, with the treatment group converting 122 donations versus 141 in the control group. Revenue for the control was $5,520, while the treatment generated $4,470. Despite this initial decline in immediate revenue, the additional 17 recurring donors in the treatment group, with an average gift of $30 and an 85% retention rate, project to generate an additional $5,202 in revenue over time—demonstrating the long-term value of sustaining donors.

The decrease in overall transactions is likely due to the shift from one-time gifts to recurring donations. While immediate revenue per visitor declined, this result aligns with previous findings that indicate the long-term value of recurring donors outweighs short-term losses.

Next Steps

Default to Recurring Gifts for This Offer: Given the strong lift in recurring transactions and projected long-term revenue, we will permanently default this offer to recurring gifts.
Test on Another Offer (Living with Contagious Joy): To further validate these findings, we will run a similar test on another offer, “Living with Contagious Joy,” to assess whether the impact holds across different campaigns.
Refine Messaging: Continue optimizing the way we present the recurring gift option to further encourage commitment while minimizing any deterrent effect on one-time donations.
Monitor Long-Term Donor Impact: Track retention and lifetime value of these new recurring donors to ensure the strategy continues to drive sustainable growth for Focus on the Family.

Experiment Documented by NextAfter

Question about experiment #195461

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