When it comes to donating, there is a lot to be grateful for. Psychological research has found that altruism is an innate characteristic of human beings. When we make a donation, our brain’s “reward centre” lights up – it feels good. But psychological research has found that there are some dark spots to our altruism as well. When we are asked to give to many people in some far away location, we don’t feel moved by their circumstances as much as we would be by just a single, identifiable person.
We can use psychology persuasion techniques in order to convince more people to contribute to our cause though. In this blog we’ll discuss the psychology of fundraising and persuasion strategies as a foundation of organising more efficient donation campaigns.
Fundraising psychology – the Give and Take
Fundraising can be made more effective by using some basic psychological principles. One of them is known as “the give and take”. The give and take principle is based on the powerful psychological and cultural force known as reciprocity. It is well known in social science that all human societies respect the principle that we are obligated to repay invitations, gifts, and favours. This principle really makes sense, as we can see how reciprocity is at the root of what makes us human. Reciprocity, has allowed human societies through history to adapt and progress to our complex global economy today.
Reciprocity can even result in exchanges of unequal value. For instance, it is reciprocity that makes some people leave a big tip for a waiter who just leaves a mint along with your bill for dinner.
You can apply the principle of reciprocity in your fundraising projects by offering a small gift or product sample to those who make a donation to your cause.
The rule of reciprocity is also at the root of many classic negotiation strategies. You may start your negotiation by making a request that will likely not be accepted and once rejected you can come with a more reasonable request that will trigger a concession from your transaction partner. This tactic is called the Rejection-Then-Retreat. In fundraising you can use this strategy by asking for a bigger donation at first and then accepting just a smaller amount.
Reciprocity is often employed in sales circles as the Give and Take strategy. It can be employed in the same way for fundraising purposes.
Cialdini’s Six Principles of Influence
Influencing others and convincing them to donate to your fundraising project can be challenging. However, if you use psychology in your favour you can greatly improve your rate of success. For this reason it is important to understand the basic psychological principles that stay behind the influencing process.
Robert Cialdini, a marketing and psychology professor at Arizona State University, defined The Six Principles of Influence in his respected book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” published in 1984.
Here are the six principles of the influencing process:
1. Reciprocity
As we already mentioned, we all are prone to pay back debts, return favours, and treat others the same way as they treat us. According to the psychological principle of reciprocity, if someone is offering us something this can lead us to feel obliged to offer concessions in return in order to not feel indebted to them. For this reason, if you received a flower in the street from a charity fundraiser, you may feel obliged to give money to their cause. You can use the reciprocity principle in your fundraising efforts by offering some meaningful free gifts to your donors.
2. Commitment
We all have a deep desire to honour our commitments and to be consistent. We tend to go through with something once we’ve committed. In fundraising, donors who already made a donation to a certain cause or charity in the past are more likely to continue to donate to that cause in the future. In order to take advantage of this principle you need to remind people of the things they value and are similar to idea behind your fundraising campaign. You can also try to contact those people who already contributed to your cause in the past.
3. Social Proof
People tend to follow the social example and social pressure from their peers. For instance, if our colleagues donate to a certain charity we will feel pressure to follow their example and do the same. You can use this principle in your advantage in fundraising by highlighting the number of people who already made a donation.
4. Liking
We’re more likely to be follow the example and be influenced by people we like. For instance, if a celebrity we like makes a donation to a cause, we may feel the need to follow the example and donate too.
5. Authority
We feel an obligation to follow the example or instructions of people in positions of authority. If the boss or local politician or some other authority figure made a donation, we may feel the need to do the same. To use this principle in favour of your fundraising project get support from influential people and people in power.
6. Scarcity
Things are more attractive when they are scarce. For example, we might donate something immediately if we’re told that the fundraising campaign is approaching its end. You can use this principle in fundraising by highlighting the urgent consequences of the problem that campaign helps to solve.
NLP and Fundraising
You can attempt the use of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques to your advantage in fundraising. You can listen carefully to your potential donors in order to recognise patterns in the way they speak that can be used to learn about their personality, their values, their drive. If you are a fundraiser it is important to recognise in what category to place your potential donors.
We can learn to evaluate other people’s attitudes, beliefs, values, and programs in order to understand them better. This can give you a competitive edge in the fundraising market. Influencing people involves making them understand the nature of the challenge first, whether it is cancer research, building facilities for the local school or repairing the local sporting club. After making them understand the challenge the next step is to encourage them take some responsibility and be willing to accept that they should do something about it.
In general, people are more likely to support causes they can personally identify with. We tend to be moved more by the sufferance of a single, identifiable person, or by a group of people we know, than by a general statement of need.
One of the NLP tools that you can use in fundraising is called anchoring. This is related to the idea that we all collect triggers or anchors throughout our lives. These triggers are linked to strong emotions. By learning to recognise such triggers in others you may be able to use them in order to influence them making decisions in the direction you want. You also can use some of the most common triggers by including them in your fundraising presentation. That has the power to make your potential donors passionate about your cause and have a strong emotional response.
Most donors are not motivated by one thing but they usually have a cluster of three or four motivations from range of different possible donor motivations. The challenge for you as a fundraiser is to match their motivations.
According to recent studies, the most frequently motivations for people making donations were wanting to make a contribution to the community (80%), wanting to help a cause in which the donor personally believes (86%), and feeling compassion for those in need (90%). Some donors were influenced by tax credits offered by the government for donations (23%), while others may give when they have been affected personally by the cause (62%). Based on this research can be designed some effective approaches in creating the right message for fundraising campaigns.
Conclusion
By using these powerful fundraising psychology techniques, you can greatly enhance your fundraising campaigns, reach out and convince more donors, get higher donation amounts and achieve better overall success. Good luck!