Making it easier for donors to give is a fantastic technical success story.
In the span of 25 years we have gone from a process that has taken days (even weeks) by giving through snail mail (with actual reply envelopes, paper checks, and live stamps), to almost instantaneous one-click, electronic giving on mobile devices.
There is no question transacting the giving process has become less time-consuming and relatively frictionless.
On the other hand, as our friends at Giving USA Foundation report, the number of Americans who give each year is steadily declining, and, collectively, we have never been able to push individual giving totals as a share of personal income much past 2%.
Perhaps, as a discipline, the time has come for us to be as persistent and creative with encouraging people to care as we have been with making the gift giving process easier and more convenient.
