It’s Not You. It’s Your Message.
When your giving campaigns fall short, it’s time to break from the herd.
Last Words First Summary
Humans are herd animals.
That’s no excuse for creating follow-the-herd giving campaigns that rehash the same messaging as fellow nonprofits.
A cliche appeal is simply white noise to your audience, likely hurting more than helping your return on marketing investment.
Per the research, gather your organization’s results, preferably those from the 3 to 10-year range, to reflect effectiveness. This is the stuff donors want to see.
Leverage mid- and long-term results in your messaging to drive more revenue.
Wrap your results around a personal story that humanizes the data.
The cherry on top: every ask should have an urgency-oriented call to action like in this list.
Need guidance creating a powerful giving campaign that grows your donor base and income? Let’s talk
When Following the Herd Doesn’t Pay Off
Humans are herd animals. As gregarious, group-loving people-people, doing as our fellow human does is as instinctual as returning a stranger’s smile at the coffee shop. Conversely, straying from the group can signal trouble. That primitive lump in our brain will trigger a warning when it perceives we’re wandering from the safety of the herd. Within the herd: Protection. Outside the herd: We (potentially) become a sabretooth’s main course.
As members of the herd, conforming is acceptance. Part of conformity is replication, an accepted practice for group membership. As such, duplicating others explains everything from Tesla’s popularity to broccolini recipes to face tattoos. The downside is that replication is rampant in nonprofit marketing. And not in a good way.
Paradoxically, the very thing that saves us from being singled out for the sabertooth’s dinner plate is the same thing that kills a nonprofit’s well-intentioned giving campaign.
How many times have you seen “Annual Membership Drive,” “Give Today!”, “We Need Your Help!”? Daily, I suspect.
When you filter this repetition through a current or potential donor’s eyes, however, he/she doesn’t see a request for financial assistance from your organization. Instead, they gloss over the same hat-in-hand appeal that they’ve ignored 1,000 times before. In other words, your ask dissolves into the background as white noise.
Ask Yourself This:
Would you donate to your organization if you were hit with the appeal campaign messaging you’re currently using?
Your answer could be revealing.
Herd Words Are Hurting You
Besides boring your target donor audiences to death, rehashed campaign pleas aren’t giving supporters the information they want. An in-depth study on donor behavior by Jutta Bodern-Schrotgens and Annika Becker determined donors want to see a nonprofit’s results before committing to a gift. In particular, the giving community wants to know how their (potential) contribution has made or will make a difference. “Donors seem to care more about information on intermediate and long-term effects,” the authors concluded. The study determined that the most effective advertising headlines were those highlighting mid-term (1-3 years) and long-term (3-10 years) impacts on the nonprofit’s beneficiaries.
“Donors seem to care more about information on intermediate and long-term effects.”
In less academic terms, the advertising that spurred the greatest response appealed specifically to the donor’s WIFM – What’s in it For Me – quotient.
WIFM: This is the holy grail acronym for creating outreach that causes a reaction. When you nail the WIFM, you nail the quickest path to a response.
Play Your Strong Hand: Pump Your Results
Tapping into your nonprofit’s results satisfies your donor’s WIFM needs while distinguishing your organization from the herd of competitive cliche financial asks. Results motivate donors. AND they’re the foundation for creating truly engaging marketing. Just as importantly, dialing into your organization’s performance history will likely improve your development marketing performance and ROI.
So what did your organization accomplish? I created a few examples to make my point:
“With your donation, we helped XX kids like Jimmy improve their third-grade reading skills 5 years in a row.”
“We offset the costs of senior meals by $XXX since 2021 with your gift. Delores isn’t faced with either buying medications or eating dinner.”
“Jenna turned in her book report! With your help, XX public libraries successfully fought book bans in XX states.”
You’ll have to dig a bit. You’ll probably have to tap into the data and crunch a few numbers (numbers are always solid data for donors). But the effort is worth it.
Contact me if you need help identifying these results-focused WIFM gems and transforming them into creative giving and storytelling campaigns that motivate donors.
Data Wrapped in a Story
You’ll notice the above examples get very personal. Personalization is critical to improving your campaign results. While the data spurs the donor’s calculating mind, humanizing the data drives the emotional response. Your campaigns will always perform better when a person with a name is tied to the outcomes. So, look for the numbers. Tie the findings to a person or beneficiary. And leverage his or her story in your appeal.
Calls To Action that Bring the Donor to Your Door
Finally, the closer or call to action (CTA) is the third leg of revamping your campaign approach. It’s the big send-up, the finisher.
An effective CTA reinforces your overall message while instilling a sense of urgency. Your CTA will likely be tailored to your organization and the campaign you’re running, so feel free to improvise and build from the following list, which you can download here. Based on my research, these are the words that actually motivate a response and those that don’t. They’ve repeatedly proven themselves to drive the donor to take the most important step.
Hello!
I’m Greg Fine, lead rhino of Greg The Fine - Outsized Marketing for Mid-Size Nonprofits. I’m a marketer, creative director, brand strategist and content creator/storyteller who has spent 30 years in the for-profit marketing world. Greg The Fine is my transition – and commitment – to supporting nonprofits by adapting my marketing experience to improving nonprofit results through keenly focused marketing strategy and unforgettable creative execution. You can learn more about me here.
