Hey, you laugh. But it won’t be long before a fundraising consultant, probably from Mexico or Poland, comes along who claims they can use neuroscience techniques to fine-tune your fundraising messages to exquisite donor-by-donor perfection.

They’re already making this claim in the political arena, according to this fascinating rundown in the NY Times on political campaigns abroad where various forms of neuro-whatever are being used to guide strategy and messaging — Neuropolitics, Where Campaigns Try to Read Your Mind.

Frankly, a lot of what’s described in this article strikes me as snake oil. Buyer beware! Still, I couldn’t stop reading about the extent to which this stuff is being used in campaigns in Mexico, Poland, Turkey and Colombia … about a dozen countries.

Is this where democracy is headed — measuring brain waves, facial coding and neurobiology?

The NY Times reported: “When contacted about it, Joel Benenson, the Clinton campaign’s chief strategist, declined to discuss the matter, saying that he would not talk about ‘what methodologies we use or don’t use’.”

Don’t get me wrong. I firmly believe that marketers need to pursue some understanding of how the brain works, how it perceives and reacts, screens information and creates biases that ultimately determine responsiveness and actual behavior. I read heaps of this stuff and find it illuminating.

And on a more ‘pop psychology’ level, I read and recommend Roger Dooley’s Neuromarketing e-newsletter (“Where Brain Science and Marketing Meet” is the tagline of this blog) to see how marketers are trying to apply neuroscience insights in their work.

Do a little neuroscience homework … you will find some useful insights. And sooner or later the neurofundraising consultant will come knocking’.

When she does, take on board this caution from Russell Poldrack, a psychology professor at Stanford, as reported in the Times article: “For the most part, I think that companies selling neuroscience-based market research tools are taking advantage of people’s natural tendency to think that measurements of the brain are somehow more ‘real’ than measurements of behavior.”

So listen politely to the rap on how eye movements reveal everything about your donors’ propensity to give, but remember to ask: “But did your targeting produce more gifts?”

Tom

P.S. My favorite job title for one of these guys: Facial Coder. Hire one to round out your fundraising staff.