Matching Gift Hot Mess
It’s as if slapping “matching” on an appeal is all the thought that’s required. Many of these offers are contrived or copycat-like but this one takes the cake for confusion and the irony is not lost on it being from Behavioral Scientist, a publication purpose built to help readers learn how to lower mental barriers and friction.
This quick audit is courtesy of Kiki Koutmeridou, DonorVoice Chief Behavioral Scientist:
- Difficult to process
- Problematic Rationale
- Legitimacy?
- Value Exchange not mentioned at all
Other than that, nailed it.
Details:
- “your support will be doubled” is misleading
- Unlocking a matching grant that could become $20,000 is an offer that no one understands, nor what it means, nor how it works.
- No idea what the rules of the game are. Based on the following sentence, the grant isn’t actually $20,000 but what remains to reach $20,00 after taking into account the donations. But then, it says it could be more if donors give more than 10k: If 105 readers become Supporters, the matching grant will contribute the remaining amount to get us to $20,000—or more(!), if Supporters pledge more than $10,000.
- Most importantly, the first sentence says they already received it. Why would anyone need to do anything then?
- Where did this money even come from? A person, a company?
- It says they need 105 people to “unlock” this money. So someone gave them a grant contingent on them acquiring a specific number of supporters? How realistic is this? Also, that’s not a match.
- Instead of using Jennifer, they could emphasize what they personally get from this content and trigger reciprocity.
- The usual issues with social proof, more and more we find it works under specific circumstances. Not a bad concept but the execution needs careful consideration. Also, bringing Jennifer to life with an image/quote might be more helpful and matching gender to recipient (let’s not open that can of worms….)
Kevin (channeling Kiki)
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