Donation form auto-fill?

Steve Potter

Sometimes a donor may use a different credit card than their own, and donor information may be different than billing information.  To make a form more "universal," can a donation form be set up with, for example, fields for donor information (e.g., name, address, etc.) followed by a check box which, if selected, would auto-fill the same data into the billing information section that follows?  How is that set up?  Any other clever alternatives?

Steve - Sacramento SPCA

Patrick Hansen

Hi Steve,

Yes, you can definitely do exactly what you describe.  As a quick example, I just created this donation form for the SSPCA that asks for the billing information, then allows the constituent making the gift to enter in separate donor information, or to check a box and have the donor information populate automatically from the billing information:

https://secure3.convio.net/sspca/site/Donation2?df_id=1480&1480.donation=form1

Now, unfortunately, it isn't possible for the check box to hide/unhide the advanced donor fields, so keep in mind that adding this information directly to your primary form is going to make the form longer and more complex.  The more fields you add to any one donation form, the higher the abandonment rate on that form.  The higher your abandonment rate, the fewer dollars you'll raise online (and in general).  That's why we don't include separate donor fields vs. billing fields on the initial form we set up in the Go! Program.

A way to mitigate the potential for increased abandonment when including these fields is to have a small link at the very top of your primary form that says something like "Is your billing information different from the donor making the gift?  Use a form with advanced giving options."  You may have any number of "advanced" features on your more complex form that donors only would experience if they have more specific needs in terms of how they make their gift.  For the vast majority of donors, your "simple" form will meet their needs ... and keep their giving experience as clean and quick as possible.

-patrick