Fundraising? Appeal to Someones Sense of Duty and Concern

It's an age-old problem, one experienced by very small organizations, and even very, very large organizations. How can you motivate people to donate money to your non-profit?

In a recent press release, researchers announced their findings. Surprisingly, the best way to motivate people to donate money is to stress how much help their money is providing. Focus on and stress the commonly held belief that it is better to give, than to receive.

Many public television stations, homeless organizations, veterans organizations offer rewards to those who donate, or support their activities. These rewards range from something as small as return address labels, pads of paper, to DVDs and books that are autographed by the author.

Researchers determined that although many local television stations believe that offering rewards increases the size and number of donations that are made, these beliefs are wrong.

The strategy used to push these benefits is one of being selfish-that is, the viewer is given a reward. That reward is generally tied to how much money the viewer has chosen to donate, with the best rewards being given to the largest donors.

Rather than being given a reward for donating money to a television stations, researchers determined that most viewers would rather have nothing. Their reward was helping the station itself, and knowing that the help that was provided would, in turn, benefit many more people.

One of the keys for soliciting donations is to recognize that many people feel obligated to try to help another person in need, or to help an organization that they care about. Just being able to help that organization or person provides an internal reward. When someone does not help, they often suffer guilty feelings because they know that they made the decision not to help when they were able to be of assistance.

"The appeals that were most effective were those that emphasized the benefits to others such as the station, the community, or disadvantaged groups. Appeals of this type might reference how budget cuts would affect the station, how the station needed to meet financial targets, or how the station's programming contributed to the community," said Robert J. Fisher, a business professor at the University of Alberta School of Business.

About the study
This research study was based on four different television fundraising drives that were conducted by a public television station. The fundraising drives took place over two years.

Researchers analyzed the pledges of over 4,868 individuals that occurred during a total of 584 breaks in programming specifically designed to encourage people to pledge donations to the station.

The results of this study have been published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/536212/