Which is most/least risky to you?  Donating for the first time to a brand, You’ve never heard of Whose name you’ve heard before You know Answer: most, 2nd most, least.  Your only one path to growth comes from increasing the percentage of prospects that know you.  There is a huge chasm in likelihood to donate and lifetime value between “know you” vs. ‘heard of you”.   The brand measurement parlance for these is unaided awareness/brand recognition and aided awareness/brand recall, respectively. These are measured in a survey, Unaided Awareness:   When you th ..read more

Margaret Thatcher said, “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”   The same can be said for being trustworthy or  authentic; if you have to claim it, you’re not it.   And if you’re having internal meetings about how your brand can be more trusting and authentic then you’re probably trying to put a cat in a suit and expecting it to lead the board meeting. Trust and authenticity are bestowed on you by what you do and say.   Claiming trustworthiness not only doesn’t make it so, it make it the opposite. Research shows ..read more

They’re disappearing. The ones who came before us, born before the TVs were in every home and before man walked on the moon. The Traditionalists, the Silent Generation, and right behind them, the Baby Boomers. We’ve depended on them. They’ve been there for us. But now, with the Silent Generation projected to decline by over 70% and Baby Boomers by nearly 30% from 2020 to 2030, we face a gap that might not be so easy to fill. Not without some thought. Some effort. For most nonprofits, the issue of deceased donors has been a matter of administrative housekeeping—keeping mailing lists clean by su ..read more

Alan Kurdi’s 3yr old, lifeless body washed up on the beach after the boat carrying him from the Syrian civil war capsized.  NGO’s big and small reported a massive surge in donations even though the Syrian civil war had been raging for several years with thousands of deaths and millions of refugees. Baby Jessica fell into a narrow well in her aunt’s backyard.  The rescue operation, lasted 58 hours,  with millions glued to their TVs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars poured in from around the world.  The heart wrenching reality is that millions of kids under 5 die every year f ..read more

My dog, like many dogs, instinctually turns around in circles before lying down.  These instincts predate centuries of domestication and have no modern day value.  And yet, it’s part of her unconscious routine. Humans have similar unconscious, evolutionary quirks and preferences.  For example we instinctively prefer curves over angles.  This could be rooted in the innate roundness of a baby’s face as we tend to associate curvy with friendliness, softness, and approachability, while sharp angles induce associations of toughness, hardness, and avoidance. Approach and avoid, m ..read more

If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit.   That trial was 29 years ago, that line will live forever.  Why?  Sure, it was a surreal, celebrity infused, wall-to-wall coverage, media circus.  But do you remember any other lines from the trial?  There was the visual that went with the line but part of its stickiness is it’s rhyme-ness. Nietzsche said the origin of poetry can be traced back to a belief that rhythm and rhyme could confer magical powers to the words of prayers.  He went on to say that “even now … the wisest among us are still occasionally fooled by ..read more

In the vast theatre of human interest the spotlight fiercely chases the extremes and magnifies them in media, op-ed pieces, political discourse, fundraising campaigns, and advocacy efforts.  It’s the outliers who grab headlines, sparking debates and commanding clicks with their dramatic deviations from the norm. Meanwhile, the great, moderate majority who are more likely to storm the clearance rack than the Bastille get pushed into the backdrop or off stage entirely. This silent majority, embodying the gentle slope of the bell curve, tends to agree on a lot, making them the unsung heroes ..read more

Small-dollar donations to Trump and the GOP are way down since 2019 and 2020.  Why?  According to GOP insiders from a recent Washington Post article, the main culprit is they don’t treat their donors well.  Loyal readers no doubt recall Roger’s many exhortations about self-inflicted wounds on the Democratic side.  He cited lots of evidence, none as pithy as this NYT article in Fall of 23′ titled “Where Has All the Left-Wing Money Gone?”. And they say bipartisanship is dead… Glass houses have a funny way of turning into neighborhoods and from there, entire cities as we copy ..read more

In a groundbreaking collaboration Kevin Schulman and the DonorVoice team of behavioral scientists, along with a medical team at the National Institutes of Health have achieved the unimaginable: genetically decoding the Five Personality Traits of individual donors. The breakthrough discovery involves three steps: Step 1. Genetically identifying an individual’s Personality Traits; Step 2.  Linking the individual’s code to a specific organization’s appeal subject; Step 3.  Using AI to automatically create, write and design an appeal or message prepared explicitly for the individual base ..read more

George C Parker is a legend among con people.  The man actually sold the Brooklyn Bridge.  Several times.  Some of his victims were picked up by police as they attempted to erect toll booths. I think of him every time fundraising advice begins with the words “all you have to do is…”.  A decade or two ago, this was often followed by “put up a web site” or “email your supporters.”  Necessary conditions to be sure, but not sufficient. Present day, the magic beans might have to do with social media.  Can nonprofits (especially small ones) abandon a mail program and ea ..read more