Good boys and girls eagerly anticipate gifts aplenty every
holiday season, but we grownups are also expected to give at
Christmastime, as the torrent of mail from the nation's 1.5 million
non-profit organizations and charities constantly reminds us. With the economy still
weak and government handouts declining, donor dollars are hard to come by, and charities will be pulling out all the stops. So in a time
of pinched pocketbooks, how do you get people to give away their
cash?
"Seven out of 10 adults give away money, and they have an
enormous range of motives," says fundraising expert Kim Klein. Some
give out of compassion or sympathy; others out of pride. But Klein
doesn't recommend trying to guilt people into a donation.
"Guilt will make a person give once, but a person will not give
over and over out of guilt."
"Try to appeal to a person's higher self,"
suggests Klein, who publishes the
Grassroots Fundraising Journal. It's part of
what psychologist Abraham Maslow called self-actualization: People
express themselves most fully when contributing to something bigger than
themselves.
The need to feel important may help explain why families living on
incomes of $10,000 give away an average of 4 percent of their income,
while families earning $100,000 donate just 1 percent. "It makes
them feel powerful and makes them feel good-like, I'm not a
sad sack, I'm a participant," says Klein. Lower-income people
aren't necessarily more generous, but the need for charity is much
more obvious to people who themselves are struggling to make ends
meet.
With receipts dwindling, many non-profits will be tempted to tell
you that without your gift, they'll go under. But that's a
holiday recipe for failure. "There's no worse fundraising
strategy than that," says Robert Zimmerman, a San Francisco-based
fundraising consultant. "How many times can you tell people
there's a crisis? Nobody wants to support a sinking ship."
Instead, effective campaigns sell success. Charities have to be very
clear about where dollars have gone, and how efficiently they've
been spent. "You have to make a solid case that the organization is
viable, and that your services really have an impact," says
Zimmerman.
Credibility issues aside, tugging at the heartstrings is still the
most effective strategy. "What's going to move people?"
asks Zimmerman. "What's going to make them cry? Cold
statistics won't cut it. You need to use photographs and
heartrending examples."
Yet coercive or condescending campaigns turn people off. "You
don't want the story to be cheesy. People get tired of
way-too-dramatic stories. They get a sort of donor fatigue," Klein
explains.
For their part, fundraisers have to overcome the embarrassment of
begging. "What you believe in has to be bigger than what
you're afraid of," says Klein. "If somebody rejects you
and you take it personally," she cautions, "you're
having a major ego attack." Klein assures fledgling fundraisers,
"Although most people don't like to ask for money, most
people like to give it away."
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