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Donor Identity

If You’re Good at Something Does it Matter More?

Teachers were asked by their school district to complete a survey.  The experiment was a 2×2 design (one of our faves): The result?  A nothingburger.  No difference in survey participation between A-D, randomly assigned groups. To quote Paul Harvey, “And now for the rest of the story.” Researchers noticed a difference in survey participation on […]

Learn More August 24, 2022

Biases and Nudges Work Differently for Different People

Do we sound like a broken record?  People are different and yet we treat them all the same. I’m desperate to understand why this is as it’s been this way a long time and maybe that’s both the issue and the reason.   A long time means a lot of well-worn habits and resistance to change […]

Learn More June 3, 2022

Ask Amounts: $.99 and Upgrading

We wrote last week about the allure of $.99 pricing in the consumer world and argued for testing with $.99’s in the ask string. The best test is appending education to your file (cheap, quick and easy) as proxy for numeracy,  and having a split test since more numerate and less numerate people process prices […]

Learn More May 4, 2022

Fundraisers Are Not In The Persuasion Business

Our business is fundraising.  We try to get folks to engage in helping behavior, giving and doing.  We are not in the persuasion business. If we were,  we’d be out of business.  As Jack Trout, famous ad man said, “if the job is to persuade people, don’t accept the job.” Our job is to meet […]

Learn More May 2, 2022

Do Neighbors Always Get the Same Direct Mail?

Bob and Bill are neighbors in Anytown, USA.  They’re the same age, race, income and both are married with 2 kids and a dog. They both give to the same NationalCharity.org and the same localfoodbank/mission/animalshelter.org and with an identical RFM profile. Do they get the same direct mail piece?  100% of the time.  Why?  Are […]

Learn More April 6, 2022

Back to Normal

Covid changed everything.  For a little while. The prognosticators claiming otherwise were seemingly trying to outdo one another with their hyperbolic goobly gook.   Here is one such hot-take, “that one can talk about a global synchronisation of human behaviour establishing a completely new, universal change of consumer patterns.”   Uh, yeah, whatever. A nod to Mark […]

Learn More March 25, 2022

How to Have More Winning Tests?

Stop designing tests assuming everyone’s the same.  99.9% of tests are of this variety, the random nth, A/B test. Hidden in many “losing” test results is a test idea that worked for some people and not others. Here are results of an experiment with donations going to World Vision and prospective donors randomly split into […]

Learn More June 18, 2021

Personality and The Words You Use

The University of Cambridge has a demo app predicting your personality on the Big Five based on word usage vis-a-vis your social media accounts. It’s quite accurate on seemingly very little data – I only linked to my infrequently used and only in a professional capacity, Twitter account.  You’d think that’d be a biased sample […]

Learn More June 2, 2021

The Case for Netflix-ing Your Fundraising

Netflix’s ‘Play Something” feature is a roulette wheel selecting among algorithmically personalized shows the service thinks you might like. Why did Netflix develop it?  Because their subscribers often experience a certain amount of anxiety and mental pain from choosing among the seemingly endless and growing choices.  This is a user experience problem that translates to […]

Learn More May 26, 2021

Science of the Supporter Experience Summer Series

This Free Summer Series is brought to you by DonorVoice, the Behavioral Science Fundraising Agency, register here. Are you ready to come out of lockdown? Not personally (who isn’t?), but professionally? Will your pre-pandemic plan do, or could you benefit from a re-think? If you’re open to re-thinking and re-imagining your fundraising you’ll want to […]

Learn More May 24, 2021

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Ask A Behavioral Scientist

    Behavioral Science Q & A

    Q: As a designer who works with non-profits on fundraising strategy, I see the language like the following: “Our supporters help empower every girl, ensuring she has the resources she needs.” I do not think the word “help” is useful–I think “Our supporters empower every girl, ensuring she has the resources she needs. ” is much more engaging. Thoughts?

    Whether “help” is more engaging or not really depends on the framing and context. The word help can sometimes weaken the perceived agency of the supporter, making their role feel secondary rather than central (your point). On the other hand, help can also signal collaboration rather than implying full ownership of the outcome, which might […]

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    Q: We started offering a donor cover option last april 1. The data to date suggests this may be dampening giving.eg. those who say yes to donor cover have a lower average gift (based on analysis of 6000+ gifts). I’m wondering if those who give lower gifts feel more guilt and therefore say yes to donor cover or if the presence of donor cover is making people adjust (lower) their gift size to accommodate the extra 3%. Would love any insights you have.

    Great question! Here’s how behavioral science can help unpack what might be happening: Pain of Paying: Even a small extra charge can make giving feel more transactional than emotional, potentially reducing generosity. Fairness Concerns: Some donors might perceive donor cover as a surcharge rather than a contribution to the cause. If they feel the charity […]

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    Q: When writing an appeal, I waffle back and forth between writing “Your gift CAN…” or “Your gift WILL…” Any studies of which of these two words is best for an appeal?

    The choice between “Your gift CAN…” and “Your gift WILL…” taps into the psychological framing of certainty vs. possibility. Currently, there is no academic research directly comparing these two framings in charitable appeals. However, I suspect no framing is universally better—the outcome likely depends on your target audience and the campaign’s goal. Here are some thoughts: Certainty Framing – […]

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    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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