Tis the season of giving. This week alone, I’ve received at least six different letters or emails from different nonprofits seeking donations. All worthy causes, mind you- who can say no to cancer research or helping the homeless? I’d love to be able to say yes to all and give substantially. (Sidebar: I am one of those people that has trouble saying no- I just have a vision of a little kid going hungry because I didn’t do something about it.) But it’s simply not feasible to give to every cause.
So this got me thinking. What compels people to donate to one organization and not another? Why are they more loyal to one organization than another? For me, it comes down to my emotional connection with the cause or organization. I give to cancer related organizations because my father had lymphoma. I give to autism related organizations because someone close to me has autistic children. But what about my alma maters? And other organizations I have an actual relationship with? As an alumna, I have expectations. And if they don’t hold up their end of the deal, do I feel obligated to continue contributing to them? I’m not sure. I did this year, but I’m not sure about next year. Other than my picking up the phone and telling them they’re losing me, do they have a way of knowing I’m unhappy? Is it even possible to measure the loyalty of charitable giving? I imagine that that would be powerful information for schools and other nonprofits to have.
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This is a very interesting post. Other than having an emotional connection with a charity, do they need to communicate anything to you about the work they're doing? For health organizations such as the American Cancer Society, I simply believe that whatever money I donate is being used in a good way - I don't need them to send me information on what they're doing with it for me to be loyal to the cause.
ReplyDeleteWith my alma maters, however, I agree that I need to see some feedback from them. I don't just assume my money is going toward the cause I would like it to.
This means charitable organizations that don't have an innate emotional attachment such as health-related causes need to work harder to hold onto their donators and even harder to get new ones to give. This is especially true outside the season of charitable giving - how can they measure the loyalty of their donators when charitable giving isn't top of mind?
I agree, Amina, that would seem like good info to know to me. :)
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ReplyDeleteAllison you are definitely right, this is certainly a thought provoking idea. The question that I would have to ask per you post though is, given that you already feel compelled to give to charitable organizations such as the American Cancer Society, do you think if they were to further personalize it, you would be compelled to give more?
ReplyDeleteTo give an example, I distinctly remember a time in my youth when our teacher was trying to get us to raise money for the kids at our sister school. Donations weren't going so well and he decided that we needed to really understand what our donations meant, so he assigned each of us a kid and told us their story.
Donations sky rocketed because we weren't donating with the hope of fixing a cause as monumental as child poverty anymore, we were donating because we knew that Johnny's single mom was working triples because she couldn’t decide between their rent or his winter jacket and that Emily's hopes for getting that Barbie backpack were shattered because her younger brother got sick and all the paychecks were going straight to hospital bills.
The point being that it my inclination to believe that people are always more Loyal to people and stories than they are to causes, hence it is in the interest of these charitable organizations to make people understand the impact of their donations.
But those are just my two cents. I am curious to hear what other people might think. Any thoughts?
December 18, 2008 11:32 AM
Bryan, your post got me thinking. Why is it that people are more loyal to people and stories than to causes? In a world where this is very true, the most successful organizations recognize this truth and use it to their advantage.
ReplyDeleteLike Amina, I am inundated with letters upon letters requesting donations. I'm more likely to donate to a friend raising money for a scholarship fund which may help five to ten people than to a hospital raising funds for a treatment facility which will help thousands. It's the loyalty to my friend that gets me shoving my hand into my purse. What kinds of things could that hospital do to create the emotional attachment that was lacking? The answer is simple: get the people who have that emotional connection with the institution to speak on its behalf. Make your raving advocates do the talking.
For instance, once upon a time I worked for the fundraising arm of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the Marathon and Running Programs department. I was never a runner and couldn't fathom why these people would ever put their body through 26.2 miles of pure hell. That is, until I started answering the hotline and connected individually with the runners. There were fathers who desperately wanted to run to thank Dana-Farber for saving their infant sons from lymphoma, daughters who ran in memory of mothers who lost their battles with breast cancer, and grandfathers who promised to sprint the 25th mile for granddaughters to inspire them to tough it out in their fight against bone marrow cancer. Feeling restless and helpless, I jumped on the treadmill and ran...a whopping 1/2 mile. But I was back the next day, and the day after and almost a year later, I crossed the finish line in the Boston Marathon, running on behalf of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. People who never would have donated otherwise heard my story about my mother who battled cancer (and won...thank goodness) and contributed willingly.
Maybe people are more loyal to people and stories rather than causes because as humans we need that personal connection. We prefer a thank you in person rather than a generic letter signed with a stamp instead of a handwritten signature. We want to see the small wins, the people crossing finish lines, rather than never actually knowing where the donation goes or who was thankful for it. It seems an organization is only as successful as the message its customers are sending.