Donation Pages with Email Signup Integration

Danielle Allen 2

We have just switched over to Online Express and note that there is no obvious way to embed the email signup option on a donation page. I previously worked with Convio and it was built it to the donation page; "opt in to receive emails from us". Has anyone successfully done this with Online Express? We don't want donors to fill out a donation form and then a separate form to signup for emails.

Jen Claudy

We used to have (if it were up to me, we still would) a custom field/attribute for Communication Instructions.  Donors could choose from the options we included in the RE table.  The data will come thru as a gift attribute, so you'd have to move it to wherever your solicit codes are stored, but you can do that with Query and Global Change if you get a big enough volume of online gifts.



Whenever we do provide this opportunity, I always push in favor of Opt-Out rather than In.  So our options generally include something like, "Please remove me from your mailing lists."  Then, if they didn't choose to opt-out, their information automatically goes on the list.  Plus, it's so easy to unsubscribe later from email messages, that it's usually not a problem.

Danielle Allen 2

Jennifer Claudy:

We used to have (if it were up to me, we still would) a custom field/attribute for Communication Instructions.  Donors could choose from the options we included in the RE table.  The data will come thru as a gift attribute, so you'd have to move it to wherever your solicit codes are stored, but you can do that with Query and Global Change if you get a big enough volume of online gifts.



Whenever we do provide this opportunity, I always push in favor of Opt-Out rather than In.  So our options generally include something like, "Please remove me from your mailing lists."  Then, if they didn't choose to opt-out, their information automatically goes on the list.  Plus, it's so easy to unsubscribe later from email messages, that it's usually not a problem.

 

Great idea, I think we'll explore this option. Is there a reason why you no longer have this? Must donors now signup seperately to join your email list?

Jen Claudy

One segment of our email list is donors...we just removed their ability to opt-out while making their donation.  I think this has the potential to mean lost gifts from donors who don't want to give that information, but would do so if they could opt-out right there, but who really knows?  I'm actually not sure why that field was eliminated from our donation page; I designed the initial page and a colleague has since taken it over and removed that one field.  I asked why, and offered to share the rationale behind that field (and all others), but wasn't able to get a response and decided I should save my energy for other, bigger, fish to fry.



So if you use our donation page to send us a gift, you'll automatically end up on our email list, and if you'd rather not be, then you'll need to click "unsubscribe" and opt-out that way.

Danielle Allen 2

I am revisting this thread because the attribute function is not good enough - we want it to link directly to the signup process and not be a manual process and we want it to be a checkbox and not a yes or no drop down (or some other table drop down) - as this is standard in other Blackbaud products, it should be for OE too. I have created an idea to vote for this here; https://rediscovery.uservoice.com/forums/137015-raiser-s-edge-discovery-topics/suggestions/10912770-email-signup-on-donation-form