In Living Color
This is part of an interview series we’re doing with Mike Duerksen and the fine folks at BuildGood, a Canadian fundraising agency with way above average thinking and creative ideas.
Breaking through and creating connection is tough. It’s made unnecessarily harder if we force feed a one-size fits all diet to folks. The alternatives are real, scalable and worth testing. The path to success will still be squiggly and messy but our sector alternative is status quo, which seems untenable.
Feedback on content always appreciated as if the format in this case. Yeah or nay on video?
Thanks,
Kevin
8 responses to “In Living Color”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Thanks so much for raising this. Yes, capturing donor information can be helpful for stewardship like newsletters, thank-you letters, impact updates. But how you ask matters. Forcing full data capture introduces friction that can significantly depress conversion, many donors may simply abandon the process. Beyond the friction itself, required fields also shift the emotional experience […]
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Unlike holidays that everyone already knows, Giving Tuesday is a created event. Many donors recognize the name but not the exact timing, so referencing it becomes a helpful cue. It serves as a reminder and taps into social norm activation (“everyone’s giving today”), which boosts response. However, we still want it paired with the mission, […]
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When a subject line leads with the match (“Your gift matched!”), it risks triggering market-norm thinking: the sense that giving is a financial transaction rather than an act rooted in values, identity, and care. This shift reduces intrinsic motivation and, over time, can weaken donor satisfaction and long-term engagement. It also makes the email indistinguishable […]
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There’s no evidence that QR codes suppress mid-value giving; all available research suggests they either help or have no negative effect. In fact, behavioral and usability research consistently shows the opposite: reducing friction at any point in the donation process increases completion rates and total response. And that has nothing to do with capacity and […]
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What you’re experiencing is very common. Resistance often isn’t about capability, but about motivation quality. If board members feel pushed into fundraising, that triggers controlled motivation (low quality motivation) i.e. obligation, guilt, or fear of judgment, which often results in avoidance. Instead, we need to create conditions for volitional motivation (high quality motivation) by satisfying […]
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That’s a really thoughtful question, and you’re not the first to raise it. Many of our clients have been cautious about placing the ask at the very end. To address their concern, we’ve tested both approaches, and the results are clear: when the ask comes last, even if that means it appears on the second […]
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Unless there is something that only video can communicate, nay for me to video. It wastes my time and makes me anxious as I just want the presenter to get to the point quickly. There wasn’t anything in this video that he needed video to convey.
Not seeing my comment so I’m reposting. Sorry if this is redundant.
Unless there is something that only videos can provide, I always prefer text over video. I can read the text so much faster. This video, could have been text.
Hi Gayle, I get that preference, I often share it. I rarely listen to podcasts nor choose video on news sites, for instance.
I’m kinda with Gayle … text is faster than video … though sometimes video adds an herb or a spice. I listened to this podcast while plodding through my 2023 taxes. [Cue despair, math stress, loss records, personal apocalypse.]
This video had me with “There are two kinds of social-sciency concepts that we talk about a lot….” That’s me, too! I’m not a social scientist. I’m “social-sciency.” Closed captioning is built into the video. AND BuildGood’s anonymous but authoritative key expert speaks slowly, making transcription even easier. Learned a couple of things worth repeating. Thank you!
Hi Tom, taxes ugghh. the closed captioning is a big plus and credit goes entirely to the BuildGood team for that and the much harder job, editing my stream of consciousness.
great video! 100% agree. love the concept of latent connection to mission, that is personal, much more psyco and lifestyles than brand oriented, and very little or not at all influenced by demographics and transactional! Is the transcription available? I would like share it here in Latin America, translating into Spanish
Thanks Enrico, I’ll inquire about the transcription version and/or an AI version that translates to Spanish.
Yes I much prefer video. It’s much quicker and I take things I can see in much better than things I hear