Donors will only give and keep giving if they feel competent.

In short, “If I don’t understand your cause or how you fix problems I won’t give.”

But what matters more? The donor’s objective knowledge of your cause and how you fix problems,  or the donor’s subjective knowledge? Charities often try to explain and give details. That may very well raise yer donor’s objective knowledge if the donor  understands more about a societal ill and it’s root causes.

But, will this make the donor give more?  Does providing a lot of details paradoxically increase donors’ objective knowledge while underscoring how little they know (or knew) and thus lower their subjective knowledge?

Subjective knowledge is how competent a person feels, not how competent he/she truly is (objective).

In one experiment researchers asked people to enroll in a retirement plan but asked half the participants an easy question right before the enrollment form and the other half a difficult question.

The easy question group enrolled at a higher rate than the hard question group.  Why?  The easy question increased their subjective competence and made them more confident in the enrollment decision.

In another experiment a group of savvy financial investors were given background materials on a mutual fund.

One set of materials included technical terms like “standard deviation” and “beta”, the other set didn’t.  Even though all these people were familiar with the terms the group that received the more technical description selected the fund less often.  They objectively knew the terms but subjectively felt less confident and competent.

How often have you sat through a research or data presentation, followed the charts and reams of data that has led to no change in behavior?

How much detail do you put into a donor impact report for the presumed, objectively competent major donor audience?

How about your legacy marketing materials?

And what about your online donation form?  You know, the one that has a really high abandon rate? Might more folks complete the form if they feel confident about the decision?

How often are you putting in copy  or tweaking the form layout to promote their subjective competence?

Kevin