Don’t Make it Hard for Me to Give You My Money

I am often amazed at how companies and people make it hard to donate or buy goods and services. Take this example, from my experience this week:

A monumental endeavor was underway in Pittsburgh to offer donors matching funds one one day, for a 30 minute window. I’m in! I love stuff like this. Great marketing. Great buzz. Get people excited. And, a good way to promote giving- particularly as we embark on the holidays and charities are feeling a squeeze. Great set up.

Ok. So, I do all of my homework ahead of time. I picked my charity. I created my sign on. I put in on my calendar.

I sat at my work station 10 minutes before the big event waiting…. I signed on and at 2 minutes past the hour I made my sizable donation. My donation, by the way, will serve as my holiday giving it its entirely. I decided to donate all of my usual holiday spending rather than buy gifts few will even remember next year.

Here’s where the trouble comes in. I signed on minutes before the big event to be ahead of the game. I made my donation on the minute that the match was to begin. But, I never got a confirmation that my donation was matched. I did get a confirmation and receipt of my donation but no sign that it was in fact matched, which was the whole reason for giving via this particular site on this day and time. Otherwise, I would have walked it to my charity of choice and avoided the 5% processing fee.

I emailed the host site/organization (not my charity) asking how donors would know that their contributions were matched.

I got a response apologizing for my frustration (I wasn’t frustrated, just curious, at this point) for not being able to sign in (not my question).

I emailed them again, highlighting that their response didn’t match my question. I successfully signed in and donated. I was just wondering how we’d know for sure our money was matched.

I got a response telling me that they couldn’t access my private credit card information and I’d have to speak to another agency about that. (again, not my question)

Bottom Line: I’ll never donate using that methods, site, and organization again. Simple.

The Red Flags: They didn’t have a good system in place to finish the game (people want to know they WON a match by signing on early and donating in minutes). Further, they didn’t read the emails sent to them by donors well enough to offer an accurate or thoughtful response. And, they tried to pass me on to another agency entirely. Bad. Bad. Bad.

What I’ll do next time: Hand deliver my check to my charity of choice and look for other more reliable matching methods.

Companies Beware: You need to make it easy for people to give you their money. If you hype something up and make it a game, follow through with the hype and let them know they are a winner! Who wants to run a race and not know where they placed?!

And, take the extra time to READ the emails your customers send you and then respond. If not, you’ll lose your customers, as is the case here.