It’s easy for fundraisers to grow tired of our messaging and to give a lot of energy to finding new things to tell donors — after all, if I’m getting tired of it, they must be too!
Mistake.
It’s far more effective to remind your donors of things they know than to amaze them with new information. Or as the Better Fundraising Blog says, fundraising should be Reminding vs. Informing:
Reminding a donor what she already knows is a surer path to success than giving your donor new information to convince her to make a gift. It lowers the cognitive load for her to process your fundraising message. It emphasizes that your organization “gets” her.
Informing would be: 43% of the children in the community are chronically undernourished.
Reminding would be: You know how important it is for a young child to get the food she needs. Too many here aren’t getting that.
Facts and stats are important for you. They help you respond appropriately to the situation.
But for non-experts — that is, your donors — facts and stats are friction. Something they have to get past in order to care enough to take action.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.