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The New PayPal: Touchless Transactions

70% of UK charities reported a decrease in their cash donations over the past three years. What’s going on? Have we Brits stopping caring about causes? No, but we’re carrying less cash. The government is estimating that by 2026 only 21% of all financial transactions will be in cash, down from over 60% in 2006. […]

Learn More June 14, 2018

Google Gives a Gift Horse

Back in January, I talked about how Facebook set up donation processing for nonprofits. I’d largely advised not using the service, because Facebook controls the donor and the donor relationship. And there’s news! No, silly; it’s not that Facebook has rethought its policy and is giving us more donor data. When there is a sentence […]

Learn More June 13, 2018

Get Your Millennial Audience Off My Lawn, Part 2

Back in January, I argued that generations were a flawed construct and demographics a poor way to segment. In particular, the Millennial mythos seemed a mix of wishful thinking and harrumphing from previous generations. But since I posted that, there have enough “Millennials are doing X” think pieces (using the term “think” loosely) that it’s […]

Learn More June 12, 2018

The Daily Mail Accidentally Gets One Thing Right

I say accidentally, because they sure tried to get everything wrong. The piece I’m talking about is “How the first YEAR of your charity donation ends up in the hands of the chuggers” and talks about how the payback period on face-to-face recruitment is one-to-two years(ish). (Why didn’t I link to it? Because it isn’t […]

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How Donors Choose Among Nonprofits: The Role of Identity: Part 2

This week, we’re looking back at previous posts and updating them with the state of the art. First up is a University of Kent study I reviewed a couple months ago. It found, in a nutshell, that donors tend to support charities that mean something to them personally. But that was just talking to people. […]

Learn More June 11, 2018

Donor Communications Control

We gave you Shakespeare. We gave you the Beatles. And in the fundraising world, we gave you Ken Burnett. So, it is with pride that us Brits claim our island as the birthplace of relationship fundraising. But it’s been a miserable few years for us British fundraisers. We’ve been beaten up in the media and […]

Learn More June 8, 2018

The context of donor surveys

We advocate strongly for asking donor commitment, satisfaction, preference, and/or identity immediately after first donation. One question we get is whether donors get turned off by these questions. On the contrary, most donors prefer that you know them and act like you know them. But we’ve all had someone ask for more personal information than […]

Learn More June 7, 2018

To Sin by Silence

“To sin by silence, when we should protest,/Makes cowards out of men.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox The time: January 2016. Two venerable news organizations were taking on the practices of the Wounded Warrior Project. I’ll defer to the learned and studied words of Doug White’s report on the allegations against Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). Suffice it […]

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Letting Go of Donors

A couple weeks ago, I argued you haven’t truly acquired a donor until you get permission, information, or a second gift. Now let’s talk about the other end of the spectrum – when does your relationship with a donor end? This is an important subject for me, because most organizations of my acquaintance spend too […]

Learn More June 6, 2018

The Tragedy of the Donor Commons

“Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons. … the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another… But this is […]

Learn More June 5, 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 […]

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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

The New PayPal: Touchless Transactions

Google Gives a Gift Horse

Get Your Millennial Audience Off My Lawn, Part 2

The Daily Mail Accidentally Gets One Thing Right

How Donors Choose Among Nonprofits: The Role of Identity: Part 2

Donor Communications Control

The context of donor surveys

To Sin by Silence

Letting Go of Donors

The Tragedy of the Donor Commons

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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