Default campaign banner in the Donor Portal

What we tested

Existing supporters are some of a nonprofit's most valuable donors. They've already connected with the mission, made a gift, and chosen to stay engaged. The challenge is giving them a compelling reason to donate again.

The Donor Portal helps supporters manage their giving and stay connected to your organization. However, until now, it hasn't actively highlighted the campaigns and fundraising priorities that matter most to nonprofit teams.

We wanted to understand whether featuring an organization's active campaign directly in the Donor Portal could encourage more repeat giving. To test this, we added a campaign banner to the portal home page featuring the campaign's title, description, image, and a clear call-to-action. Selecting the banner took supporters directly to a donation experience tied to that campaign.

The goal was simple: make it easier for returning supporters to discover meaningful opportunities to give again.

Hypothesis

If we add a default-campaign banner to the Donor Portal home screen, conversion from a portal visit to a new donation will increase by 5%, because surfacing a specific campaign gives returning supporters a clearer and more compelling reason to give.

Test setup

Key results

• No statistically significant change in conversion from a Donor Portal visit to a new donation
• No statistically significant change in new donations, recurring giving, or revenue
• No negative trends were observed on any tracked metric

Conclusion

The hypothesis was not confirmed. The expected lift in conversion to a new donation did not appear, and highlighting a default campaign in the Donor Portal did not move conversion in either direction.

Just as importantly, the added upsell point caused no harm. No metric declined, and the donor experience held steady, confirming that a new element does no damage is a meaningful result in its own right.

Because the banner showed no measurable benefit, we won't be rolling it out. The current Donor Portal stays as it is, and any future in-portal recommendation would need a clearly different approach to earn its place.

What this means for you

The Donor Portal is a simple, low-friction place for supporters to manage their giving, update payment methods, and stay connected to your organization.

At the same time, it's a powerful opportunity to grow donor retention and generate additional revenue from supporters who already believe in your mission. That's why we're continuously testing new ways to help existing donors give again, discover new campaigns, and deepen their support.

→ Explore how the Donor Portal helps your supporters keep giving.