Anedot Learn: DonorID Overview

‍Anedot Learn session transcript ↓

Colleen:

Hey, this is Colleen with Anedot. Welcome to Anedot Learn where we help you grow your organization through giving.

Today we're diving into the topic of Anedot DonorIDs. This is a personal account that makes it easy for supporters to manage their giving across multiple organizations.

Joining us is DC from our Anedot support team to walk through how it works and why it matters.

Thank you so much DC for joining me. So appreciate it.

DC:

Absolutely. Thank you Colleen for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

And I'm stoked about what we're going to talk about today.

What is a DonorID and how it works

Colleen:

Absolutely. So for those that are unfamiliar with Anedot and what a DonorID is, can you just quickly explain what Anedot is and how a DonorID fits into the picture?

DC:

Yeah. So for Anedot, we are an online fundraising platform for not for profit organizations.

So in essence, we're a payment processing platform. And so we help organizations process secure online donations from the donors that want to support them.

The way the DonorID fits into that picture is that it's a personal donor account in Anedot’s system. So basically a one dashboard for our donors for all of their giving.

It provides donors the ability to manage giving across multiple organizations through our platform and those that they have supported through Anedot.

And the best part is it's all in one place through the DonorID.

Colleen:

That's great. So in that, what problem is the DonorID kind of solving for the donor, but also for the organization?

DC:

Yeah. So there's a few things that it tackles when it comes to why the DonorID matters and what problems it's solving.

First, it provides a full giving history for the donor.

So once they sign up for a DonorID and they have access to that dashboard, they can view all their past donations.

They can also view any ongoing recurring gifts or what we call recurring commitments.

It's also helpful for them to update, get in there and manage it themselves, whether they want to update something in their recurring commitment, or see a previous donation record if they've forgotten what that was.

It's also helpful with budgeting so that they can kind of see where they are and how much they would like to budget when it comes to donations and giving to the organizations that they would like to support.

And it helps with year end tax preparations as well. Another major thing that DonorIDs help with is the payment method part, managing their payment methods. So they can go in and their DonorID account.

They can update credit cards, add new ones, remove old ones, update bank accounts.

When they do that, it also gives them the ability to modify or cancel or update any recurring gifts without needing to contact our support team here or the organization that they're giving to. It's a self-service portal for donors.

And then lastly, we strongly believe in empowering our donors, and also we value transparency.

So as I mentioned, it's a self-service dashboard which in turn lowers the friction.

So donors don't have to enter as much every time they give, their information is already saved securely, and also provides them more control over their donations once again to view their history of donations, but also to manage ongoing recurring donations.

And that way, donors are empowered to self-serve themselves.

We're always here. Our Anedot support team is here. If they would like to reach out, ask for support.

They can also contact the organizations, but it empowers the donors to be able to do it themselves so they don't have to email us or the organization or call us, but they can do it themselves right from their own DonorID.

Getting started with DonorID

Colleen:

Yeah. That's awesome.

Thank you for that summary. I know I always appreciate whenever I'm giving or anything that I'm doing when I can kind of see everything, there's like, full transparency there that's always really appreciated.

And then also if I need to update something, say I change my credit card, I can just update it one time within my DonorID, and I don't have to input that every single time I want to give.

So I know we really appreciate that. And the donors really appreciate that as well.

Can we talk a little bit about like usability? So say I'm a supporter. I've given to organizations that use Anedot before or they use Anedot.

How does someone get started with creating a DonorID? What email should I use and what does that look like?

DC:

So when donors either give or have given, they could create a DonorID.

It's not required to make a donation to the organization through Anedot to have a DonorID, but they can during the checkout or donation submitting process.

Or donors can visit our website any time there's a signup button where they can sign up and create a DonorID account, or they can visit Donorsupport.com, and there's a button there that will lead them to further information about exactly what a DonorID is and how it's helpful, and some help guides.

One of the things that we do encourage is to actually use the same email address that they've entered, whether it's a previous donation or a new donation that they're making to use that very same email address when signing up for their DonorID because that's how their donation record and history will populate into their DonorID account is through the association via email.

So once they've signed in, once they verified their email and they're logged in, they can access their donor dashboard.

And there's multiple tabs and things that they can do through the donor dashboard. They can go to their payment method settings to update, remove, or add any payment methods as I talked about earlier.

They can update or cancel any recurring gifts. And so like let's say a donor wants to change the payment method or their name has changed or they've moved recently. And so the address associated with their payment method or their personal address has changed.

