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Nudging toward donations: a Nobel pursuit

Richard Thaler just won the Nobel Prize in Economics*. This is momentous for two reasons: He is the first economics Nobel Prize winner to have a Bacon number of 2: he was in The Big Short with Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei, and Steve Carrell, who were all in Crazy. Stupid. Love. with Kevin Bacon.** It’s continued […]

Learn More October 12, 2017

Are You an ATM or a Fundraiser?

We don’t pay nearly enough attention to the issue of disrespect and the horrible price our sector pays for ignoring it or shrugging it off with a “well, that’s the way it is.” Disrespect runs rampant in the nonprofit world. We see it every day, reflected in the actions and attitudes of nonprofit boards, CEOs […]

Learn More October 6, 2017

Pareto was a wuss

Vilfredo Fedrico Damaso Pareto is best known now for the 80/20 rule. He originally said 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population. Now this 80/20 rule is used in healthcare (20% of patients use 80% of resources), criminal justice (20% of criminals, 80% of crimes), income distribution, and so on. And […]

Learn More October 5, 2017

Gender, generation, or ideology: which segmentation is most valuable?

Segmentation’s goal should be to put similar groups together. You might have a lapsed donor segment, because a male lapsed donor looks more like a female lapsed donor than he looks like a male active donor, for example. This came to mind when I was looking at NonProfit Tech for Good’s Data for Good. This […]

Learn More September 28, 2017

Is the best donor information bought or told?

The TL;DR version: the best information is told. It’s not bought from outside providers nor does it live in a transactional database. But I’m guessing you tuned in for something a bit more in-depth, so there are three big reasons why: The predictive ability of external data is spotty at best. I recently got done […]

Learn More September 21, 2017

Easy is better than hard

Easy things make brains happy. Happy brains do the things we ask them to (like donate). The easier something is, the more it convinces. Simple stocks go up more; simple named people become president. We often forget this. So here’s a simple post about keeping it simple. (The hard data are in links.) Image credit: Boston […]

Learn More September 14, 2017

A Second Chance for Fundraisers

Relationship Fundraising is like teenage sex: Everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it too. Although I’m paraphrasing behavioral economist Dan Ariely’s take on “Big Data” the same insight applies to the much-touted, little-practiced concept of relationship fundraising. It’s […]

Learn More September 13, 2017

Getting your finance department to sign off on restricted giving

Allowing donors to restrict their gifts increases giving, even though very few donors choose to exercise the option. (see for example here and here) This is partly because donors like control of things (see DonorVoice’s Dr. Kiki Koutmeridou discussion of how donor control can get people to opt in here) and partly because the ability […]

Learn More September 7, 2017

What Flood Waters Can’t Conceal

Like millions of folks a good deal of my attention over the past 10 days has focused on the rising waters and the flood of destruction and misery inflicted on the people and animals of Houston by Hurricane Harvey. As we await developments surrounding a potentially fresh disaster– Hurricane Irma now barreling toward the U.S. — […]

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Monthly Giving Part 3- The Great Recordkeeping and Payment Processing Barrier

There’s no question that solid recordkeeping and donor processing systems form an essential foundation for successful monthly giving programs. And, given today’s ready availability of off-the-shelf CRM software and flexible payment processors much-feared complexity of managing monthly giving programs is no longer a valid excuse for jumping in. Before I get to some of options […]

Learn More September 1, 2017

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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Uncategorized

Nudging toward donations: a Nobel pursuit

Are You an ATM or a Fundraiser?

Pareto was a wuss

Gender, generation, or ideology: which segmentation is most valuable?

Is the best donor information bought or told?

Easy is better than hard

A Second Chance for Fundraisers

Getting your finance department to sign off on restricted giving

What Flood Waters Can’t Conceal

Monthly Giving Part 3- The Great Recordkeeping and Payment Processing Barrier

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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