Setting Up Donor Supported Tiers in MediaOS

There are many ways to lead to revenue from readership, while traditional subscriptions have dominated the market for quite some time - several of our clients are seeing success by basing their reader revenue off of donations. These recurring or one-time donations are a great way for your readership to feel involved in your mission. MediaOS Enabled Websites make this even easier to setup and manage through our Donation Widget. The Donation Widget is a feature found in the Engagements portion of MediaOS. This allows users to donate to the organization of the site. See the image below. This guide outlines how to set up donor-supported tiers in MediaOS, enabling a donation engagement widget for your platform.

Step 1: Set up Memberships and Products #

Before configuring donation tiers, ensure that your Memberships are set up. Once memberships are in place, navigate to Sales > Offers to create the necessary donation-based products

Step 2: Configure Offer Packages #

• When setting up an offer package, select, "Custom Pricing" to allow donors to contribute variable amounts.
  • For One Time Supporters:
    • Ensure Auto-Renewal is disabled to prevent recurring charges
    • Set up the Membership Length for 30 days (recommended). This ensures that donation requests stop for 30 days and resume after the period ends.
    • Set the base price at 1$. The Customer override option allows donors to contribe more if they wish.
  • For Monthly and Yearly Donation:
    • Follow the same set up process, ensuring that donors have the flexibility to choose their contribution levels. Make sure auto renew is Enabled.

Step 3: Create an Audience for Active Supporters #

• To track active donors, create an audience segment called "Active Supporters".
  • Go to Audience Settings under the websites tab and create a new segment
  • Define the segment using Membership Attributes:
    • Membership type: supporter of your (site's name)
  • This setup ensures that all active donaors on a specific plan are grouped together

Step 4: Set up the Engagement Widget #

• 1. Navigate to Websites > Engagement and create a new template
• 2. Example template text: "National News Won't Cover Local Stores: Donate to Support"
• 3. Customize the template as you wish, adding padding, button that leads to your support page, etc.

Step 5: Add the Engagement Widget to Newsletters #

1. 1. Open your Newsletter Editor
2. 2. Click "Add Block" and select "Engagement Page"
3. 3. Choose the Engagement Template your created
4. 4. Define the audience visibility settings- you can hide this engagement from current donors to avoid redundant asks.

Step 6: Add the Engagement Widget as a Footer #

• If you want the Engagement widget to appear as a footer on articles, follow these steps:
  • Navigate to Websites > Engagements > Display Rules
  • Create a new Display Rule with a descriptive title, such as "Donation Article Footer"
  • Edit the display rule with the following settings:
    • Placement: Only on Posts (not pages or other content types)
    • Visibility: Set up to All Visitors except for those with an active membership
    • Exclusion: Under "No Active Membership", select your supporter audience so the widget does not appear for existing donors
    • Restriction Type: Immediate
  • See the example image below for Reference
  • Click Save

By Applying these steps, you'll successfully implement donor-supported tiers in MediaOS, allowing for effective engagement with potential and existing customers!