Where’s the puppy?

Remember what we now call the Darfur Crisis? Unbelievable numbers of civilians in Sudan were chased into refugee camps, where disease and starvation was killing them in alarming numbers.

Frustratingly, world outcry was far from proportional. Some combination of the remoteness, obscurity, and complexity of the situation kept it off the front pages and out of most people’s consciousness.

In 2007, then New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote about his frustration. He cited a well-known study where people were far more responsive to a named individual who was in danger of starving than to the 21 million who were also in danger.

Kristof theorized that if there were an endangered puppy in Darfur, Americans would pay attention to the crisis.

He was right. One living thing — even if it’s not a human — can capture people’s attention and stir their compassion.

You can rage against the injustice of this, but it won’t get you anywhere. Because it’s built into human psychology. We want to help those in need, but we are not stirred to action by large and faceless numbers of people in need.

Want response? You need a “puppy.” A real person (human or otherwise) that people can imagine helping.

Back then I made a poster for my work area. It looked something like this:

Feel free to print this and post it where you’ll see it when you work.

Always ask yourself: Am I trying to bowl over people with the massive and tragic numbers of my cause? Or am I showing them a “puppy” — one individual who will reach past the barrier in our minds that make us care less about big problems than small ones?

The difference is often success or failure in fundraising.

More on Storytelling for Fundraisers.