Talking To Boomers Online
In The Agitator’s latest DonorTrends survey (completed last month), 62% of Boomers said they had never donated online to a charity, 78% had never donated online to an issue advocacy organization, and 86% had not given online to a political campaign. Still a lot of fields to plow here! [And much more data to come from DonorTrends.]
And keep in mind that our respondents took the survey online … so they are not folks adverse to the medium (indeed, 95% report going online daily).
This article offers some advice on marketing to Boomers online from Hollis Thomases of WebAdvantage.net, an online marketing company. It’s not focused on fundraising, but still has some useful insights on the online likes and dislikes of Boomers.
My favorite comment (being a Boomer): "Frankly, what I like about advertising to Boomers is they have an attention span greater than 10 seconds. You can actually say something meaningful and appeal to a Boomer." Wow! Is that pickin’ a fight or what?!
Tom
One response to “Talking To Boomers Online”
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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Heh heh heh… I don’t know, Tom. I’m a boomer, too. Born in 1950 and darn proud of it. I may have grown up on television, but learned to find balance in my life fairly early on. My mother was a 7th grade grammar teacher and my father was a newspaper editor, which means I knew how to read and write almost before I could walk.
Our parents never parked us in front of the television in lieu of being in relationship with us, and they insisted on intelligent conversation during dinner. My sister is a genius in math and I was a professional musician and artist for the better part of 40 years. And for the record, my hair is still down to the middle of my back in a pony tail and I still play the drums. Oh, and my brother designed the guidance system for the space shuttle (among the things he’s allowed to talk about).
As a consultant to nonprofit organizations, the boomer donors I deal with on a regular basis are wonderfully intelligent, concerned about where there money is going, how it is being used, how they are going to be informed about the application of their gift, and what kind of ongoing eye-level relationship they are going to have with the organization they are funding. They are also appalled at the growing trend in current generations toward isolation and withdrawal from the broader culture (which carries its own cargo of relevancy for the nonprofit future).
It’s probably not anything I can document, but my inclination is to think that simply developing a language to satisfy a culture with a collective attention span of less than 30 seconds probably isn’t worth the time. or money. But then… I’m old school.
Keep up the great work, man.
greg