Case Study · Non-Profit
SOS Children's Villages International: One method for many donation journeys
SOS Children's Villages International is the umbrella organisation of a worldwide federation. Donations are made through the national member associations, and each one builds its own donation journey. With teams from many countries, we worked out how everyone can improve their journeys using the same method and learn from each other.
I'll show you where your shop loses buyers.
Many countries, one shared toolkit
In an international federation, every country builds its own donation journey. That makes sense, because language, payment habits and law all differ. It also means every journey has its own potential, and every team gains experience that can help the others.
A sponsorship is a recurring commitment. People who take one on think longer than they would about an impulse buy, and want every question answered before they commit. For the teams, that means they need a clear view of the friction in their own journey and a sense of which questions their data can answer. Because data quality varies from country to country, a shared language is especially valuable.
Applying e-commerce principles
At an international conference, we worked with teams from different countries on how to apply e-commerce methods to donation journeys. The starting point is simple. A donation is a conversion, and conversions follow known rules. Donors on a form behave much like shoppers in a checkout, and the same adjustments get them to the finish.
Together we sharpened the principles: measure friction, name drop-off points, prioritise hypotheses and test where people would otherwise debate for a long time. One focus was prioritisation, because every team works with limited resources and wants to know where to start for the biggest impact. A second focus was data. Which questions can a team already answer with the figures it has, and which need better measurement first? The goal is a shared language for this work, regardless of how each journey is built technically.
Distributed organisations win with a shared method
In our view, a shared method is the strongest lever there is in a federated organisation. An improved journey helps one country. A shared way of working helps everyone, because experiences become comparable and teams learn from each other. Charities can borrow a lot from e-commerce, especially for recurring commitments like sponsorships, where every answered question smooths the way to a yes. Teams that share their observations decide faster which idea to test next, and every round makes the next one easier.
Let’s start with your shop.
In the Dropoff Analysis you see where your shop loses buyers. Afterwards you know where the first step pays off.