4 responses to “Fundraising Needs An Emotional Revolution”

1. Lisa Sargent says:

   November 9, 2012 at 8:30 am

   Bravo! Francesco’s article is well worth the 5 minutes it will take you to read. Top-notch… esp those 6 key drivers. All should know them by heart.

   And Tom, re: “insufficient use of images as opposed to words.” I have a Friday rant: I would add to your observation that the problem is also insufficient use of the RIGHT images.

   In direct mail over the past few years, I’ve tracked a disheartening trend among nonprofits to use only what I call “feel-good photos.” To me this not only diminishes the urgency of the work, but as Francesco proves handily in his article, it sucks the emotion right out of the appeal.

   Why act now, if all the kids are healthy and clean and wearing polo shirts? If all the pets are cute and fat and fluffy? If you photoshop away all the scars and dirt and dings that come from being in desperate need of help?

   That said, Agitator readers might benefit from something I wrote a couple of months back, “Why Feel-Good Photos Fail: How to use more effective images in your fundraising appeals.” http://www.lisasargent.com/free_resources/more-effective-photos.htm I’m not saying all images should be doom-and-gloom. But to build a compelling case for support, you must show need. As Franceso points out, there are just a handful of key emotional drivers, and they aren’t all sunshine and roses.

2. Francesco says:

   November 9, 2012 at 11:43 am

   Lisa cannot agree more! It breaks my heart when I hear that a CEO of a big charioty issued a policy note to impose only smiling children in fundraising! Without emotions fundraising is nothing and, most likely, human beîngs are nothing either.

3. Kathy Swayze, CFRE says:

   November 9, 2012 at 4:44 pm

   I couldn’t agree more. It is the combination of the head and heart that gets people to act but too often, we forget the emotion that brings their hearts along. Stories help you access the emotion.

   Here are a few stories I’ve had the privilege to tell in my years writing direct mail copy–and that I shared last week at National Capital Philanthropy day.

   I came to know a mother who is slowly losing her vision to retinitis pigmentosa. She says that sometimes she’s afraid to blink because she never knows if when she opens her eyes again, she’ll still be able to see her children.

   I met a courageous man who went to work for a gay and lesbian rights organization in Sierra Leone, even though the previous Director of the organization had been murdered.

   I enjoyed a cup of tea with a 63-year-old grandmother from Northeast DC who is raising three of her grandsons. She worked hard to get the boys into a nonprofit that offered scholarships and mentoring. She told me of her gratitude about a time when the organization gave her free tickets to take her grandsons to the Kennedy Center. A lifelong resident of Washington, DC, it was the first time she had ever stepped foot into the Kennedy Center.

   And I met a mother who I will carry in my heart for as long as I live. Her son was just 19 years old and a sophomore in college when he was shot by a teenager with one of the millions of illegal guns that flood our communities. She told me that nearly 20 years after his death, there is still not one day that she doesn’t want him to walk through the front door. To sit down at the dinner table and tell her about his day.

   Cheers,
   Kathy

4. mordecai says:

   November 29, 2012 at 4:43 am

   This is a great review of situation. As a non-profit professional for 7.5 years, I’ve see the passive nature in which so many organizations approach donors, campaigns and communication. It is the passion and the vibrancy that shine through to differentiate between supporters and evangelists.