Client Story: How The American Foundation for the Blind Uses EveryAction Donation Forms to Increase Accessibility and Fundraising

Background

The mission of the American Foundation for the Blind is to create a world of no limits for people who are blind or visually impaired. Since 1921, AFB has been a leader in expanding possibilities for the nearly 25 million Americans living with vision loss. A national nonprofit, they champion access and equality, and stand at the forefront of new technologies and evidence-based advocacy. They address the most pressing needs of people with vision loss and their families, breaking down societal barriers and promoting broad systemic change. Like Helen Keller, AFB’s most famous ambassador, they are committed to creating a more equitable world for people with disabilities. 

K2D Strategies works exclusively with nonprofits making the world a better place through a simple goal: deliver impactful member and donor development strategies and provide extraordinary client services. Their services include full-service integrated direct response fundraising program management, direct mail program management, digital program management, and program assessment and audits.

The Accessibility Challenge for Fundraising 

The American Foundation for the Blind’s direct response fundraising program has demonstrated steady growth year over year, and organizational priorities pushed growth in the digital space to the forefront. 

These priorities aligned as AFB came onto the EveryAction platform in early 2019, to take advantage of a unified CRM, high converting donation and sign-up pages, a reliable email platform, and other digital tools that would support their fundraising and programmatic priorities.  

Critical both to AFB’s fundraising success and for maintaining trust as a leading organization on the accessibility front was the requirement that all donation forms be fully accessible to meet the needs of people who are blind or visually impaired. 

The EveryAction Solution 

EveryAction worked with AFB and its consulting partner K2D Strategies to develop accessibility features for the EveryAction platform, allowing for a fully accessible online experience for donors who are blind or visually impaired. 

The EveryAction product development team worked collaboratively with American Foundation for the Blind and K2D Strategies to implement accessibility improvements on the EveryAction platform. This included the development of accessible navigation options on donation forms, including the use of tabbed navigation between ask amounts.

Karin Kirchoff at K2D Strategies noted that these accessibility features produced strong fundraising results, saying, “We are pleased to have seen such strong fundraising growth this year, particularly at year-end within the digital space, doubling the dollars raised for this period. We are further excited to note that of the donors who gave through the EveryAction platform in December 2019, more than 70% represent first-time gifts on the platform. We’re really excited that EveryAction has made a strong commitment to accessibility for people who are blind or low vision.” 

To learn more about increasing accessibility for your nonprofit’s digital platforms, download our Digital Accessibility Guide!