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WAMU, a public radio station in Washington, DC, thought it was on the right track when it redesigned its Web site last year.

Two years in the making, the site featured consistent branding and a heavy focus on news stories and programming. Not wanting to interrupt the content with appeals during fundraising periods, it limited them to certain areas on the home page -- for example, a red bar on the top of the page, indicating how much had been raised and how much was still needed, and buttons in a few locations.

But that may have been the wrong approach. Online donations recently fell by 3%, said Frank Hamilton, senior Web producer for the NPR station. And while there is no scientific proof as to the cause, Hamilton thinks he knows the reason.

"We gave them the option to not donate," he said, speaking during the Direct Marketing Association's Nonprofit Conference. "It's so different from what we did before. It might have been one of our problems."

In contrast, he pointed to the station's old site. "Instead of having information about programming, there was just a clear understanding that something different was going on," he said. The theme was "a continuing tradition."

But WAMU has learned its lesson. While it will keep the new site, it will keep this experience in mind during the next fundraising cycle.