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Communications

BRANDING: The Uniformity Myth

One question we received about our branding discussion is “what about uniformity?” There’s a value, goes the argument, in having things that are sacred in all contexts and channels (beyond the core values of the organization we argued are the point of a brand). And there’s something to be said for being in a different […]

Learn More August 14, 2019

BRANDING: What Happens After Your Rebranding?

Thanks to Agitators around the world for a great discussion on branding last week from Roger’s post and mine. For those looking at a potential rebrand, check out how to attack it with donor focus and what the likely financial impact will be (short answer: not good). When you stack up all this evidence, your […]

Learn More August 12, 2019

A Focus on Facebook

Right now, Facebook fundraisers are less than 2% of online giving per M+R Benchmarks; online giving is 7.5% of total giving per Steve MacLaughlin of Blackbaud. Given this, why focus on Facebook? Because unlike many forms of giving, this one is growing. And it’s growing in the right ways, helping generate leads for monthly giving […]

Learn More August 9, 2019

Save the Date for the 1st DonorVoice Behavioral Symposium

Invaluable academic knowledge typically remains inaccessible to fundraising practitioners. Academics, on the other hand, are usually unaware of the real-life challenges charities face. In an effort to fix this, we’re bringing together professors in behavioral science – also part of DonorVoice’s Nudge Unit – and nonprofit practitioners in the first-ever DonorVoice Behavioral Symposium. This will […]

Learn More August 8, 2019

Testing, Testing, A/B/C

We’ve received a few testing questions here at Agitator | DonorVoice HQ: How can I test inexpensively? What level of statistical significance is necessary to call a winner (and how do I get it)? What is most important to test? We aim to help! I’d first recommend Roger and Kevin’s Curse of Testing Illiteracy post, […]

Learn More August 7, 2019

Where to Find the Elusive Monthly Donor

As the one-time donor (dator unum) becomes an increasingly endangered species, organizations have correctly gone in search of recurring donors (dator magnus). In the past two years, sustaining gifts have gone from 20% to 30% of (median) organizational revenue. Much of the search for recurring donors has been centered on trying to get one-time donors, […]

Learn More August 5, 2019

Top Two Excuses for 2019 Income Shortfalls

We’re 7 months through the year. Those whose fiscal year ended June 30thare now preparing their year-end board reports. Those whose fiscal year finishes on December 31stare figuring out how to close whatever income gap is likely. About this time each summer I stick a Post-it note on the edge of my screen with what I […]

Learn More August 2, 2019

Seven New Updates to Seven New Issues: Free Webinars, White Papers and F2F Data

New free webinar: We had such a positive response to our webinar series in May and June we are starting back up. First up: Beyond A/B: Running Thousands of Tests at Once. Erica Best of No Kid Hungry and Steve Rudman of Concord Direct will join me to discuss the method behind No Kid Hungry’s […]

Learn More July 31, 2019

BRANDING: Who Polices the Brand Police?

If you missed Roger’s Friday post on brand, a recent study on brand found that fundraising spending has 87 times the impact on income as brand spend and the best organizations had brand as the servant to fundraising instead of vice versa. It’s not all bad news for brand folks, though. There are two areas […]

Learn More July 29, 2019

BRANDING: Help or Hindrance?

Sooner or later someone connected to your organization, totally devoid of fundraising knowledge (likely a board member or the spouse of one), is going to come back from their summer break with the ‘brilliant idea’– half-baked in the sun and sand—that your organization should be changing its name. Or your logo. Or your tagline. Or your graphics […]

Learn More July 26, 2019

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

BRANDING: The Uniformity Myth

BRANDING: What Happens After Your Rebranding?

A Focus on Facebook

Save the Date for the 1st DonorVoice Behavioral Symposium

Testing, Testing, A/B/C

Where to Find the Elusive Monthly Donor

Top Two Excuses for 2019 Income Shortfalls

Seven New Updates to Seven New Issues: Free Webinars, White Papers and F2F Data

BRANDING: Who Polices the Brand Police?

BRANDING: Help or Hindrance?

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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