Rupert Murdoch Gets Religion
Murdoch's News Corp has just purchased the web's top spirituality site, Beliefnet, as profiled here.
Beliefnet attracts 2.8 million unique monthly visitors. The site includes social networking features, and won the 2007 National Magazine Association award for General Excellence Online.
During the campaign season, try their fun “God-o-Meter” (pronounced Gah-DOM-meter) that ranks the presidential candidates on a “Secularist” (Dodd scores here) to “Theocrat” (Huckabee the winner) scale. And their eclectic political blog called Casting Stones … a boisterous conclave on faith and politics.
It has always struck us as an interesting test site for certain types of online fundraising or activist appeals. Not just for overtly religious charities, but also nonprofits with a strong “human needs” orientation and causes with a strong moral imperative, like human rights and animal welfare. Seems like a Habitat for Humanity would hit the bulls-eye.
Supporting the psychographic compatibility one might hypothesize, data indicates that folks who profess a strong religious or spiritual affinity tend to be more generous donors.
We're wondering if any Agitator readers have put Beliefnet to the test? Would love to hear how it played out.
Roger & Tom
Behavioral Science Q & A
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