Reordered checkout with express pay increases gift completion
Background:
Checkout is the final, most critical step in the giving journey, and small changes in flow can meaningfully affect completion.
For high-intent donors, especially on mobile, leading with payment has traditionally worked well. Digital wallets like Apple Pay let these donors complete their gift in seconds. Delaying that moment adds friction and increases drop-off.
Other donors may need a more guided path. For new or lower-intent donors, entering payment details is a high-trust action. Asking for it too early can create hesitation. A step-by-step flow gives donors more context before they commit.
Your nonprofit’s data collection needs also matter. Avoiding required custom questions may support higher conversion, but checkout should continue to honor the steps that help you collect the information that matters most.
A more flexible checkout model may offer the strongest path forward. By supporting both high-intent donors and donors who need a more sequential experience, nonprofits can reduce friction, build trust, and protect critical data collection.
Hypothesis:
A dual-path checkout model that surfaces digital wallets first for high-intent mobile donors and moves credit card entry to the end for sequential donors will increase completion across donor audiences.
This approach will reduce friction for donors who are ready to give immediately while giving others more time to build confidence before entering payment details. By meeting donors where they are, nonprofits can help more people complete their gifts without sacrificing speed, trust, or essential data collection.
Design:
Control
- Checkout with payment as step 1
Test
+1.3%
- Reordered flow with express pay first
Results:
| Name | Control |  Challenger |
| Time to donate | Baseline | -8.5% |
| Conversion rate | Baseline | +1.3% |
Key learnings:
The dual-path checkout model delivered a 1.3% lift in conversion, confirming that a flexible flow can serve more donors more effectively than a single fixed sequence.
Surfacing express payments immediately for high-intent mobile donors, while guiding sequential donors through a trust-building flow before asking for payment, reduced friction without compromising the experience for donors who need more time. Donors also completed their gifts 8.5% faster.
The results validate that meeting donors where they are, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all checkout order, is a meaningful way to improve gift completion.
So what? With a confirmed +1.3% conversion lift, payment moves to the last step for all Studio campaigns. Campaigns without required custom questions will also get express payment options up front, giving each campaign the most optimized checkout when that’s the priority, and leaving room to collect the information that matters most when needed.
Test period: May 2026 to June 2026