A Journey Inside your Donor's Brain
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A presentation by Leah Eustace and Scott Fortnum at the AFP International Conference in San Diego 2013.
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A Journey Inside your Donor's Brain
- 1. A Journey Inside your Donor's Brain @LeahEustace #AFPBrains @SFortnum #AFPIcon
- 2. What we’ll cover - Emotion versus Logic - The Power of One - The Power of a Good Story - Our Ageing Brain - Readability & Comprehension - Design and Legibility - Persuasion - Saying versus Doing - Why - What does it all mean?
- 4. What does it all mean?
- 5. The Power of One
- 6. What does it all mean?
- 7. The Power of a Good Story
- 8. What does it all mean?
- 10. What does it all mean?
- 12. What does it all mean?
- 14. What does it all mean?
- 15. Persuasian
- 16. What does it all mean?
- 18. What does it all mean?
- 19. Why, not how or what
- 20. What does it all mean?
- 21. Thank you! Leah Eustace, CFRE Good Works leah@goodworksco.ca @LeahEustace Scott Fortnum, ACFRE The Living City Foundation sfortnum@trca.on.ca @SFortnum
Editor's Notes
- Scott will set the stage Leah will outline agenda (research, then practical, then research, then practical) Questions as we go Get everyone to group by age 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s,
- Scott We make giving decisions emotionally, then justify them logically Prof Raj Raghunathan from the University of Texas puts it: “ We are ruled by our emotions first, and then we build justifications for our response . We want to be considered scientific and rational, so we come up with reasons after the fact to justify our choice”. Harley Davidson – not the best built or most reliable, but certainly one of the best known and “coolest” Think charitable lotteries: buy for the prize and rationalize for the budget as it’s “a good cause”
- Leah Consider the importance of the value of the band and the emotional response it creates In our communications, we must lead with emotion but provide logic for people to rationalize
- Leah Paul Slovic’s research about how people can’t process statistics; story of one person makes people give more… adding even one more person decreases giving Also applies to the call to action: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103112000959
- Scott Follow the research Tell the story of one or at the very least, one at a time
- Scott http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHeqQAKHh3M&feature=youtu.be Research around how stories help us understand things better, help us retain information, and they’re easy to spread -science tells us that human’s are not ideally set up to understand logic; they’re ideally set up to understand stories… and stories make us feel -Stories also get and keep the reader’s attention -They help us communicate better -Enhance credibility -Linger longer in reader’s minds
- Leah Talk about Ben and the way empathy and distress used in direct response Continually gather exemplifying stories within your organization – central repository All good stories are better told when practiced – whether in person or in writing The old sales adage of sell the sizzle _what do we remember about Marcus Buckingham? Son Jack
- Leah- we become more right brained and emotional as we age -forget keys, can’t remember why we went downstairs, but our brain power reaches its peak in middle age -Ask questions related to brain age -short letters versus long letters -why did I come to this room? -what do you forget (60s)
- Scott We need to be aware of aging brains and equally import life stage distractions that affect our volunteers and our donors We all overestimate how much our donor or prospect knows. Remind them with context. What is clear to us is not always clear to others: connect the dots Right communication medium for the right message
- Scott Write at grade 6 level (anything above grade 7 lowers response) Obama’s state of the union addresses written at grade 8… there’s a reason we remember them Your communication pieces are not the place to show off your immense vocabulary
- Leah Use the many tools that are available – embedded in MS Word and Outlook – enable the readability statistics Remember older eyes. Ask someone older to review
- Leah Type size must be larger than average. Use 12 pt type at a minimum, and I would suggest 13 pt for planned giving materials. A serif type is much easier to read in printed materials, whereas a sans-serif type is easier to read on a website. limit the use of all caps, italics, script and ornate typefaces. Use sufficient leading - (the white space around each character) between characters so that the letters don't seem to run together. Make line spacing larger than usual. Single space may be too hard to read so try 1.5 or double spacing. Use dark type on a white background. The brighter the white and the blacker the type, the easier it will be for older eyes to read. Write short paragraphs and use subheadings, in bold, to break up long copy. Make generous use of bullets, numbered lists, sidebars, and pull-out quotes to help break up your pages. Line length should be short--about five or six inches. When using color for headings or backgrounds, choose carefully. The older eye develops a yellow cast, and it becomes harder to distinguish between certain colors. For instance, blue, purple and green may look alike when used together. Yellow, orange and red are much easier to tell apart. Never use glossy paper. Light reflects from the gloss and makes it very difficult for the reader to see the print. Use a matte finish .
- Scott Consider creating a rubric for your design – a checklist, based on Leah’s comments that all of your outbound communications are held against Over time it will become habit Better chance of having your message heard and more importantly actioned …all to the benefit of the mission
- Scott Run the first 1:08 http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/site/the_6_things_you_must_know_about_the_science_of_persuasion#When:07:40:43Z 1. Reciprocity 2. Scarcity 3. Authority 4. Consistency 5. Liking 6. Consensus (aka Social Proof)
- Leah - if you can incorporate these things in your communications you will be more successful Look for examples of these techniques with other organization’s fundraising efforts Pop quiz: What technique is exhibited by the inclusion of mailing labels in a DM package: Reciprocity What about a telethon where a donor will receive a DVD for a gift but there are only 12 left: Scarcity You’re invited to Like a FaceBook page. Then Invited to complete a survey, then invited to sign a petition, then invited to make a small donation: Consistency
- Leah What people say, and what they actually do can be very different Example: recent national donor survey in Canada suggested that people don’t really care about being thanked… try removing your thank yous from your program and see how that works out for you http://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/future-fundraising/2012/11/research-that-will-lead-your-fundraising-astray.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FutureFundraisingNow+%28Future+Fundraising+Now%29 Your biggest enemy in fundraising is your own opinion!
- Scott Listen to your audience, not yourself. Test, test, test Ask questions and understand what works f]
- Scott Research shows that donors already know how to leave a planned gift… they want to know why they should give it to you Does your case for support talk all about the institution in facts and figures? Tell donors why you need their support People give to the cause, not the institution Tell stories of the impact of planned gifts or the reasoning of agreeing to a future gift Remember the Power of One
- Leah Your donors are smart and will call or research the info they need to make a planned gift Our role is to inspire them to want to make the gift through the various persuasion techniques Everything that we do as fundraisers should be designed to give a potential donor the informatin they require to make an informed givng decision !