Impulse Vs. Considered Donations

June 24, 2010      Admin

I was intrigued by this discussion in Online Spin of “impulse” versus “considered” purchases in the consumer space.

The author discusses this distinction in the context of what — and how much — an online pitch, ad or offer can accomplish in those two different purchase situations. An online pitch can close the sale, he says, in the case of an impulse purchase … indeed, one could argue that is precisely the unprecedented power of online selling. But influencing and eventually closing a considered purchase will require several consumer touches, some of which might occur offline.

He notes that an impulse purchase usually reflects a consumer acting on a desire, as opposed to a need, whereas in a considered purchase, some specific need is more often the driver, implying a bit more “rational” evaluation in the latter case.

In the realm of donations, this might be reflected in response, say, to a disaster like Haiti — the impulse purchase — versus a decision, say, about which environment group or cancer research center to support.

That said, it would be a mistake to think that a “considered” purchase (or donation) implies a strictly rational or logical assessment. Yes, there might be more “reasoned” comparison of past performance and results or financial stewardship, but there will still be plenty of emotion involved in each and every donation.

If you believe, as I do, that donors by and large are becoming more discriminating and performance-oriented, don’t let that fool you into presenting your organization’s need as though you were asking for venture capital (keeping in mind that even in that case, passion can be the deciding factor).

Tom

3 responses to “Impulse Vs. Considered Donations”

  1. Danielle says:
    June 25, 2010 at 9:19 am

    This is very timely for me – I am in the early stages of writing my graduate thesis is on social media for nonprofit fundraising. I’m searching for a donation evaluatation/decision making behavior model. I have not yet found anything specific to donations, just purchases. If anyone can suggest a resource for such a thing, it would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks!

  2. Kevin Schulman says:
    June 25, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Tom,

    I was, oddly enough, just thinking about this distinction today and argued (to myself so I always win) that the direct mail responder giving $15 or $25 is akin to a consumer in a grocery store line making a point-of-sale (POS) purchase of gum/candy. Having done significant market research with donors in the environmental space (albeit years ago) this comparison is very apt. There is virtually no brand recognition and little if any distinction drawn across groups. There is some (attitudinal) loyalty to the cause that probably gets mistaken as organizational loyalty but with very little basis. This impulse or POS driven contribution mentality is less true and eventually false the further up the pyramid one goes but for the bottom, there is, I think, entirely too much credit given to rationale choice and by extension, organizational loyalty, when in reality, they picked one flavor of Trident over the other because they liked the color of the package better.

  3. John Baguley says:
    June 28, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    Interesting post! I was thinking this was the kind of detail that would b e useful in Wikifund at http://www.wikifund.info if anyione would like to add it and help build the first fundraising wiki.

    Other content welcome too.

    Kind regards
    John

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