Interested in More Donations for your Nonprofit?

Every social services agency that benefits from fundraising activity and donations would love to bring in more money.

The question is how?

I’ve found an interesting article over at Neuromarketing that can definitely help your with this. Here’s a money quote:

“What are the neuromarketing implications for nonprofit marketers? The first takeaway is the priming the potential donor or volunteer with thoughts about mortality can increase altruism. The second is that under many, if not most, circumstances, a more vivid and personal story about death may work better than a more general priming effort. Many charities may not be able to convey a perception of immediate high need like the record low blood donation story (though many try to do so), and the vivid/personal prime would be expected to work better in circumstances where critical need is less apparent.

We also know that our brains find stories to be particularly engaging  and you are much more likely to hold a reader’s attention with a descriptive story than an abstract discussion.”

Does this mean you need to manipulate potential and existing donors? Not necessarily. Your intent is to help your cause, help your mission. This is just an explanation of the best way to approach your fundraising efforts. Another quote here:

“The way I’d do this is to create a scenario in which the thoughts are created but the efforts of the nonprofit are related to a solution. For example, the original experiment used visualization of an apartment fire. A charity for injured firefighters, or a group that assists victims of disasters, could easily weave the original scenario into a description of the important work done by their organization. More generally, thoughts of mortality could tie into bequest solicitations, a story about a deceased donor who made a difference, etc.”

Check out the rest of the article at Neuromarketing.