This is from a cute comic titled "9 Ways to Get People To Do What You Want:"

You can click to see the whole comic. So, what from this list applies to fundraising communications work?

• "Be charming, confident and likeable." Which organization would you rather support, the one who says "with your help, we will solve x problem," or one that says "we might be able to solve x, we'll try..." As for charming and likeable, how about that potato salad kickstarter?
  


• "At the beginning of the conversation, make the person say 'yes.'" A great example of this is petition-signing. She has already proven herself to care about the issue enough to sign the petition; now it's less of a stretch for her to donate to support it.


• "Make the person feel respected and important." Hello, donor-centeredness!
  


• "Push for a feeling, rather than something tangible." We know that most donation decisions are influenced by emotions, not logic.


• "Tap into the person's imagination." You see this a lot in fundraising messaging. "Can you imagine going to school hungry? Jimmy does..." "Imagine, Pawnee's river completely cleaned up by 2016!" Reaching people's imaginations helps make your messaging compelling.


• "Do a big favor for the other person so he or she feels obligated to do something for you." Again, you see this a lot with charities that send out mailing labels, notepads, etc., a practice that is getting increasingly controversial. (Here are more posts about using reciprocity in your communications.)


• "Challenge a person to do something, as opposed to telling them to do something." Does this remind you of the wildly-successful Ice Bucket Challenge campaign?


• "Claim that you have the person's best interests in mind." I've said it before (and I'll say it again, surely): people don't give to your organization, they give through your organization to make a difference. Make it clear that you want the same things. "With your help, we'll preserve the Pawnee Historical Museum, so you and your family can enjoy it for many years to come."

First-time donors aren't donors

A donor isn't really a donor until he or she has donated a second time.

Why?  Because of all the reasons people often initially give:

• supporting a walkathon or similar
• in honor or memory of someone they care about
• sweepstakes
• "go away" money 

But, if she donates a second time, it's because she cares about the work of your organization.  So, how to get (and keep) donors more involved?

Mal Warwick's book How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters (a must-own for any fundraising communications professional) has an entire chapter devoted to creating a welcome package for your new donor, complete with examples.  In sum, keep it warm, keep it personal.  Inform the donor about the work of your organization in order to reassure him that donating was a good call, that his money is going to make a difference.

This post on SOFII features the legendary Tom Ahern.  He shows you, step-by-step, how he wrote a letter specifically aimed at those who gave gifts in memory, in order to convert them to real donors.  It is such a useful read, even if that's not exactly what you're doing.

What has worked for you to keep first-time donors "in the family"?

It's about the wants of your reader

I love Copyblogger, and I especially love thinking of ways to adapt their advice for the nonprofit world.

They discuss the importance of determining if your copy truly contains a benefit to the reader.  The example they use is that "Balance your blood sugar levels naturally!" isn't good copy because no one thinks "Gee, I need to balance my blood sugar levels naturally!"  But what people do want is to avoid the things like blindness, numb limbs, and premature death that go along with diabetes.  Therefore, better copy would focus on how to naturally avoid diabetes and its bad effects.

So how can you apply this to your own work?  Don't ask people to "save the park," ask them to save the place where they relax, kids and dogs get exercise, and neighbors meet and chat.  Don't ask your readers to donate money for food, ask them to donate money to stop folks in need being hungry.

Marketing is like gift giving—too often we give people what we think they should want, or what we want them to want.  To be effective, you have to get inside the head of your reader, figure out what they desire, and then give them that, or appeal to that. 

Decisions and emotions

There is a great post on Copyblogger about the power of emotion in decision-making. Listed are "The 4 emotional appeals you need to master:" love, greed, fear, and duty/honor.

I would say that all of those except greed are great to tap into in your fundraising communications. (And maybe even greed, too, sometimes!)

Some examples of how these emotions could be used:

• Love: the love of one's fellow man, wanting to help those in need


• Fear: the fear that the planet will become uninhabitable, the fear that innocent children will go hungry


• Duty/Honor: the feeling that it's one's job to take care of the less fortunate, or to give back to the community

Emotional writing is even more important in fundraising because you (usually) aren't selling a product or service. You are selling the good feeling someone gets when they write a check to a cause they care about.

