Uncategorized

The U-Shaped Giving Curve

Much academic ink has been spilt dancing on the head of a pin while debating the U-shaped giving curve. What U-shape you ask? The one showing rich, and poor give a greater percentage of their income than the middle class. This phenomenon is real and until now, practically uninteresting since the explanation hinges on external […]

Learn More August 30, 2023

Rx for Fundraisers

If ever most of us could use some uplifting tonic following the Mug Shot Weekend, it’s now. In fact, I’d argue we really need a double dose. Thus, today’s help-us-heal and lift up our sight’s elixir. It’s been 15 years ago this month since the indomitable Harvey McKinnon and his co-author Azim Jamal released their […]

Learn More August 28, 2023

The Enshittification of Digital Donor Acquisition

It’s no secret, it’s increasingly difficult and expensive finding new donors online. Remember the Facebook ads glory days in the 2010s? It seemed all we had to do was upload a list of performing donors, spawn some lookalike audiences, toss in some photos with the right aspect ratios, slap a good caption on it, then […]

Learn More August 25, 2023

Six Golden Writing Rules

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, wrote, “Politics and the English Language” in 1946. He hated empty and obscure prose. His culprits were, Dying metaphors: essentially clichés, which “have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.” We won’t […]

Learn More August 23, 2023

Fitts Law and Your Donor’s Mouse (or Finger)

Paul Fitts, a psychologist from the 50’s realized many errors attributed to human fallacy were, in fact, due to poor design. His studies led to Fitts’s Law, which states that the time it takes to move to a target (like a donation button) depends on the target’s size and its distance from the starting point. […]

Learn More August 21, 2023

AI Insta-Videos

I find myself wondering whether the AI hype train will hurl itself off the tracks or continue laying track and accelerating to the moon. It’s probably both. Put this particular app into the latter category. You can see the watermark, it’s called Pictory.AI. The app’s claim is using AI to convert your long form, text […]

Learn More August 18, 2023

Is That Story Real or Fake?

There’s lots of sector interest in storytelling and making it feel authentic. Is a real story ever fake? If it walks like a fake story and talks like one then the reader will feel it as such, whether it’s “authentic” or not. On the flip side, AI generated stories, which are objectively fake, can feel […]

Learn More August 16, 2023

Use Concrete to Get Unstuck

Concrete, precise and specific words or statements make people feel more heard in donor service domains. Here is a study from Jonah Berger showing the big difference in satisfaction and purchase intent tied to word choice as you move up the concrete scale. In donor service world this equates to raising more money without asking […]

Learn More August 14, 2023

The Answer is 42

We’re in the pre-phase of AI and fundraising. The pre-phase, a concept coined by Kevin Kelly in New Rules for The New Economy, is marked by high hopes and grand ambition. Everyone can and does compete, including lots of non-experts. There will be very few winners and lots of losers along the way. Consider, in […]

Learn More August 11, 2023

How Hard Are You Pulling the Rope?

Is your team – agency, charity, agency + charity – the right size? Bigger isn’t better. There’s a strong tendency for individual members of a group to become increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases. This phenomenon occurs in rope pulling and the workplace, it’s called the Ringlemann effect. Ringlemann measured the […]

Learn More August 9, 2023

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

The U-Shaped Giving Curve

Rx for Fundraisers

The Enshittification of Digital Donor Acquisition

Six Golden Writing Rules

Fitts Law and Your Donor’s Mouse (or Finger)

AI Insta-Videos

Is That Story Real or Fake?

Use Concrete to Get Unstuck

The Answer is 42

How Hard Are You Pulling the Rope?

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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