Donating money makes people happy!

Good news for fundraisers, the data are in and they show that spending money on others makes one happier than spending money on oneself!

Why?

"It's partly because giving to others makes us feel good about ourselves. It helps promote a view of ourselves as responsible and giving people, which in turn makes us feel happy."

So when crafting your next appeal, think about how you can cultivate those feelings in your donors. Can you remind them of what a strong supporter they've been to your organization, so they can think of themselves as a caring, generous person, feel good about it, and want to continue that feeling? How about showing them the difference their support makes, so they feel responsible for something important?

But: don't talk too much about money.  There is a reason we fundraisers use words like "support," and I think it's because we intuitively know what another study proved (mentioned in same link as above), that

"the simplest reminder of money has all kinds of negative effects...It makes us...less likely to help others, less likely to donate to charity..."

That reminds me of another study that showed that people spent more at a restaurant if the menu didn't have dollar signs.  Can you use this information, say, when designing your reply envelopes?