Cultivate trust and money will follow

Once, I was looking at reply slips received back from an acquisition mailing.  One person wrote in the margins of the slip, "I am taking your word that you help people with this money."

I believe that most donors, especially first-time donors, feel this worry.  But one person felt it so strongly that he wrote it in a message to us.

Donors give because they believe their money is going to make a difference.  That new donor, who doesn't have a relationship with you yet, is going to feel concerned that she is throwing her money away.  She needs you to convince her that she is investing her money into a worthwhile cause she cares about. 

Neuromarketing has a blog post about words that build trust.  Apparently, literally saying "You can trust us," well, works.  Some of the other words aren't relevant to a nonprofit, like "fair price." But check it out, it's something to think about in your messaging, especially in your acquisition mailings.

This is also something to think about with regard to your welcome package—part of your messaging should be reassuring the donor that he made the right decision to donate (so he'll donate again!).

Knock down the barriers between apathy and action

This TED talk is a must-watch for any nonprofit marketers, and others in the nonprofit world will also benefit from viewing it.  It's just seven minutes long.

The part where Dave Meslin shows what it would look like if Nike designed an ad like the government designs their public notice ads is so funny and true!



This video reiterates the importance of making it easy for people.  Always keep this in mind: help your supporters help you!

Please feel free to leave a comment telling me what you think of the video.

Are freebies a good way to get donations?

In an earlier post, I wrote about including free return address labels with solicitations, using the reciprocity principle to persuade individuals to donate.  I wondered if, rather than motivating people to give, it could possibly alienate them instead.

This Dear Abby column addresses this practice; it's actually a follow-up column because she got so much mail on the issue.  Says Abby: "Letters from readers complaining about charitable donation requests with labels arrive in my office on a daily basis..."

Some highlights:

"My view is, if they're using my donation to send gifts, then they really don't need my money.  They should be using donations to help whomever or whatever it is they're soliciting for."

"There's nothing 'free' when organizations try to guilt us into sending money.  My solution for all this junk is, use the labels and anything personalized if I like them; if not, destroy them." 

As a fundraiser, I find this woman's story pretty horrifying (italics mine):

"Last year, for about six months, I collected all the requests for donations I received.  Abby, the total was 532 requests from 119 organizations!...I no longer feel guilty about tossing them.  I sent all of them letters requesting they delete my name from their lists.  118 ignored my request...I give the notepads and other enclosures to Goodwill and shred the labels...I donate less than I ever have in the past because I feel so hounded, so in my case, it has worked against them."

One would think that organizations continue this practice because, well, it works.  But comments like these, from people who are sick and tired of it, give us something to think about.  You can read the Yahoo! comments below the column for even more. 

I want to know what you think—is including freebies with your solicitations a good idea?

Two important words

Copyblogger isn't nonprofit-focused, but we can still learn a thing or two from there to apply to our world.  This post is about two very important words:

• you

• because
   

Let's start with the word you.  The fundraising community talks a lot about being "donor-centered;" that means making it all about your donors.

So instead of "We removed 600 pounds of trash from the river this year," write "Thanks to your donations, 600 pounds of trash were removed from the river this year."  Use "you" and "your," instead of "we" and "our." 

On to because.  In one chapter of Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, the study about cutting in line for a copy machine is discussed.

In this study, when a stranger asked someone if he or she could cut in line, 60% of people agreed.  When he/she added, "...because I'm in a rush," the number of cooperators grew to 94%!  So powerful is the word "because" that even when the reason given was "...because I have to make copies," (what a weak reason—of course you're there to make copies) the percentage was still 93%!

You need to explain, clearly, what your organization does (thanks to its fabulous, kind, generous, caring, wonderful donors).  But don't tell, show—make it jump off the page and pull your donors' heartstrings.

Write about your donors, give them a compelling "because," and they will support your cause.

