Connect with the Heart to Raise Money
Tom Ruwitch / Sunday, December 13th, 2009 / No Comments »How many fund-raising appeals have you read that cite countless statistics to prove the effectiveness of the charity? I could wallpaper my house with them.
No offense to the statisticians and numbers-crunchers, but charities that build their campaigns on such logical appeals may be undermining their efforts. In an important and provocative article published this month on his blog and in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Sean Stannard-Stockton argues that charities must connect with donor’s hearts — their emotions — to raise money.
“Ignoring the role of emotions in decision making is a mistake in all fields, but doing so in philanthropy is especially dangerous,” he writes.
His article cites a a 2007 paper that describes how appealing to donors’ logic can actually suppress giving.
“The study found that potential donors gave more money if they were asked to give to support a 7-year-old girl named Rokia facing starvation in Mali, Africa, than if they were asked to support the three million children facing starvation in the country. Worse, the study found that if the fund-raising appeal showcased Rokia but included statistical information about overall need in the country, donors gave less than they did when the statistical data were left out,” he writes.
What does this mean for your organization? It means you have to be a better story-teller. You have to weave stories about those you serve into your appeals so you can connect with prospective donors’ and volunteers’ hearts.
Jeremy Courtney (profiled in our book) does this beautifully to promote The Preemptive Love Coalition. Check out his Facebook page where he constantly links to photos and stories about the kids his charity saves.
Brian Mullaney (also profiled in our book) is a master of connecting donors’ hearts to his cause, Smile Train. In fact, Smile Train helped produce a short documentary called Smile Pinki that tells the story of one girl the charity helped. The film won the Academy Award for best documentary short in 2008. Now, the charity is giving away the movie for free on on the Smile Train site. That’s a BIG idea.
In December 2008, I wrote a year-end fund-raising appeal for a charity I serve. The letter included a handful of stories and no data. I write about the letter and the need to spread passion (to connect with donors’ hearts) in this post on this site.
Your communications plan must focus on telling stories, spreading passion, and connecting donors’ hearts with your cause. Ask yourself: Why are you passionate about this? Somewhere in your answer, you’ll find the stories that you can spread to attract donors and volunteers.
Should you stop collecting data to prove your case? Of course not. Many foundations and other funding sources demand it, and, despite this study, there is much debate on whether left-brain appeals actually undermine development efforts. But this much is certain: If you are not appealing to prospects emotions, you need to start.
