Search Results for: survey
More Similar Than Different?
Willingness to play the long game, risk taking, and pro-social attitudes determine, respectively, how much people are willing to save for the future instead of spending now, if they’re ready to take risks for potential gains, and how they act with others. These Big Three preferences have a big influence on how markets and institutions […]
Is Your Writing Edited?
Nancy Gibbs, former editor in chief of Time magazine, often quipped, “every word has to earn its place in a sentence, every sentence has to earn its place in a paragraph, and every idea has to earn its place in a text.” And it turns out we’re not very good at deleting when we edit. One study […]
Is It Anger or Malaise?
The mostly or even lightly satisfied lot is not where one’s likely to find the fuel for any movement, much less a populist one. Populism is on the rise with varying flavors of left- and right-wing promotion of the “people” against the “elite”. The very nature of populism blaming others for negative situations screams anger […]
Impossible Today, Not Tomorrow
I recently heard the founder of Not Impossible Labs speak. He’s got an impressive and moving story, worth checking out. The big takeaway for me? Everything Possible today was Impossible at some point in the past. Therefore, Impossible is a fallacy or in need of a corollary, it’s only Impossible Today. Moving from Impossible to […]
The Pseudoscience of Brand Personality
Have you ever been in a discussion about brand attributes or brand personality? What about research studies measuring how much donors think the brand fits certain attributes? Did it feel wildly generic or maybe, contrived? Does anybody think about a brand as being charming or good looking? One of the most well-respected marketing and brand […]
Is Your Fundraising Like Old Wine in New Bottles?
The jangle fallacy occurs when two similar or identical things are assumed to be different because they are labeled differently – old wine in new bottles. This is rife in psychology where the term originated. My fan faves, Grit. In high school my kids were required to read the Duckworth book. Grit was a new […]
Have You Been Selected?
Sometime last weekend, I think it was about 7:35 pm Saturday evening, as I worked my way through the week’s river of despairing news and its ever-flowing tributary of emails telling me why my immediate help –even $3 –would make the difference, my spirits suddenly lifted. Right there on that forlorn evening appeared an email […]
All Segmented Up and Nowhere to Go
Why create segments? The only reason is you believe Different Strokes was something other than an early 80s sitcom. But what makes people different isn’t the question. Some people like red hats, others blue; knowing that won’t help you raise more money. What are the different reasons people support your charity is closer to the […]
Why Do Liberals Drink Lattes?
Are you a liberal? Did you find yourself buying more from brands that took a political stand, especially during the Trump presidency? You’re not alone. Compensatory consumption theory says people buy as a way to compensate for psychological needs or deficits. In other words, if we feel like we’re lacking control or meaning in our […]
Can You Persuade Donors?
Jack Trout was a TV ad man who helped pioneer the concept of brand positioning . He famously quipped, “If your assignment is to change people’s minds, don’t accept the assignment.” Seems he knew what he was talking about. A huge study of TV effectiveness on changing people’s attitudes and beliefs about social issues found […]