Back in January, I talked about how Facebook set up donation processing for nonprofits.  I’d largely advised not using the service, because Facebook controls the donor and the donor relationship.

And there’s news!  No, silly; it’s not that Facebook has rethought its policy and is giving us more donor data.  When there is a sentence involving the phrase “give data”, Facebook vastly prefers to be the direct object (“give Facebook data”) or the object of the preposition (“give data to Facebook”) than the subject (“Facebook gives data”).

It’s that Google now has the same policy of giving you donations, but not donors.

You can now sign up for Google Search Donations, so a donate button shows up next to your organization when it is searched for.

On the one hand, this is super convenient.  You talk about trying to minimize the steps to donate on your site– this is zero.  They don’t even have to come to your site.  It’s also free.

On the other hand, all the previous concerns with Facebook come up.  On its FAQ, Google says:

“Will I receive donor contact information?  No. At this time, Google does not share user contact information with Google for Nonprofits organizations. We recognize that this is an important component of the relationship between nonprofits and donors, and are considering how to strengthen this in the future.”

Which makes me think I want to embrace this in the future.  The lifetime value of a $20 donor acquired any other way is more than $20 – I have a chance to turn this person into a long-time donor.  The lifetime value of a $20 donor acquired through Google Search Donations is $20.

And there’s the fact that the person thinks they are donating to you, but they aren’t.  They are donating to Network for Good, which functions as a donor-advised fund to send you the money.  This is disclosed to the donor the same way the undercoating fee is disclosed to you on a used car.

So let’s say a donor calls you up at the end of the year and says they need a new receipt for their $100 donation.  You don’t see it in your database.  You tell them they didn’t make any such donation to you.  You will be right.  And that fact will not do you one bit of good to your justifiably irate donor.

Additionally, if someone gets a mail piece, sees a DRTV spot, or spots you in the world doing good and searches for you, you are doing acquisition for Google.  Like they need the help.

In a world where we need to go deeper with our donors, the last thing we need is another way to have a transaction with no relationship.

Or so I think.  What do you think?  Has anyone experimented with this?

Nick