Overcoming The Noise
When you think about the competition for those donor dollars your organization deserves, you probably think first about the other nonprofits active in your space. Curses are muttered.
But that assumes a head-to-head competition — donor gets their message, gets your message, compares the two … and they win the contribution.
In reality, your message might not even get that far, because your first competitor is simply noise … all that more important stuff out there that commands and soaks up your prospect’s attention.
Noise, clutter — whatever you call it — you need to break through it to have any hope of winning a contribution.
In his recent post, How Your Fundraising Can Cut Through the Noise, Jeff Brooks offers two bits of advice:
1. Keep your message simple.
2. Make your message relevant to your audience.
Of those two, I’d say ‘relevance’ is the biggest factor. The more relevant you are to your prospect, the more attention they will give you … which isn’t to say you should abuse the opportunity by overwhelming them with non-essential information.
However, I would add two further suggestions to Jeff’s.
First, before you craft your message, get in the right mindset … your donor’s mindset. Imagine exactly how distracted they will be when your message arrives. How will your message break through that wall of noise? Your message might be terribly urgent in your mind; but why in theirs?
Second, commit yourself to delivering your message with the best possible creative. You are fighting desperately for attention.
Some will say that so long as your message is indeed relevant, it will penetrate the mental armor your prospect is wearing. I don’t think you can count on that anymore. There’s just too much ‘stuff’ out there.
After your prospect has taken care of all the more pressing aspects of her daily life, finally she might have a few minutes to look at her blizzard of mail and email … much of which will be professionally crafted by folks who know their business.
Excellent, stand-out creative is imperative these days. Relevance and stand-out creative are not a ‘chicken and egg’ matter any more, they must go hand-in-glove.
So get professional creative help with your messaging if you possibly can afford to. And if you can’t, work on building your collection of creative work in your space that strikes you as really exceptional. Browse the extensive exemplary samples at SOFII. Lift your game.
Do you want to cut through the noise? Four things to do then:
1. Get in the right mindset — you can’t take your donor’s attention for granted.
2. Make it relevant.
3. Keep it simple.
4. Deliver with ‘knock their socks off’ creative.
Don’t just drown your donors in the Sea of Sameness (see Roger on the subject here and here).
Tom
4 responses to “Overcoming The Noise”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
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I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
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Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
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Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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I find the concept of “competition” to be slightly off kilter. Rarely is it “competition.” Most organizations are not competing for my gift. I pay attention to what interests me — so does everyone else. So the Super Bowl wasn’t competing for my time. I don’t care about sports. This nonprofit and that other one and the next one are not competing for my gifts. Those organizations are not within my interests.
I think of the field as congested. So many messages. So many bad ones. Some good ones. Hopefully more good ones. But still… If your cause is not within my interest sphere, you’re still not competing for my dollar or my euro.
Also, the thought of “competition” implies there is a limit to available resources. Not so true. And, the thought of “competition” allows organizations to not accept their role in the work.
Yup. A congested marketplace. Yup. Your organization needs to do its work better, e.g., fundraising in this case. And… You have to accept the fact that not everyone is interested in your cause – no matter how important the cause and no matter how great your fundraising.
Keep those thoughts in mind. Then do your best.
Simone, thanks for your comments, which open up a great conversation. With you 150% on not everyone is interested in your call so it’s not a matter of interrupting and capturing their attention. But…
From where I sit, as a nonprofit marketer, there is lots of competition within a prospect/supporter’s interest arena—first for their attention, then for their action.
Your thoughts on competition framed that way?
This was a great topic and much needed for me today! I am founder of a 501(c)(3) no-kill dog and cat rescue in a mid-sized community, a town that is progressive in every way until it comes to protecting its compaion animals – we might as well be in the dark ages on that. March 27 marks our 5th anniversary as an independent rescue, and I volunteered for others several years prior to forming my own.
I can tell you that the main thing I’ve learned in the past 8-9 years it that fundraising, at least in our market, is without a doubt a competition. Donors/volunteers have trouble believing that when I explain it, but seasoned members of the rescue community have seen the dark side. There are extremely limited resources in our area, which do not tend to increase over time because of the general attitude here toward animals and their needs,and animal rescues are so underfunded here. I had to learn the hard way that other new and established organizations hoard resources diligently – some to the point of playing dirtier than any for-profit companies I’ve ever seen. We decided early on not to engage in that uglieness and to support our fellow rescues to the extent they would allow. Many (when they recovered from the shock of being shown kindness and support) built relationships with us and we work together to keep our eye on the ball of our commmon mission. However others sadly continue to spy, slander, gossip, etc.,and do whatever possible to keep the donors on “their side” and thus the dollars coming their way. We’re doing everything possible to increase awareness so that this limited amount of available funds will grow, but that is a long, slow road to build.
Thanks for the great articles! We’re revamping our website this year, gearing up for snail and e-mailing lists (which we’ve never done), and working to implement many of the other ideas I’ve found here.
[…] they hear you now? The guys over at The Agitator (a go-to blog for me) make the obvious (but often overlooked) point that retention depends on what […]