Matching Gifts - Agitator

Breaking Out of the Status Quo

Will Your #GivingTuesday Campaign Drown In A Sea of Sameness?

December 3rd marks the seventh anniversary of GivingTuesday which has grown from an idea spawned at the 92ndStreet Y in New York City has grown into a global movement involving thousands of organizations and millions of donors and is now its own organization. So far in its 7 years GivingTuesday’s organizers claim the event has […]

Learn More November 22, 2019

Behavioral Science Tips for #GivingTuesday and Year-End

The other day a Tweet from Aimee Vance (@NPOfriend) caught my eye with the question: End of Year Goal Thermometer on the donation page. Yea? Nay? What say ye? The string of replies were all over the lot: “Depends”….”Hard NAY—unless the volunteers/board helping meet the goal have it as part of their culture already. We […]

Learn More November 15, 2019

Buy Nick’s Book

Nick has written a practical, helpful, and, yes, fun-to-read book on surviving the complex calamity of diminishing donor numbers, clogged acquisition channels and diminishing retention. It’s titled: The New Nonprofit: Six Models to Raise More Money and Accomplish More Mission. It’s just been released and is ready for your order! I’ve read the book four times […]

Learn More August 22, 2019

Becoming a Lifetime Value Hedgehog

Isaiah Berlin grouped thinkers into: Hedgehogs: like the hedgehog that has one strategy – curl up into a ball – these thinkers have a single defining idea Foxes: those who go wide and employ a variety of strategies. Sixty-six years of debate later, there’s no definitive argument for which style is better. What I’ll argue, […]

Learn More January 28, 2019

Email Deliverability Part 2: The Impact of Mad Libs Fundraising

Let’s play Mad Libs to illustrate why many email appeals have a deliverability — and performance — problem. We will need: An urgency phrase, like “Act now”, “Ends at midnight”, “Last chance”, “The clock is ticking”, “Deadline”, etc A whole number between 2 to 5 inclusive A reference to what happens at New Year’s, like “the […]

Learn More January 14, 2019

4 Behavioral Science Tips for #GivingTuesday

Are you ready for #GivingTuesday? Having recently reviewed a bunch of #GivingTuesday emails from different charities I’m sure as a sector we can do better. As a behavioral scientist, three observations stood out. The majority of nonprofits are using a match offer for #GivingTuesday. I won’t argue against such an offer here. We’ve covered […]

Learn More October 23, 2018

Mid-Term Palette Cleanser

The mid-term elections in the U.S. can’t come—and go– soon enough as far as I’m concerned. I’m sick and tired of the incessant parade of tv spots warning that unless I vote Republican the liberal mob, reinforced by a caravan of dangerous immigrants somewhere south of the Border will destroy jobs and turn us all […]

Learn More October 22, 2018

RESEARCH UPDATE: Making Your Match Less Bad

I’m temporarily giving up. We’ve talked about how: Lead gifts work better than matches Lead gifts work waaaaaay better than matches when you can use the lead gift to cover overhead per Gneezy and colleagues Challenges also work better than matches Matches only work for active donors – they have no impact or negative impact […]

Learn More September 6, 2018

Pairing metrics for fun and (non)profit

On Tuesday, I talked about how Simpson’s paradox means you shouldn’t use just overall retention as a metric. Rather, you want to pair it with subgroup metrics so someone doesn’t achieve their retention goals by cutting off acquisition. I’ll generalize from that. As Newton would have said if he were a direct marketer, each metric […]

Learn More June 22, 2018

Agitator Cliff Notes: “The Why Axis”

Next up is The Why Axis, by Uri Gneezy and John List, two of the community of economists who work on charitable giving. Roger had already covered one item I had noted back in 2013: that 1:1 matches work just as well as 2:1 or 3:1 matches. And I talked about how people give more […]

Learn More May 23, 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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Breaking Out of the Status Quo

Will Your #GivingTuesday Campaign Drown In A Sea of Sameness?

Behavioral Science Tips for #GivingTuesday and Year-End

Buy Nick’s Book

Becoming a Lifetime Value Hedgehog

Email Deliverability Part 2: The Impact of Mad Libs Fundraising

4 Behavioral Science Tips for #GivingTuesday

Mid-Term Palette Cleanser

RESEARCH UPDATE: Making Your Match Less Bad

Pairing metrics for fun and (non)profit

Agitator Cliff Notes: “The Why Axis”

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?

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?

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?

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?

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

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