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Did Your Fundraising Become an Excel Table with a Budget?

Over the last twenty years, marketing effectiveness has fallen sharply. Campaigns, ads, and fundraising appeals are moving fewer people to act, even as budgets and frequency continue to rise. The pattern is unmistakable. It’s not just that everything looks and sounds the same; it’s that much of what’s being repeated is no bueno. Almost nine […]

Learn More September 16, 2026

Election Night Is Not a Strategy Meeting

It’s 11:47 on election night November 3rd. A fundraiser named Susan is sitting alone in the office conference room, half a sandwich beside her laptop and coffee long since gone cold. She’s has been told not to write anything until the organization knows what happened in this year’s mid-terms. Nobody knows what happened. The […]

Learn More September 14, 2026

The Segmentation Should Depend on the Question

It’s a simple question, which pair belongs together? The two older white men are an obvious pair. So are the two younger Black women. Group them by age, race or gender and the rows make perfect sense. But the man in the upper right and the woman in the lower left also belong together. Both […]

Learn More September 11, 2026

The Fundraising Coin Trick Doesn’t Add Up

In 1938, entertainer Eddie Cantor asked Americans to send dimes to President Roosevelt to fight polio. They responded with 2.68 million of them, flooding the White House mailroom and giving the March of Dimes its name. The direction of travel seems rather important, people sending their money to the cause. At some point, a fundraiser […]

Learn More September 9, 2026

They’re Not Leaving the Work. They’re Leaving the Workplace.

She has a laptop, a revenue goal nobody asked her opinion on, half a database, and a board development committee that is extremely supportive — provided nobody asks them to pick up a phone and call a donor. Her organization cut two positions last year. The work didn’t get cut. It landed on her, on […]

Learn More September 7, 2026

Your Best-Conversion May Be Your Worst Acquisition

The easiest way to increase advocacy conversion is to remove most of the advocacy. Ask people whether they oppose animal cruelty, want children protected or think politicians should stop doing the obviously terrible thing described in the headline. They click “Add My Name,” and congratulations, another committed activist has joined the movement, or not. Agreeing […]

Learn More September 4, 2026

Be Innovative and Traditional?

The post title reminds me of the spoof video making fun of management consultancies with the edict by the client to make 3 lines that are simultaneously parallel and perpendicular and the obsequious senior consultants promising it. Being Innovative and Traditional in format, design and copy seems impossible. At least if we’re limiting ourselves to […]

Learn More September 2, 2026

Women are Special. Audit the Verbs.

Women are special. No shit, Sherlock. Let me rescue that lede before some earnest copywriter or designer buries it under a lavender color gradient, a stock photo of two beige hands clasped over a beige table, and a subject line that says “Together, We Rise.” Almost every fundraising appeal targeted to women that dies on […]

Learn More August 31, 2026

Repeat Giving Is an Outcome, Not a Habit

Your database knows a donor gave again but not whether she remembered why, responded automatically to the annual appeal, forgot about the monthly debit or was briefly unable to say no to a cheerful stranger in a branded vest. Your database is a security camera recording the behavior, not the motive. Volume Machine Fundraising (it’s […]

Learn More August 28, 2026

Twenty Years of Fundraising Experience or One Year Repeated 20x?

Would you rather take fundraising advice from a 28 yr old or 58? The older fundraiser probably gets the instinctive nod as 30 years in fundraising must have produced more knowledge than 8 yrs. But then come the qualifications like hiring the younger fundraiser to attract younger donors or operate whatever social platform appeared during […]

Learn More August 26, 2026

Ask A Behavioral Scientist

Behavioral Science Q & A

Q:We are struggling with acquistion. During our biggest community campaign, a colleague is suggesting that we have a QR code directing donors to a donate page that does not capture donor information – just a donation and an email address. We won’t be able to post any of these new doors our lvoely newsletters, or thank you letters. We’ll likely never hear from them again. What’s the best method to get this team to see the importance about a donor vs a donation?

Thanks so much for raising this. Yes, capturing donor information can be helpful for stewardship like newsletters, thank-you letters, impact updates. But how you ask matters. Forcing full data capture introduces friction that can significantly depress conversion, many donors may simply abandon the process. Beyond the friction itself, required fields also shift the emotional experience […]

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Q: Should we include “Giving Tuesday” in the subject lines for the emails that are going out before Giving Tuesday?

Unlike holidays that everyone already knows, Giving Tuesday is a created event. Many donors recognize the name but not the exact timing, so referencing it becomes a helpful cue. It serves as a reminder and taps into social norm activation (“everyone’s giving today”), which boosts response. However, we still want it paired with the mission, […]

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Q: can we pull the match language into the subject lines? Or this should be an A/B test?

When a subject line leads with the match (“Your gift matched!”), it risks triggering market-norm thinking: the sense that giving is a financial transaction rather than an act rooted in values, identity, and care. This shift reduces intrinsic motivation and, over time, can weaken donor satisfaction and long-term engagement. It also makes the email indistinguishable […]

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Q: Our mid-level donor team removed the QR code from the DM donation form that links to the donation page, but have left the URL for them to type it in manually. Not sure why they are adding a barrier to the donation process for a higher value donor – but I have to ask – is there any proof – either way – if a QR donation code reduces MV online giving, has any effect on their donation amount, has any effect on off line donations? Thank you….

There’s no evidence that QR codes suppress mid-value giving; all available research suggests they either help or have no negative effect. In fact, behavioral and usability research consistently shows the opposite: reducing friction at any point in the donation process increases completion rates and total response. And that has nothing to do with capacity and […]

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Q: How can we effectively use behavioral science to help shift our Board’s mindset. The majority are extremely resistant to asking their networks or sharing their contact lists with us, even after a candid discussion with an external lay leader who has been training boards with her fantastic Fundraising isn’t the F Word! workshop. We have also offered to use our automated email tool to send their appeals from their own email. It is so frustrating. We even have 2 Board members and the chair trying put some accountability on them for our big event but people are not really moving!

What you’re experiencing is very common. Resistance often isn’t about capability, but about motivation quality. If board members feel pushed into fundraising, that triggers controlled motivation (low quality motivation) i.e. obligation, guilt, or fear of judgment, which often results in avoidance. Instead, we need to create conditions for volitional motivation (high quality motivation) by satisfying […]

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Q: Copywriters often argue the ask should appear on the first page, but that usually breaks the story in two. With a one-sided letter the ask is always on page one, but with a two-sided letter it may fall on the second page—do results differ? Has your appeal structure been tested on both one-sided and two-sided letters? I just read the article Your Appeal Outline: Thoughtful Strategy or Random Spasm?

That’s a really thoughtful question, and you’re not the first to raise it. Many of our clients have been cautious about placing the ask at the very end. To address their concern, we’ve tested both approaches, and the results are clear: when the ask comes last, even if that means it appears on the second […]

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