How emphasizing a recurring gift impacted revenue
The Heritage Foundation
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 05/03/2017 - 06/06/2017
A past analysis of The Heritage Foundation donor file found that recurring donors provide the highest donor value to the organization and have the best chance of being retained into future years. Based upon this analysis, we decided to launch an experiment to increase the number of recurring givers.
We crafted value proposition copy around the reason to make a recurring gift and included near the recurring gift option on the donation form. We also emphasized making the gift via their Bank Account as these donations tend to have a longer lifetime.
Research Question
Will emphasizing the impact of a recurring increase the overall revenue per visitor?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Revenue per Visitor | Relative Difference | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | No Emphasis | $3.24 | ||
| T1: | Recurring Emphasis | $2.61 | -19.5% | 88.9% |
This experiment was validated using 3rd party testing tools. Based upon those calculations, a significant level of confidence was not met so these experiment results are not valid.
Key Learnings
After a month of collecting data, we did not see any significant impact on the donor’s likelihood to make a recurring gift, select their Bank Account, or increase overall revenue to the organization. This is still a priority for the organization so we will go back to the drawing board to develop new hypotheses to increase someone’s likelihood to make a recurring gift.