Breaking Out of the Status Quo

Learning from Politics: Building the Tools You Need

Monday was about a Republican technique; Wednesday was bipartisan; today will be a Democratic technique. Traditional voter registration techniques are shotgunned at best. Volunteers stand at malls, go to concerts, or go door-to-door in a neighborhood hoping to find people who aren’t registered. In looking at Texas, Erez Cohen, formerly of Mapsense and Apple Maps, […]

Learn More October 5, 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

Fundraisers I Fear: Part 3- Those Who Guess About Donors

In Fundraisers I Fear Part 1 and Part 2 I noted that two of the great handicaps facing many fundraisers is their inability to seek and determine reality while safely snuggled in a cocoon of self-belief and their ignorance of basic facts. The Third Fear, to complete this trilogy of traits that scare the hell out of me, is […]

Learn More September 28, 2018

How Can the DonorVoice Nudge Unit Help You?

Ok, so what can decision science do for you and your cause? The possibilities are limitless. In fact, there is a whole sub-field within the Decision-Making field dedicated to philanthropic behavior. From the widely known (but not widely practiced!) “identifiable victim effect” to the less known “unit asking”, Behavioral Science could make people feel […]

Learn More September 26, 2018

Introducing the DonorVoice Nudge Unit

What’s your biggest fundraising challenge? What did you set out to solve last year (or the year before, or the year before…) only to be facing it again in 2018? At last ! Behavioral scientists unite to solve your major fundraising problems. Why as a sector are we forever undermined by perennial problems like […]

Learn More September 24, 2018

The Essential Importance of First-Party Data

Nick just sounded the warning bell about the inaccuracy of third-party data. I want to follow up with a more fundamental question: Even if third-party data were more accurate, why would you want it? After all, looking at the Predictably Inaccurate study from Deloitte, when data-brokers had the data wrong and even when people found out […]

Learn More September 21, 2018

The Curious Case of Kimberly Ellinger

We have a phantom member of our family. When we moved into our first house, one of the people who sold us the house was Kimberly something-or-other. We immediately started getting mail for Kimberly Ellinger – her first name, our last. Our best guess is that a mailer assumed she got either married or divorced, […]

Learn More September 17, 2018

Fundraisers I Fear: Part 2– Insufficient Knowledge of Basic Information

In Part 1 I urged all of us to become “expert novices” –fundraisers who have knowledge and confidence but are capable of maintaining a seed of doubt that they may be wrong. Of course, the building blocks of knowledge, skepticism and curiosity must be stacked on top of the rock-solid granite foundation of fundamental fact. You […]

Learn More September 14, 2018

You saw my ad where?

The violinist played for almost an hour at DC’s L’Enfant Plaza at the height of morning rush hour. He cleared $32.17. This wouldn’t be remarkable except that the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the great classical masters who can normally command up to $1000 a minute for his playing. He was playing on a […]

Learn More September 12, 2018

The Fundraisers I Fear

The fundraisers who scare me the most are the ones who are convinced they’re right. Why? Because these are the folks most unlikely to ever change. It is their blind adherence to conviction and convention that endangers the future of their organizations. Unwilling to challenge the status quo of their own efforts they’re most likely to […]

Learn More September 10, 2018

Ask A Behavioral Scientist

Behavioral Science Q & A

Q:We are struggling with acquistion. During our biggest community campaign, a colleague is suggesting that we have a QR code directing donors to a donate page that does not capture donor information – just a donation and an email address. We won’t be able to post any of these new doors our lvoely newsletters, or thank you letters. We’ll likely never hear from them again. What’s the best method to get this team to see the importance about a donor vs a donation?

Thanks so much for raising this. Yes, capturing donor information can be helpful for stewardship like newsletters, thank-you letters, impact updates. But how you ask matters. Forcing full data capture introduces friction that can significantly depress conversion, many donors may simply abandon the process. Beyond the friction itself, required fields also shift the emotional experience […]

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Q: Should we include “Giving Tuesday” in the subject lines for the emails that are going out before Giving Tuesday?

Unlike holidays that everyone already knows, Giving Tuesday is a created event. Many donors recognize the name but not the exact timing, so referencing it becomes a helpful cue. It serves as a reminder and taps into social norm activation (“everyone’s giving today”), which boosts response. However, we still want it paired with the mission, […]

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Q: can we pull the match language into the subject lines? Or this should be an A/B test?

When a subject line leads with the match (“Your gift matched!”), it risks triggering market-norm thinking: the sense that giving is a financial transaction rather than an act rooted in values, identity, and care. This shift reduces intrinsic motivation and, over time, can weaken donor satisfaction and long-term engagement. It also makes the email indistinguishable […]

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Q: Our mid-level donor team removed the QR code from the DM donation form that links to the donation page, but have left the URL for them to type it in manually. Not sure why they are adding a barrier to the donation process for a higher value donor – but I have to ask – is there any proof – either way – if a QR donation code reduces MV online giving, has any effect on their donation amount, has any effect on off line donations? Thank you….

There’s no evidence that QR codes suppress mid-value giving; all available research suggests they either help or have no negative effect. In fact, behavioral and usability research consistently shows the opposite: reducing friction at any point in the donation process increases completion rates and total response. And that has nothing to do with capacity and […]

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Q: How can we effectively use behavioral science to help shift our Board’s mindset. The majority are extremely resistant to asking their networks or sharing their contact lists with us, even after a candid discussion with an external lay leader who has been training boards with her fantastic Fundraising isn’t the F Word! workshop. We have also offered to use our automated email tool to send their appeals from their own email. It is so frustrating. We even have 2 Board members and the chair trying put some accountability on them for our big event but people are not really moving!

What you’re experiencing is very common. Resistance often isn’t about capability, but about motivation quality. If board members feel pushed into fundraising, that triggers controlled motivation (low quality motivation) i.e. obligation, guilt, or fear of judgment, which often results in avoidance. Instead, we need to create conditions for volitional motivation (high quality motivation) by satisfying […]

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Q: Copywriters often argue the ask should appear on the first page, but that usually breaks the story in two. With a one-sided letter the ask is always on page one, but with a two-sided letter it may fall on the second page—do results differ? Has your appeal structure been tested on both one-sided and two-sided letters? I just read the article Your Appeal Outline: Thoughtful Strategy or Random Spasm?

That’s a really thoughtful question, and you’re not the first to raise it. Many of our clients have been cautious about placing the ask at the very end. To address their concern, we’ve tested both approaches, and the results are clear: when the ask comes last, even if that means it appears on the second […]

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