Uncategorized - Agitator

Communications

Who Owns the Story?

That’s the rhetorical question underlying an Amref Health UK report, a charity focused on health in Africa. The report shares loads of useful detail on a direct mail test pitting what they call participant stories against charity stories. The report is authored by outside consultants, Jess Crombie and David Girling, in partnership with Amref. The test […]

Learn More October 24, 2022

Should I Sustain or Should I Go Now? Stop Pressure Tactics.

Join in Please consider joining us for the Should I sustain or should I go now learning session. If you think donor experience matters to sustainer retention then the vague term needs to be broken down into specifics and we need to get more precise. Here’s an example, a telefundraising campaign to convert digital leads […]

Learn More October 21, 2022

Should I Sustain or Should I Go Now? Improving Journey.

Join us for Should I sustain or should I go now Last time we saw how to improve the quality of our sign-ups. So, now we have nothing but quality supporters walking through the door, they’ll all stick around, right? If only it were that easy with every part of your retention challenge living on […]

Learn More October 19, 2022

Should I Sustain or Should I Go Now? Improving Sign Up.

Join us for the should I sustain or should I go now learning session. The first sign a supporter is leaving is they’ve left. Doesn’t make life easy for anyone managing acquisition campaigns. Sure, there will be proxy factors in place for quality – e.g., age, payment amount. But at least one of those (hint: […]

Learn More October 17, 2022

Sustainer Week +/- 2

We love sustainers and not just the 12x variety. Any recurring payment will do – quarterly, semi-annual, annual. Everybody wants more supporters on auto-renew. But the cost to acquire is high and you pay it all up front. That cost to acquire can be psychologically daunting. You don’t need to sign up more sustainers. You […]

Learn More October 14, 2022

Who Hates the Budgeting Process?

Does anyone enjoy the budgeting process? Tell me if this rings familiar, You and your team (charity side or agency or combo) create a budget for the upcoming fiscal You rely on historical data to inform projections You discount any prior year, non-recurring anomalies (e.g. big disaster that supercharged fundraising) You do your best Carnac […]

Learn More October 12, 2022

You are Your Email Address?

Imagine getting an email from honey.bunny77@hotmail.de? What would you immediately infer about this person? Ok, spam and X-rated content but after that, what does this vanity email purposefully chosen say about the person? An email address is the tiniest snippet of a window into a person in the digital world. No picture, no interaction, […]

Learn More October 7, 2022

Donors and Non-Donors, Is That the Best We Can Do?

Why do people give? I’ve seen academic research showing a big driver of giving is asking. That’s like saying you can’t win the lottery if you don’t play. True enough but it doesn’t make the opposite true; you will also lose if you play. The expected return is always negative. People don’t give because we […]

Learn More October 5, 2022

Exciting Breakthroughs on Give Now and Pay Later

Back in July we posted What if Donors Could Give More Now and Pay Later? focused on the offering by a new financial tech company B Generous. In essence the B Generous approach to increasing the size of donor gifts is to offer financing of the total gift, interest and fee free to the donor […]

Learn More October 3, 2022

Who Doesn’t Love Control?

Answer: Nobody doesn’t love control. Double negative notwithstanding, we humans love control or the perception of it. Control is one of three key psychological needs, often referred to as a sense of autonomy and choicefulness: aka control. People who feel a sense of autonomy over their giving are more likely to do it again. A […]

Learn More September 30, 2022

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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Communications

Who Owns the Story?

Should I Sustain or Should I Go Now? Stop Pressure Tactics.

Should I Sustain or Should I Go Now? Improving Journey.

Should I Sustain or Should I Go Now? Improving Sign Up.

Sustainer Week +/- 2

Who Hates the Budgeting Process?

You are Your Email Address?

Donors and Non-Donors, Is That the Best We Can Do?

Exciting Breakthroughs on Give Now and Pay Later

Who Doesn’t Love Control?

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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