Nonprofit management - Agitator

Breaking Out of the Status Quo

The Fastest Way to Perfect Supporter Satisfaction

Q: What’s the fastest way to get perfect supporter satisfaction ratings? A: Have all your dissatisfied supporters leave and never come back. If that isn’t your preferred option, you might be interested in another. If so, mark your calendar: 4th November, 10am EST, Webinar on Donor Satisfaction. Kevin and I will share a new and […]

Learn More October 27, 2021

Quantifying the Donor Experience At Scale

What gets measured gets managed. How many brands out there are regularly measuring donor experience? How many people read that last sentence and aren’t even sure what it means? You’d be excused, hell you’d be applauded, since donor experience is thrown around ad nauseam with little or no practical definition, much less linkage to fundraising […]

Learn More October 13, 2021

A Win for Old School Economics

Economics has been called the dismal science for decades. The somewhat newer slight (still decades old) led to the birth of Behavioral Economics whose guardians believe stodgy, old, Econ 101 principles of supply and demand and rational actors making rational cost/benefit choices fails to explain reality. Some of that’s true though the BE truthers out […]

Learn More October 11, 2021

Taking Advantage of Donor Loyalty, the Donor-Centered Way

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported that revenue from online donations grew more than 15 percent in 2020 Before the coronavirus outbreak, revenue from one-time online donors had declined by 1% from 2019 to 2020. Presumably, the increase is attributable to the fact that because of the pandemic nonprofits moved the bulk of their fundraising […]

Learn More October 8, 2021

Fundraising’s Silver Bullet

In the nonprofit world where 7 out of 10 newly acquired donors will not give to that organization again, you’d think fundraisers and CEOs would be tripping over themselves to gain ANY insight on what they could be doing to hold on to supporters by improving donor experiences. The commercial world figured out the value […]

Learn More August 20, 2021

The Power of Giving Circles

A wise fundraiser constantly searches for new grass. Not ‘new’ in the sense of moving on to a new position. Not necessarily “greener” in terms of a richer lode of donors. But certainly “new” in terms of sources and approaches to giving beyond the conventional landscape on which most fundraisers graze. As we recently warned, […]

Learn More August 11, 2021

Who’s in the Behavior Business? Charity Program Staff or Fundraisers?

Are you in the behavior business? Or does this task fall to your program staff? There is a growing paradox in charitable organizations between how the program staff and fundraising are (or are not) rethinking their most intractable problems. The former is realizing they’re in the behavior business. Behavior can be described, predicted or understood. […]

Learn More August 6, 2021

Gender, Race and Fundraising

In The Vanishing American Donor we warned of the danger of not investing – time, money and skill—in reaching beyond an organizations usual comfort zone to understand, communicate with and attract donors in “new” markets. Without question one of the most under-appreciated group of donors for all too many organizations are women—particularly women of color. […]

Learn More August 2, 2021

How Can You Get Hooked on a Feeling?

Franceso Ambrogetti is a fundraiser who has served with many global brands, most recently (and frequently) with UNICEF in senior roles all over the globe. He’s probably forgotten more than I ever knew about the trade. He’s also a lifelong learner and committed to digging deeper into the why of behavior and in that way, […]

Learn More July 30, 2021

The Vanishing American Donor

The share of American households contributing to charities has dropped to the lowest level in nearly 20 years. As reported by the Associated Press, a study published by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy finds that from 2000, when 66 percent of U.S. households donated to a charitable organization, the number dropped to 49.6 percent in […]

Learn More July 28, 2021

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

The Fastest Way to Perfect Supporter Satisfaction

Quantifying the Donor Experience At Scale

A Win for Old School Economics

Taking Advantage of Donor Loyalty, the Donor-Centered Way

Fundraising’s Silver Bullet

The Power of Giving Circles

Who’s in the Behavior Business? Charity Program Staff or Fundraisers?

Gender, Race and Fundraising

How Can You Get Hooked on a Feeling?

The Vanishing American Donor

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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