Problem

Following the launch of UT MD Anderson’s philanthropy storytelling platform, Only Possible Here, which I helped guide the UX design of, some of my colleagues and I noticed a significant decline in traffic to the new site.

As I was brainstorming why this may be, it occurred to me that the prominent “Donate Today” button in the primary navigation of MDAnderson.org was sending users directly to the donation form, bypassing the new storytelling experience entirely.

This created a tension between two organizational goals:

• Drive donations from users ready to give immediately.
• Increase engagement with the new philanthropy platform designed to build awareness, trust, and emotional connection with MD Anderson’s mission.

The challenge was determining how to support both goals without negatively impacting fundraising performance.

Insight

Not all visitors arriving at a donation call-to-action have the same intent.

Some visitors arrive ready to donate and want the shortest possible path to completing a gift.

Others need more context before making a decision. They may want to understand how donations are used, read patient and donor stories, or learn more about the impact of philanthropy at MD Anderson.

By forcing all users into a single path, the experience failed to account for these differing motivations.

Hypothesis

I proposed that giving users a choice between donating immediately and learning more about philanthropy would better align the experience with donor intent.

Rather than treating every visitor as donation-ready, the navigation could serve as a decision point, allowing users to self-select the path most relevant to their needs.

We hypothesized that this approach would:

• Improve the quality of traffic entering the donation funnel.
• Increase engagement with the Only Possible Here platform.
• Maintain or improve fundraising outcomes despite adding an additional decision point.

Solution

I partnered with stakeholders to develop and test a new navigation experience for the Donate Today call-to-action.

The existing experience linked directly to the donation form. In the proposed experience, hovering over the Donate Today button opened a menu that provided two clear options:

• Donate now
• Learn about the impact of philanthropy through Only Possible Here

I mentored a UX trainee through the design process, helping shape the interaction model and user experience while ensuring alignment with business objectives.

To validate the concept, we launched an A/B test and monitored donation behavior, revenue, and engagement across both experiences over several months.

Results

The test experience generated meaningful improvements across multiple metrics:

• 15% increase in donation completion rate
• 45% increase in donation revenue
• 48% increase in average donation amount
• Approximately 1,300 additional sessions to Only Possible Here

Perhaps most notably, introducing an additional decision point did not reduce overall donation performance. Instead, it appeared to improve donor qualification and intent, resulting in substantially higher average gift amounts and significantly greater fundraising revenue.

Why It Mattered

This project challenged a common assumption that removing choices always improves conversion.

The results demonstrated that supporting user decision-making can create better outcomes than pushing every visitor through the shortest possible path.

By helping users choose the experience that best matched their goals, we simultaneously increased engagement with a strategic philanthropy initiative and generated substantially more donation revenue.

The project reinforced a core UX principle: understanding user intent often creates more value than simply optimizing for clicks.