Persuasive messaging, personal beliefs

Earlier I referenced this post from PsyBlog about crafting persuasive messages.  Number 17 and especially 20 in that post reminded me of something from Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

Katya's blog post asks, "are you a marketer or a missionary?"  She explains that it is much easier to be a marketer, who identifies a person's values and then ties her cause to those values, than to be a missionary, who identifies a person's values and then tries to change them.

#20 on PsyBlog's post states, "Avoid targeting strong beliefs: strong attitudes and beliefs are very difficult to change.  Do not directly approach long-standing ideas to which people are committed, they will resist and reject."

And #17 reminds us "Go with the flow: persuasion is strongest when the message and audience are heading in the same direction."

As a nonprofit marketer, the good news is, unless what you are working on is an acquisition/prospecting campaign to get new donors, you have the perfect market in your hand—people who have already supported your organization.  Their support is evidence that their values are at least in part aligned with those of your cause.

So don't waste time trying to change their values.  Speak to them about the values you know they and your organization share, and the difference that they can—and want to!—make through donating to you.

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?

Messaging essentials

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know how much I like clear, concise, simple ways to improve your fundraising communications.  The amazing Katya Andresen has a terrific blog post with 8 things to check before you hit send, go to print, or get up in front of an audience.  Just go read it.

Are your appeals the absolute best they can be?

I sure love checklists, because they're simple ways to make sure your communications will perform as well as possible.  (As seen earlier here on my blog.)  Do yourself a favor and check out this list of ideas from Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration.  It's terrific!

I have a few things to say about it:

• It's fantastic that they use neuromarketing ideas. (#1-6)

• Note #7—reciprocity.  As SOFII say here, "use with care and prudence," so as not to cause "obligation to descend into resentment."  I say stick with this part of that idea: "Perhaps there are better things [than items] you can 'give'...such as special access, insider information – or even gratitude..."

• I love the (non-mandatory, non-monetary) pledge for new donors to "‘continue [her] regular gift for as long as [she] can afford it'" in #8.

• #12's idea about limiting the number of donors for a project with special benefits is incredible.  If you ask me, that's what the point of #7 is—talk about your special access!

  How can you apply these principles to your fundraising?

Some science behind persuasion

Fundraising communications professionals aren't the only ones who want to influence people; so do business marketers, salespeople, politicians...the list goes on.  Thanks to the diversity of folks who want to sway others, there is a good amount of research devoted to the science of persuasion.  There is an article in Business Week about scientifically-proven principles for influencing others, which includes:

• Liking: People like those...who like them.
  Or, be friends with your donors.  This is why fundraising letters should sound like a letter from a pal—a pal who really appreciates everything you've done for him, of course.
  
  
• Reciprocity: People repay in kind.
  The Business Week article actually uses nonprofit fundraising in this example, the good old "free personalized address labels included" tactic.  I would be interested to see some more recent research about this technique, as I wonder if it is starting to turn donors off due to the market being saturated with it.  People may tire of getting items they didn't ask for, but the idea of reciprocity (you helped me, now I feel compelled to help you) in humans is timeless.
  
  
• Social Proof: People follow the lead of similar others.
  Katya Andresen's blog has a great article about what happened when researchers put a clear donation box in the entrance to a gallery.  You should read the article if you haven't, but in (very) short: people gave more when there was money in the box than when the box was empty.  Takeaway: people want to fit in, and most people don't want to be first.  So, if you have a sign-up sheet, sign a few people in at the top so that no one has to be first.  If you want to use a thermometer showing how far along you are in your goal, don't share that thermometer until you have received some money already.  If you are going to have a live auction, make sure you have someone in the audience who is willing to be the first to bid.
  
  
• Authority: People defer to experts who provide shortcuts to decisions requiring specialized information.
  Good fundraising materials tug at the heartstrings, but donors have to trust that you know what you're talking about.  The best way for this to happen is for your organization to become a trusted authority on your subject(s)—think of the reputations of the ACLU or the World Wildlife Fund.  You can also quote other respected sources discussing your organization or the problem it aims to solve.