You’ve likely seen them – a group of four or five ‘suggested’ donation amounts on a form or campaign, with one highlighted as the default donation amount. These suggestions are known as many things – gift arrays, ask ladders, suggested gift amounts – and are a well-used method of encouraging contributions by shortening or completely removing the main barrier to donating: the decision.
Campaign owners can strongly influence donations by listing a few suggested amounts and pre-selecting one as a default (Desmet & Feinberg, 2003). Whether someone chooses to contribute or not isn’t necessarily influenced by the presence of these amounts, but how much they contribute just might be (Hysenbelli, D. et al. 2013). By making these suggestions, supporters don’t have to wonder what is expected or ‘good enough,’ even though anyone raising money should be grateful for anything someone can give, no matter the amount.
Our platforms include defaulted amounts, which are changeable by the campaign owner. Without customization, those defaults are $20, $50, $100, and $200, with $100 pre-selected.
But are these the ‘right’ amounts? Also, how many should there be? And in what order? And what value should be pre-selected?? SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!
Suggested Donation Amounts – Are they even necessary?
As mentioned above, studies have shown that the mere presence of these default amounts doesn’t necessarily influence the choice TO contribute – after all, some campaigns have no suggested amounts until the ‘Contribute’ button is clicked – but how much supporters choose to give can be influenced by suggestions (Hysenbelli, D. et al. 2013).
One study even found that while default amounts encouraged some people to donate more, others would contribute less or nothing at all (Altmann et al. 2019). This tells us two things:
- There ARE benefits to default amounts; they just might not be monetary
- For maximum benefit, individuals or organizations running campaigns must determine what works best for them.
So, no single, tried-and-true array works for every campaign. Several interacting psychological factors are at play, making one solution for all circumstances near impossible (Goswami & Urminsky. 2016). Your goals, needs, organization, campaign, and situation are all unique, and this article is to help you make the best decision for you.
Many ask, “Do these default amounts ever negatively impact campaigns?” And done wrong, yes, it’s entirely possible. We’ll go into detail later; however, one study concluded that people did not develop negative opinions about organizations that set a default contribution amount, regardless of its value. The default might distract from other factors, such as the supporter’s feelings toward the organization or its reputation, but, again, there are ways to mitigate.
Altogether, our opinion is yes, defaults are valuable. Let’s dive into the determining elements of choosing the best defaults for you.
Choosing your suggested donation amounts
1. How many?
Less is better! Too many options that are close enough in value result in ‘decision fatigue,’ which is the hesitancy people feel at making a choice when too many options are present. Indecision can lead to frustration and exhaustion – not emotions conducive to charitable giving.
Reducing the number of suggestions results in more people contributing (NextAfter 2022). In that study, the choices were reduced from six to four. Since the majority of studies I looked at put forth four options, which appears to be a consensus among different platforms I’ve looked at, AND we at ConnectionPoint determined this to be the most effective number, I’m recommending you come up with four default contribution amounts.
2. What amounts?
Which suggested amounts to enter is more complicated. People tend to make contributions in line with the defaulted amount (Goswami & Urminsky. 2016). Low default amounts encourage smaller gifts, but more individuals donate. The opposite is also true: higher defaults equal larger but fewer contributions (Goswami & Urminsky. 2016).
Therefore, the amounts you choose depends on your goal. Are you more interested in the immediate revenue? Consider high default amounts. Prefer to increase your donor base (for future revenue)? Lower them.
In most of my research, the most common ‘low’ value in study arrays was USD 10 (averaged from converted Euros, CAD, and USD). Don’t go too high, as that can discourage someone from contributing at all, even if they intended to give more, as it presents the campaign owner as ‘greedy’ and suggests anything less is considered ‘not worth it.’ One study indicated that USD 25 was too high (NextAfter 2021), so $10 or $15 are good numbers to stick to.
The ‘high’ values varied more – from $50 USD (Altmann et al. 2019) to $250 (Powell 2018). I think $100 is a good high point for most standard campaigns. But that may not be right for you. Smaller, less established organizations or individuals running campaigns may want to consider $50-100 as the highest value in the array, whereas larger organizations with loyal donors (especially ones who tend to give more) can get away with $125-$250 as the highest.
If you have a smaller goal and want to accumulate as many donors as possible, I recommend staying on the lower end – perhaps $10, $25, $50, and $100.
If you have a large goal (over USD 20,000) and are focused on reaching that goal, consider higher amounts, such as $15, $50, $100, or $200.
If you’re an organization that knows your donation metrics (average, median, highest and lowest), you can work around these numbers and even use them to subtly INCREASE your gifts! See part 3 of our Campaign Success Toolkit for more details.
