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Is Your Fundraising Like Old Wine in New Bottles?

The jangle fallacy occurs when two similar or identical things are assumed to be different because they are labeled differently – old wine in new bottles. This is rife in psychology where the term originated. My fan faves, Grit. In high school my kids were required to read the Duckworth book. Grit was a new […]

Learn More May 15, 2023

Show Don’t Tell Emotions

If I had a nickel for every time I started a blog post with this line I’d have exactly $1.15. Twenty-three times. An inflation adjusted synonym might be “If I had a dollar…” Speaking of synonyms, said the worst and longest windup, cry and weep are synonyms. They are also action verbs. And these action […]

Learn More May 12, 2023

Don’t Dull Your Fundraising Sensory Symphony

There was a time when food purchasing was multisensory. The food buying experience of a bygone era involved, Taste: Local markets or small shops offered samples galore. Sampling is far less common, relying instead on packaging and branding. Smell: Food shopping used to be an aromatic experience, with the smells of fresh produce, baked goods, […]

Learn More May 10, 2023

Your Dual Message Pillars Should Be Bookends

If you take nothing else from this post, take this: an awful lot is known about your donors. Too often we think we know very little. Consequently, we believe tailoring messages to who they are is seemingly impossible. Sadly, this means everyone gets the same thing. Taxonomy is the science of naming, describing and […]

Learn More May 8, 2023

Death to Channels. Long Live Channels

Defining donors by channel is a bit like defining me by whether Amazon, USPS, UPS or Fed-Ex delivers my packages. It’s accurate and objective but I rarely make that choice and it’s inconsequential to why I bought what I bought. The channel I give in is often a function of exposure and where I happened […]

Learn More May 5, 2023

Should You Turn Supporter Care Over to AI?

No is the short answer. The longer one, you should be using AI to significantly boost productivity and increase the number of successful outcomes. It’s worth noting supporter care is more than donor care. There are plenty of charities (e.g., health, education) whose donors also make use of the program/services side of the house. This […]

Learn More May 1, 2023

Mind The Gap

Intended behavior vs. actual behavior. That they don’t match up perfectly seems to invite the misleading adage that ‘people don’t do what they say’. In fact, the intention to do something is a great predictor of actually doing it. This means the primary focal point should be on what influences my intention, secondarily, the gap. […]

Learn More April 28, 2023

The Moral Calculus to Giving

The giving decision often hinges on a moral judgement – is giving to help this person, place or thing the morally right thing to do? But two people can be a firm “yes” for different reasons since we don’t all use the same morality lens. There are five morality lenses onto the world. Care/harm: Sensitivity […]

Learn More April 26, 2023

Pronouns Matter

I or we. You or us. He or she. Tiny words lumped into a category with articles and prepositions called functional words. They’re the opposite of ‘content’ words, the meaty stuff of nouns, verbs, adjectives. How can these tiny words matter? For starters, they’re social words. They help maintain conversation flow by indicated who or […]

Learn More April 21, 2023

Have You Been Selected?

Sometime last weekend, I think it was about 7:35 pm Saturday evening, as I worked my way through the week’s river of despairing news and its ever-flowing tributary of emails telling me why my immediate help –even $3 –would make the difference, my spirits suddenly lifted. Right there on that forlorn evening appeared an email […]

Learn More April 19, 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

Is Your Fundraising Like Old Wine in New Bottles?

Show Don’t Tell Emotions

Don’t Dull Your Fundraising Sensory Symphony

Your Dual Message Pillars Should Be Bookends

Death to Channels. Long Live Channels

Should You Turn Supporter Care Over to AI?

Mind The Gap

The Moral Calculus to Giving

Pronouns Matter

Have You Been Selected?

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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