Last week, I wrote about the state of mind of today’s consumer as reported by Business Week in The New Abnormal, and why fundraisers should study basic consumer research.

As The New Abnormal said: “Americans are broke and depressed — and also swilling $3 lattes and waiting in lines for iPhones. Welcome to the schizophrenic economy.”

Well here’s another fascinating article about today’s consumer psychology. This one from the NY Times, titled: But Will It Make You Happy?

The main insights of this article are:

1. That a permanent downsizing of consumer appetites might be occurring; and,
2. That today’s consumers are far more interested in buying “experiences” than “things” or “possessions.”

Personally, I’m not so sure about the first point, although a whole lot less material consumption by us “haves” would benefit the planet.

However, the second point strikes a chord. The article looks at research into what kind of spending makes people happy:

“Current research suggests that, unlike consumption of material goods, spending on leisure and services typically strengthens social bonds, which in turn helps amplify happiness. (Academics are already in broad agreement that there is a strong correlation between the quality of people’s relationships and their happiness; hence, anything that promotes stronger social bonds has a good chance of making us feel all warm and fuzzy.)”

Commenting on  the preference for buying experiences, another researcher comments that people are “more interested in creating memories” than accumulating things.

For fundraisers, the challenge is how to create that sense of “experiencing” your cause or organization and its mission or work. Three suggestions, all relatively pedestrian … improve upon them if you can:

1. This is the simplest of all — use images, and choose them well, not as an afterthought or space-filler. This is a direct way of transporting your donor to what your organization is doing and where. Think in terms of putting your donor at your side. The best at this are the child sponsorship charities. And of course, online, this means using video.

2. Encourage face-to-face events and encounters between your organization and your donors, as well as amongst your donors. Obviously this is far easier for locally-focused nonprofits and organizations with a “chapter” structure, but every organization should give it a go. Remember MeetUp.com? It currently facilitates 250,000 gatherings per month.

3. Use the social nets and the opportunities they provide for: a) donors/members to know and engage one another directly around an affinity they have in common — your cause; and b) enabling friend-to-friend fundraising (which often occurs around tangible events … i.e., experiences).

How else can you create experiences for your donors? And not just the six-figure donors!

Tom