Uncategorized

Your A/B test winner may be losing money

It was an A/B test winner. The Bavarian State Opera had a fundraising ask post-online-ticket purchase. They found if they forced ticket purchasers to state either “I have donated already” or “No, thank you” to bypass this ask, response rate went up one percentage point and average gift increased by $.46. Increased average gift and […]

Learn More July 19, 2018

Why Donor Opinions Could Steer You Wrong

It’s not their fault; it could be yours. On Monday, Roger talked about the multitude of sins committed in the Charity Commission report. Among them was the flawed approach of asking people why they thought what they thought. Today, I wanted to explain why it’s so difficult to get people’s opinions of their opinions. Tomorrow, […]

Learn More

Your Gift of 16 Minutes

Adrian Sargeant and his crew at the Philanthropy Centre need 16 minutes of your help. Here’s why. They’re undertaking a major study on how best to measure an organiztion’s “philanthropic orientation.” The end product will be a simple questionnaire that you and other organizations can put to work to determine what steps they need to take […]

Learn More July 18, 2018

Finding the Pony in the Charity Commission Report

Didja hear the one about the two kids: one an extreme pessimist, the other an extreme optimist? The parents took the pessimist to a room full of brand-new toys, and the optimist out to a manure pile. When they checked in on the pessimist, he was crying. He wouldn’t play with any of the […]

Learn More July 17, 2018

See Ya Later, Regulator

We know that trust in nonprofits is waning. You can see it in the Edelman Trust Barometer that we talked about in February, along with the reasons why trust is important to fundraising. And last week, the Charity Commission in the UK came out with similar results, showing a drop in trust for UK […]

Learn More July 15, 2018

Just Who Benefits From Volume?

A discussion of incentives in direct marketing wouldn’t be complete without talking about that Agitator bugaboo of communication volume. We’ve pointed out how volume has been poorly tested by those who advocate sending more and more …how organizations have found lower volume works better, and that donors hate it (twice). And… twice we emphasized that volume isn’t […]

Learn More July 13, 2018

Compared to what?

Two polls of Britons came out last fall. One said that only 19% of Britons were willing to pay at least 10 billion pounds in EU “exit fees” as part of Brexit. The other said 29% were willing to pay at least 25 billion pounds. Here’s the weird part: these polls don’t conflict. Rather, both […]

Learn More July 12, 2018

Beware the Mismatched Incentives Between You and Your Canvassing Firm

A few weeks ago, Kevin Schulman here ignited a firestorm by suggesting a F2F model where the canvassing vendor does some or all the financing for this new donor acquisition. There were some well-thought-out concerns about the history of financing acquisition and about the viability in today’s marketing. Regardless of on which side of that […]

Learn More

Channel Manager Incentives: A Modest Proposal

When a siloed staff is channel-structured and channel-incentivized, the knives come out. Direct marketers who are measured against a net budget goal are loathe to give up “their donors” to major donor prospecting or try to drive them to events. In turn, Events folks want their walkers, bikers, gala goers, etc. to keep walking, biking, […]

Learn More July 11, 2018

What Happens When Your Boss Has Different Goals?

Nonprofits need to exist as long as their issue exists. Most deal with long-term problems. Thus, they need to exist in the long-term. That’s why we preach retention above almost all other things – the donors you have are the ones who will sustain you. As a fundraising professional, it’s your responsibility to think about […]

Learn More July 10, 2018

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

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 […]

Read Full Answer

Uncategorized

Your A/B test winner may be losing money

Why Donor Opinions Could Steer You Wrong

Your Gift of 16 Minutes

Finding the Pony in the Charity Commission Report

See Ya Later, Regulator

Just Who Benefits From Volume?

Compared to what?

Beware the Mismatched Incentives Between You and Your Canvassing Firm

Channel Manager Incentives: A Modest Proposal

What Happens When Your Boss Has Different Goals?

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?

DonorVoice products

Commitment System

Donor Feedback Platform™

PreTest Tool

TouchPoint Mapping