Many who work in and with nonprofits are drawn to an organization’s mission and values, to make the world better or to serve a cause. Nonprofits have websites to get people excited about and involved in the work, and to inspire donations and volunteers.

In the effort to engage people, fundraisers will often ask web developers and designers to copy user experience (UX) designs that are commonly found on the websites of huge corporations. These include popup donation forms, time-delayed modal overlay windows that interrupt reading with messages like “Join our newsletter!,” dense and unreadable privacy policies, one-button cookie “consent” popups, and hidden unsubscribe links at the bottom of emails.

And these patterns do sometimes seem to result in more donations, more newsletter sign-ups, and so on.

There’s research, however, that shows that people hate these UX patterns. Many of them are built on coercive advertising techniques that impinge on people’s focus, wear them down, and can drive them away from your digital communications for good. If you’ve ever gone to a site to read an article and left because you felt bombarded with notifications, then you know how this feels.

In using aggressive techniques that fail to respect site visitors’ time, attention, and privacy, you might be getting a fleeting reward of more newsletter signups, but they might be rife with fake addresses or high unsubscribe rates. Increased donations may consist of small, one-time gifts. If you’re not also measuring who you’re driving away from your site, then you’re not getting the whole picture.

Everyone is so used to these patterns that they can be hard to see. That’s when it can be useful to evaluate your site’s UX using a lens of consent. The Consentful Tech Project (ConsentfulTech.io) takes the Planned Parenthood definition of consent, defined by the acronym “FRIES,” and applies it to technology. This thinking builds on their work to further refine these concepts to focus specifically on website UX. Let’s use FRIES to look at the common patterns mentioned above.

If UX is designed to exploit users’ biological state of attention for your own ends, wearing them down when they’re already juggling other stresses, that attention is not freely given.

Pop-ups and modals: These are nearly ubiquitous on the web, yet Nielsen Norman Group research shows that users hate these patterns. They are so onerous on mobile screens that Google quietly announced in 2016 that there would be penalties to SEO (search engine optimization) rankings of sites that use them. Why use them if users hate them so much? Sometimes they do seem to get more donations and signups. But, at what cost?

I love these memes on social media. “How it started. How it’s going.” places two images side-by-side, simply showing the passage of time (or sometimes, the lack thereof). Many times, these images poke fun at a before-and-after moment. Some are poignant, charting the course of a relationship. My favorites are the pet memes — cute puppies come home (How it started) and then puppies doing not-so-cute things like getting in the garbage (How it’s going). 

How it started. How it’s going. It’s also the perfect concept to use when I speak about United Way.

Crisis then. Crisis now. 

How it started. United Way began as an innovative idea to unite a community’s philanthropy to support relief agencies, especially those serving the basic needs of adults and children who were stricken with and affected by tuberculosis — the major health emergency during the late 19th century. By 1918, the United Way movement spread to Indianapolis, and the city’s civic and corporate leaders raised millions of dollars in one campaign on the steps of Monument Circle to support those vulnerable to crisis – especially in the height of a world war and the deadly flu epidemic. 

How it’s going. Today, United Way is proud to play a pivotal role in our community’s emergency response to the health and economic effects of COVID-19. In partnership with trusted funding partners Lilly Endowment, Central Indiana Community Foundation, Richard M Fairbanks Foundation, Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and Lilly Corporate Foundation, we raised money for the first-of-its-kind economic relief fund to provide food, housing supports, childcare and mental health services in our community. United Way convened direct service organizations all across our region to problem solve in the face of emerging and unpredictable challenges, make safety improvements to facilities during the pandemic, and to upgrade technology for our “new virtual normal.” 

Back then, United Way was made to respond to crisis, and today, it still rings true. 

Central Indiana Land Trust is seeking volunteers for creek cleanup at Oliver's Woods Nature Preserve on Aug. 25 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Join other volunteers in restoring this nature preserve along the White River. More information and RSVP

The Arthritis Foundation is seeking event-day volunteers for the 2021 Bone Bash gala on Sept. 17 at the Black Iris Estate in Carmel. Volunteer needs include set up, registration, greeting, silent auction table, auction and tear down. Contact Sandra Mesner smessner@arthritis.org

Girls Rock! Indianapolis is seeking board members with experience in finance, fundraising, grant writing, or nonprofit governance experience. Board members are expected to attend one monthly meeting and be available for periodic communications via Slack. Contact Marissa Smith Kenny marissa@girlsrockindy.org

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