Your sweeping, gigantic, inspiring call to action doesn’t move donors to action

Here are two online ads that were recently fed to me. The first one is from Trickle Up:

This one is from Doctors Without Borders

The Trickle Up call to action is bigger. It’s asking us to be part of a major transformation of the entire world — one that is actually possible. The Doctors Without Borders call to action is a micro-action: helping one refugee. Just one.

So which one is more likely to get clicks and donations?

Hands-down: The micro-action of Doctors Without Borders.

It is often argued that donors “should” support big.jpgcture action rather than micro-action. Maybe they should. But they don’t.

It’s the human brain. We respond to things we can see (or imagine we can see). Not to large-scale or abstract things. When you base your fundraising on what donors “should” respond to, you fail to reach most donors.

Here’s how your fundraising should make donors feel.