No matter your choices, it’s shown that individual donors prefer amounts in multiples of 5 ($10, $25, $50, $100, etc.) (Wang et al. 2023). Those numbers are easy on our brains!
3. In what order?
This is the only factor with clear guidelines: low to high is best!
One study showed that the high-to-low array decreased average gift size, amount of donations, and, therefore, their revenue! (Powell 2018).
Putting the higher amount first in a gift array subtly suggests anything LESS than that highest amount isn’t wanted. And, of course, you still want someone’s donation, even if it is less than your highest array. We are grateful for any gift someone can give!
So, no matter what you decide for your default amounts, list them from lowest to highest. Our platforms won’t even let you do otherwise!
4. What about the preselected amount?
While all default amounts appear in the checkout flow, only one is preselected (see above screenshot). The supporter can always change their amount, but you should weigh options for the preselected amount. Studies show that preselected value increases the number of contributions in this amount by 5 to 10% (Altmann et al. 2019).
The consensus is not to choose your lowest or highest amount to be preselected. Selecting the lowest amount can suggest that it’s the expected amount and change the minds of some who intend to give more. The highest amount gives the same impression as described earlier: this is the one we want, and anything lower isn’t worth it. So, one of your middle two numbers is best.
Which one exactly? This is the perfect time for some AB testing! Give both a shot; run your campaign for a week using the second default as the preselect and then one week with the third. Look at your number of donations and their values and see which works best with your community. Let us know the results!
Basic or Descriptive?
ConnectionPoint’s platforms allow you to choose two types of contribution amounts: basic and descriptive.
“Basic” are amounts only. Descriptive amounts are the value plus a worded explanation of what that amount can provide. For example, an animal shelter might say, “Contribute $50 and provide one bag of dog food!” These offer the opportunity to showcase your impact because they give your supporters insight into the value of their contribution. We refer to these as ‘units of impact,’ which are key components of a good campaign story.
Even if your story has descriptive units of impact, consider entering them as descriptive default amounts. Once they hit that ‘Contribute’ button, the decision process begins, and that can counteract any information they’ve just read (Goswami & Urminsky. 2016). Refresh their memories!
To wrap up… (TL;DR)
The only sure way to maximize your default contribution amounts to fit everybody is to customize them for each supporter (Altmann et al. 2019). If you have the time, energy, and background information… heck, go for it! I’m assuming you do not have any of those things, though, so I leave you with this:
Do you expect mostly lower contributions, up to USD 100? Try $10, $25, $50, and $100 as your defaults.
Are you expecting many larger contributions? Try $15, $50, $100, $200. The best part is that you can change these anytime, even while the campaign is running. Experiment a little and find which amounts work best for you!
*For how to customize your contribution amounts, visit ConnectionPoint’s Help Centre.
Yours in success,
Shan
Citations
- Desmet, P. & Feinberg, F.M. (2003). Ask and ye shall receive: The effect of the appeals scale on consumers’ donation behavior. Journal of Economic Psychology. 24(3):349-276. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-4870(02)00166-6
- Hysenbelli, D., Rubaltelli, E., & Rumiati, R. (2013). Others’ opinions count, but not all of them: Anchoring to ingroup versus outgroup members’ behavior in charitable giving. Judgment and Decision Making, 8(6), 678-690. doi:10.1017/S193029750000471X
- Steffen Altmann, Armin Falk, Paul Heidhues, Rajshri Jayaraman, & Marrit Teirlinck. (2019) Defaults and Donations: Evidence from a Field Experiment. The Review of Economics and Statistics. 101 (5): 808–826. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00774
- Goswami, I., & Urminsky, O. (2016). When should the ask be a nudge? The effect of default amounts on charitable donations. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(5), 829-846. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.15.0001
- NextAfter (2022). How reducing friction by removing gift amount options from a gift array affects donation rates. https://www.nextafter.com/experiments/how-reducing-donation-amount-options-in-a-gift-array-affects-donation-rates
- NextAfter (2021). How starting the gift array at a higher level impacted donor conversion rate. https://www.nextafter.com/experiments/how-starting-the-gift-array-at-a-higher-level-impacted-donor-conversion-rate/
- Powell, Jon (2018). Gift Arrays: When to Use Them and How to Optimize Them. NextAfter. https://www.nextafter.com/blog/gift-arrays-when-to-use-how-to-optimize/
- Wang, M., Cai, M., Guo, S., Li, M., Tan, X., Ou, C., & Lu, X. (2023). Large-Scale Medical Crowdfunding Data Reveal Determinants and Preferences of Donation Behaviors. IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems.
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