The 5 Moments That Make or Break Every Donation Page | Maureen McNally | DX Sessions Seattle

Switching to an AI-driven ask string lifted one nonprofit's donation revenue by 32%. In this "Donation Experience" session, Maureen McNally, Chief Digital Growth Officer at Moore, breaks the donation page down into five behavioral decisions donors make between arrival and confirmation, and shows exactly where most organizations are losing revenue at each step. Rather than treating the donation form as a single transaction, Maureen walks through arrival, amount, the recurring ask, submit, and confirmation as five distinct psychological moments, each with its own failure points and its own opportunity to lift average gift size and retention. Key takeaways from this session: Email is the dominant traffic source to most donation pages, and the first 3 seconds after arrival function as a "sanity check" for the donor, so visual continuity between the email or ad and the landing page matters more than most organizations realize Impact-anchored asks (Feeding America's "$1 = 20 meals") change the donor's mental math from "how much should I give" to "how much impact can I provide" An AI-driven ask string, tested by Make-A-Wish, increased donation revenue by 32% while requiring fewer custom donation pages The metric that matters for recurring asks is donors retained at 90 days, not opt-in rate, and pre-checking the recurring box for first-time donors can backfire Make-A-Wish builds the recurring ask directly into page copy and headlines ("Only one in three wishes are granted") rather than tacking it on near the submit button Wallet pay options like Apple Pay and Google Pay should appear above the donation form, not below, since most mobile donors will choose them first if given the option The confirmation page and email are the most underused real estate in fundraising: asking for a second gift, a quarterly upgrade, or an annual commitment immediately after the first donation can drive an additional 15% in new revenue This session is part of DX Sessions Seattle, a Fundraise Up event bringing together nonprofit fundraising and development leaders to share what's actually working in donor acquisition, retention, and personalization at scale. 00:00 Introduction: Rethinking the Donation as Five Behavioral Decisions 01:04 The Five Moments: Arrival, Amount, Recurring, Submit, Confirmation 03:34 What Channel Sends the Most Traffic to Your Donation Page? 05:04 Meeting Donors Where They Are: SMS, Paid Social, and Email Examples 07:55 Moment One: Arrival and the Three-Second Sanity Check 10:51 Live Exercise: Test Your Own Donation Page Load Time 13:18 Moment Two: The Amount and the Cost of Cognitive Load 16:08 What Works: Segmenting Ask Arrays by Acquisition Source 17:26 Case Study: Make-A-Wish's AI-Driven Ask String and a 32% Revenue Lift 23:38 Moment Three: Getting the Recurring Ask Right 25:39 Case Study: How Make-A-Wish Builds the Recurring Ask Into the Headline 29:21 Should Your Donation Page Default to Monthly? 30:04 Moment Four: Reducing Friction at Submit 32:26 Why Wallet Pay Buttons Belong Above the Form 33:57 Moment Five: The Confirmation Page as Underused Real Estate 35:00 What Political Campaigns Get Right About the Second Ask 38:21 Closing Exercise: Audit Your Own Donation Flow Learn more about Fundraise Up: https://fundraiseup.com