Have you ever been desperate for the loo but not been able to go? Bet you have. It happens to us all. But for millions of people in the UK bladder and bowel issues can be a huge strain on their everyday life. Thankfully for those people, the Bladder & Bowel Foundation exists to provide a wealth of helpful information and advice to over 100,000 website visitors every month and we’re incredibly proud to have been working with them for a number of years.
Back in February 2015 we launched the new B&BF website with the aim of making the cornucopia of information more accessible to all visitors. It was a huge project involving months of design, coding and copywriting to ensure we got it right.
I’m delighted to say the site has been a huge success and the feedback has been amazing.
However, there’s always room for improvement.
Why focus on donations?
One thing a lot of visitors don’t realise is that B&BF is a charity and, like the majority of charities, donations from the public are the fuel that keeps the charity running. The problem B&BF have is that not enough of the 100,000+ monthly visitors to the site are making donations.
Why don’t they realise B&BF is a charity?
Nobody is telling them clearly enough.
Why aren’t enough visitors to the website making a donation?
The message isn’t strong enough.
Even if visitors did click through there was no truly compelling reason to donate. The message was confusing and uninspiring when compared to other charity donation pages such as Scope, Macmillan and WaterAid. All of those had a clear message: we’re a charity, this is how easy it is to donate and this is how your donation will help.
Side by side, it was clear B&BF needed a rethink.
What we did
We started by setting a clear objective: whatever we do, it needs to increase the number of donations made to B&BF. From there, we set about working out how to meet that objective and realised we needed to do a number of things:
1. Explicitly and prominently tell people B&BF is a charity
2. Explain how vital donations are to the charity
3. Tell website visitors how many people rely on B&BF for support and advice
4. Give people who do donate clarity on what their donation goes towards
What they had to say
“One of our strategic aims at BBF is to develop key partnerships across all areas of work the charity delivers. If we get this right, then all our beneficiaries will see improvements in the quality of our provision. We want to help as many people as possible, and where possible, make their life easier.
Working with Miromedia is the perfect partnership. We have a completely open dialogue and this way of working has ensured the best ideas are always up for discussion.
The donations project is an excellent case in point. By being flexible and open to change, we’ve quickly developed a solution, that we feel will help people understand how the charity depends on generous donations. We want to do things the right way. Make it simple for those who are able and comfortable to make a donation, without being forceful in any way. We want people to help, when they want to help. I think we have the balance right.”
Jason Tate, Bladder & Bowel Foundation
What happens next?
Now we measure to make sure we achieve the objective set out at the start of the project.
Working closely with B&BF, we have set a benchmark to identify the average monthly donations via the website. In the coming months we will continue to monitor how many donations come through and (hopefully!) track the incremental increase that follows.
It’s clear that donations are incredibly important to B&BF and we’re delighted to be help them get more. If you’d like to visit their new donations page – and even possibly make a donation – you can do so by clicking here.