That's all doable. And they can change it, update it themselves through their donor dashboard and other personal information such as phone number, they can do that directly as well.

And the best part is, is that if a donor uses the same email. So they could be giving to various organizations through Anedot.

But as long as they use the same email when giving those donations, even those to a different organization, all those records will auto populate into their DonorID.

Colleen:

Awesome. That's so cool.

I remember talking to a customer one time who actually had given to organizations who use Anedot and when she signed up for her her DonorID she saw, oh, I had given back in 2021, 2022 or whenever it might have been.

And because she used the same email address to create her DonorID, it had all of that giving history tied to it too, which was pretty cool.

So, I know that's really appreciated. And when we're talking about it and we're thinking about it, it sounds a little bit like Apple Pay or Google Pay, but for charitable giving?

How would you say it compares or what does that kind of look like?

DC:

It's similar. It's the same idea, just like Apple Pay, Google Pay and other charitable giving platforms like that.

It's secure, it's streamlined, it makes it efficient, easy for the donors. And the best part is it's self-managed and so very similar to that.

They can update information just like those accounts, help to make the donation easier and more secure way.

Benefits of DonorID for donors and organizations

Colleen:

Yeah I love that. And it just saves time. Saves time saves money. It makes things, it kind of deters friction. So it makes it easier to give. I love that.

So how does this help both sides? So we talked a little bit about how it helps donors and organizations.

But can you kind of expound upon that? How does it help both the donor and the organization?

DC:

Yeah. So first for donors, it's really convenient. It's really convenient. It's also transparent, as I mentioned, it’s secure, it's private.

So the donor’s data is never shared between the different organizations that they give to.

It also makes it really easy to give to the organization and their mission that donors care about and support.

Because once they sign into their DonorID, they don't have to enter information such as personal information or payment information every time.

But if it's saved securely and privately through their DonorID account, they just log in, visit the donation page and boom.

They can click the amount, figure out any other required fields and they're good to go.

And so really for donors, it's about ease. It's about convenience, making it simple and yet highly secure. So we encourage donors.

Like I said, it's not required. It's not mandatory to have a DonorID, but it makes just everything a lot more streamlined and easier on their end.

And for organizations, it really comes down to they can spend less time answering support questions or things that donors could possibly do on their own so that they can focus more of their energy on accomplishing their mission, realizing their vision, and upholding their values.

So we also want to make it effective and efficient for organizations when donors create a DonorID to be able to self-service themselves.

But we've also seen across the board, when donors have a DonorID, there is a higher donor satisfaction and retention rate because they are clearly able to see, when they gave, who they gave to, what they gave.

And so it's not something that's like ambiguous, but it's clear for them as well. And so it helps with donor satisfaction. And like we mentioned, it really lowers the friction to give.

Donors, they can sign into their DonorID and literally within seconds, once that DonorID is set up, they can give to the organization.

So it just kind of across the board for donors and organizations, it streamlines the process, makes it secure, and helps both sides out.

Example of how donors use DonorID

Colleen:

Very cool. I can see how when a donor chooses to create a DonorID for the organization, there's less friction there.

So the donor doesn't have to find their credit card, put their credit card information in, type in their address and things like that.

That likely boosts conversions. So ease of use for the donor and then for the organization, it's higher conversions.

I know that, in talking to customers before, it's pretty cool. They might have a donor give one year and then maybe a few months later come back and realize, oh, wow, I had created this DonorID.

All I have to do is click the amount on the donation page now and click donate.

So it's super easy, super streamlined, and convenient, like you said. And I can totally see how it benefits both the donor and the organization.

I'm curious, can you walk us through kind of a real life example of how a donor might use a DonorID?

DC:

Yeah, I like to think of kind of going off of what you just shared Colleen, a DonorID is kind of like a giving journal for the donor.

And so let's say, for example, a donor would like to give to an organization, and we'll call that for example purposes, organization A, through Anedot.

So during the process of giving to that first organization, the donor can create a DonorID.

And then later on, maybe a few months or a year later, they decide to give it to a different organization. We'll call that one organization B.

But for organization B, instead of a one time donation, they decide to give a recurring gift. A recurring donation that we call a commitment and also uses a different credit card information.

Or they see that, maybe the payment method that they first used when they first made the donation to the organization A is no longer an active credit card for them.

