Advocacy Fundraising

Fund for the Widow of the Unknown Soldier

While preparing a follow-up post to Nick’s Two Identity Tests You Can Run I was reminded that not only is “donor identity”—the core reason for a person’s giving– powerful, but that it can also be powerfully misused. Nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to money raising for unethical or scam charities and scam […]

Learn More March 13, 2019

Poor Year-End Giving: Reasons or Excuses?

It’s clear from the moaning and groaning reaching our Agitator ears that, for many, year-end giving fell short of expectations and projections. Just how much off the mark? Results vary but overall the shortfall may be as much as 25% for some organizations. For others there was no shortfall, and, in fact, 2018 year-end exceeded 2017 totals. […]

Learn More January 9, 2019

Better to Be At the Table Than On the Menu

The likelihood of increased privacy and data regulation of nonprofits in the U.S. is not a question of “whether”, but “when” and “how onerous.” The gathering storm over real and imagined abuses by Facebook, Google and other big tech platforms will unleash a downpours of concern, finger-pointing and political grandstanding in the new Congress that […]

Learn More December 10, 2018

Give to Get: The Need for a New Acquisition Model

Mail list rental and exchange is diminishing in effectiveness. How can we tell? There’s the anecdotal: the number of people requesting no rental or exchange in feedback surveys is rising. And many charities are seeing their acquisition results wane. There’s the studied: researchers looked at people who get more charitable mail solicitations in a study […]

Learn More December 3, 2018

How to Lose

Geoffrey: My you chivalric fool… as if the way one fell down mattered. Richard: When the fall is all there is, it matters. – The Lion in Winter We have chosen a losing profession. We choose to face down the most powerful. We choose to comfort the poor, one of whose most powerful advocates said […]

Learn More November 14, 2018

Learning from Politics: Chip In Change for Change

You’ve seen the headlines: “Americans more divided than ever”, “Gridlock reaching threat level crimson, which is worse than red somehow”, and “Pelosi-McConnell West-Side-Story-style dancing knife fight leaves two dead; four injured.” The two major parties here in the United States seemingly can’t agree on anything. But here’s a ray of hope. They can agree on […]

Learn More October 3, 2018

Learning from Politics: Hypertargeting

This week, we’ll look at some of the lessons we in the nonprofit world can learn from those in the political world. Wait! Don’t leave! There are lessons we can take from the political realm because they, like we, exist on donations. Imagine if, in November, your nonprofit was going to either win or lose: accomplish […]

Learn More October 1, 2018

Commitment vs Engagement

At first blush the terms “donor commitment” and “donor engagement” sound similar. After all, is it not a truth universally acknowledged, that a loyal donor in possession of strong commitment, must also want to be engaged beyond beyond their donation? No! It is possible to be committed to an organization, but not engaged with that […]

Learn More August 7, 2018

Celebrating Dissent

This photo of my grandsons Jalen (at left) and Zachary (in the “kiddie cage” at right) joining the national protest against the Trump Administration’s separation of migrant families made me more than proud. It serves as assurance that the gene of dissent has successfully made its way to the next generation. I wanted to share […]

Learn More July 4, 2018

Rage Donations: Give Before You Explode!

Trump’s politically-inspired human rights horror show featuring state-sponsored kidnapping of refugee children and the torture-by-trauma of their imprisoned parents has triggered a tsunami of rage –and rage giving — worth noting, As was the case after the president’s announcement of the Muslim Ban and his other post-election actions, a flood of responses –financial and in-kind– […]

Learn More June 25, 2018

Ask A Behavioral Scientist

Behavioral Science Q & A

Q: Do you have any insight on whether integrating an individual giving appeal with other comms from the charity in both appearance and messaging can uplift results? Or does the actual appeal become ‘lost’ for lack of stand-out?

Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]

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Q: Is there any research on response rate impact in direct mail when referring to a sustainer gift as ongoing or recurring (catching all frequencies) v. monthly or annual?

I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]

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Q: A major conservation nonprofit sends me lots of mail, many of which have on the envelope “time to renew” or “2nd notice.” I find this practice deceptive, especially as I haven’t given to said organization since 1997. It must be effective or they wouldn’t do it. But is it ethical?

Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]

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Q: I find it irritating when some nonprofits accept my “gift” and then ask me to cover their credit card fees separately. It feels like a practice that does nothing to help win donors and runs the risk of turning others off. Is there any data on this either way?

Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]

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Q: What are the three most important things to consider when designing a brilliant supporter journey?

There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]

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Q: Is there any evidence that changes to the tax laws in the USA changed end of year giving behaviors? Previously, ~30% of US taxpayers filed itemized tax returns allowing them to receive a deduction for charitable giving. Tax law changed in 2017 so that now only ~10% itemize. This should mean tax year-end giving should not matter to millions of people for whom it used to matter. Is there any data evidence to support this?

I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]

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