This relates to one of Robert Cialdini’s principles of influence and persuasion: “commitment and consistency.”
The main point is this:
Because we are wired to want to be consistent.
That to which we commit, especially publicly, becomes congruent with our self image.
What does this mean for you as a fundraiser?
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Studies show one-fourth of all charitable giving happens in December. For some organizations (maybe yours?), it’s as much as one-third. Year-end fundraising is not chopped chicken liver!
While you absolutely should be using multiple fundraising channels to get best results, right now whatever you’ve got planned for offline is pretty much cooked. So your best bet for boosting year-end results is digital.
What do you have planned online between now and December 31st?
The 2024 M+R Benchmarks Study found nonprofits raise anywhere from 17% to 34% of their online revenue in December, depending on their cause. For well over a decade, the last week of the year – and particularly the last day of the year– have been huge for online fundraising.
To boost your year-end fundraising success, you need to craft an email offer your donor can’t refuse.
If you’ve not yet planned your campaign, start here — and now. If you’re ready to go, take a moment to check your plan against these tips. In a nutshell, you need three things for any effective fundraising offer:
It’s really that simple, but let’s get a little more into the weeds so you’ve a better idea how to execute these three offer components.
Your job as a philanthropy facilitator is to do everything in your power to make giving to you as easy, joyful and rewarding as possible. You are, if you will, a donor Sherpa. As a donor guide, you likely know things your donors don’t know. You have tools they don’t have. Your role along the pathway to…
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The biggest fundraising time of the year for most nonprofits inexorably approaches.
It can be stressful.
Don’t succumb to the stress. You’ve got this!
Perhaps you can’t do everything you’d like to do this year, but you can do some things.
Some you can do on your own.
Some will require support from technical and/or marketing staff.
Don’t become discouraged thinking you don’t have the time. Sometimes you don’t have time not to do these things.
None of these suggestions are big time consumers standing alone. They’re each little tweaks. Because often it’s the little things that count. That pack a surprising wallop.
So don’t save all your energy for writing your appeal. Help your appeal along by putting some of the dozen suggestions that follow into effect.
Even just one or two will make a difference.
Let’s get started…
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BOO!
Halloween is creeping up on us, so I’ve got some really scary stuff for you!
Don’t get too spooked. There are also a few treats.
In fact, you’ll get eight delicious goodies — in the form of “to-do’s.”
But first… the bad news.
No bones about it, you’re frightening folks away if you’re committing any of these 8 boo-boo’s!
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Your nonprofit’s story is the whole ball of wax.
Without it, you’ve got nothing.
So let’s really talk about this for a minute.
A story is not “Give us money because we’re good guys and do good work.”
Nor are “Sustain humanitarian aid,” “Support the arts,” or “Save our rivers” stories.
Sure, there may be some implicit narratives hiding within these phrases, but they’re really tag lines or calls to action. Useful, sure. But not until you’ve laid the groundwork of telling a compelling story.
You never start a story with “And they lived happily ever after.”
Similarly, you should never start a fundraising appeal with “We saved the whales.” Where’s the emotion and drama here?
You know donors are moved to give through emotion, right?
The best way to get inside a donor’s head and heart is by telling a dramatic, emotional story. Something that taps into their core and arouses their curiosity, or some deeper feeling like sadness, fear or anger.
You see, human brains are wired for story.
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We use them to understand our world.
But do the same stories work in any time? For any person? No.
You need to understand your SMIT story – ‘Single Most Important Thing’ – at this moment in time.
And that SMIT will change, depending on the environment in which you’re operating.
You need to know your audience. Today. The story you told last year may not work as well this year. And here is why:
(1). The story must be relevant to the donor – which will depend on what is top of mind for them (hint: pay attention to the news).
(2). The need to give the story a happy ending must feel urgent (hint: pay attention to the news).
Whatever your mission, relevancy and urgency are the key to emotional appeals.
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Are you starting to worry about whether you’ll raise enough money this year to meet your goals? Are you concerned because last year’s appeal didn’t raise as much as you had hoped? Are you fresh out of ideas for what to put into an appeal to generate the giving response you need to sustain vital…
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Recently, fundraising copywriting and thanking guru, Lisa Sargent, posted a list of “small stuff” it’s absolutely important to sweat. It to me decades – decades! — to learn this on my own in the trenches, and I’d have given anything to have had a mentor like Lisa to clue me in from the get-go. Lucky…
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The world reacted with shock and outrage. There was a pervasive feeling of “how could this happen here?” People screamed… cried… prayed. This was five years ago. Last spring. When a fire wreaked devastating damage to something that, for many, represented the soul of a nation. And . Notre Dame Cathedral is iconic and symbolic.…
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People are wired for stories