That way they can go back and update the payment method and then go forward with the recurring donation to organization B, and then really after that, like I said, it's kind of like a donor journal or a donation journal history.

They can log in to their DonorID and then they'll see the full history. So they'll see a few months ago or a year ago, they made a donation.

So they'll see the history in the record of that first one to organization A, and then let's say they need to make any changes to the ongoing recurring gift to organization B.

That's going to be right there in their DonorID account. They'll be able to update any information that they need and then access their records.

And so really, yeah, like a journal log, they'll be able to go back past and present and be able to make any updates or changes or even sometimes identify like giving a donation a year ago.

A lot can happen in a year. And donors may sometimes forget like, oh, like, what was this? Where did I give to before?

And so it kind of jogs their memory, helps them because it's once again securely stored in their DonorID.

So they can see the first donation that was made, but also see the commitment that's currently ongoing.

They can make any changes that they would like.

Steps to create a DonorID

Colleen:

That's great. Yeah I love how you're kind of highlighting not only does it make it easier to give.

So if you're visiting someone's page that uses Anedot, it makes it really easy to give. But also kind of more on the back end of things.

They can see all their giving history. They can update anything they need to. So that's a great example.

I know if someone's listening to this and they're like, you know, I give to you a lot of organizations that use Anedot, I'd like to create a DonorID.

What would be the instructions that you would give them to create one?

DC:

Let's do it. This is the fun part. So let's say they've already given through one of our secure Anedot donation pages to the organization.

They, as I mentioned, can go to our website and click the sign up button or they can go to Donorsupport.com as well, and they just have to set up a DonorID, enter their name, their email, a few more details, and go get that DonorID created.

And what ends up happening once they create that DonorID is that they'll get a verification email.

This is a security step just to make sure that it's going to the proper email, and that it really is the donor that's creating that DonorID.

So as soon as they verify that email, that in turn will auto populate all the donation records and the history of their giving that's associated with their email that they gave with and that they signed up with.

That's what donors can do. Whether they've given already or not, they can sign up for a DonorID.

And for organizations, we encourage promoting the DonorID experience.

So let's say you want to send like an email blast or let just kind of donors know, hey like, thank you so much for your support.

By the way, there is a service called a DonorID that you can sign up for. And so that can also boost adoption.

And also help donors to realize like, hey, maybe I don't have to or I don't need to contact the organization to update a payment method or do all these other updates, but I can do them myself.

So the organization can communicate that. And we can also maybe suggest putting that on an thank you page.

So if donors receive a thank you note after giving their contribution, or even through the organization's website, you can talk about the DonorID experience and steps to sign up for one.

And so hopefully that boosts adoption across the board and all the pros that we talked about earlier that streamlines the process that's secure, that's efficient, saves time, saves money.

That makes it easy for donors, that decreases friction, so that they can give to the organization.

Yeah, I think organizations and donors both will benefit from having a DonorID experience.

Closing thoughts

Colleen:

It sounds like a win win. You know, explaining it and understanding it. It sounds like such a win win.

I think really the only reason someone wouldn't sign up is because they don't understand or realize the benefits of having one.

So it's invaluable to have you explain this to us. So thank you for that.

To wrap it up, what's one thing that you would want donors and organizations to remember and take away from this about a DonorID?

DC:

So a DonorID is a secure, donor owned dashboard for managing giving and their payment information. And secure is something that we highlight because it is really secure.

But it's also empowering, like we mentioned, because donors can do it themselves and so that's one thing that I would like to share.

And just to close off kind of in summary, it's really about convenience.

Convenience, transparency, peace of mind because of the secure aspect, but also because it lowers that friction, lowers the barrier to give.

There's really no extra burden on the organization nor the donor. And I love it because it's free.

There's no payment involved in creating a DonorID, there's no monthly fees, there's no any associated fees with the DonorID.

It's completely free. So it's a tool, it’s an account, a dashboard.

Like I mentioned, it could even be a journal of their donation history through Anedot to the organizations that they love and support.

And so, yeah, we would love for donors and organizations to just use it and then benefit from it from both sides.

Colleen:

Awesome. I love that. That's so great.

And I know, we're so grateful for you just coming on and explaining this to us.

If anyone has questions, they can email us at help@anedot.com.

So thank you again, DC. I so appreciate your time.

DC:

Absolutely. It's been such a pleasure, Colleen. Thank you for having me on.

Colleen:

Thank you.