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Storytelling for Fundraisers It Ain’t All Bourbon and Whittlin’ in Your Rocker
Tom Ahern November 14, 2017 ~ Westchester NatPhilDay
“Tom Ahern … is one of the country’s most sought-after creators of fund-raising messages.” The New York Times, Nov. 2016
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World premiere! Westchester NatPhilDay 2017
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The NON-story
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The 100% Fallacy
• Anyone can be our donor (NO, they won’t be!) • Any donor is a great donor (WRONG!) • Once acquired, a new donor is likely to stay a
very long time: “Ours for life”
I got this wrong
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7. How long will an average donor give to a charity? [ ] 1-3 years [ ] 4-6 years [ ] 7-10 years [ ] more than 10 years
Free, downloadable PDF e-book, 20 Questions: www.AHERNCOMM.com
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7. How long will an average donor give to a charity? [ ] 1-3 years [X] 4-6 years [X] 7-10 years [ ] more than 10 years
Free, downloadable PDF e-book, 20 Questions: www.AHERNCOMM.com
Donor Who?
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Got this wrong, too
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4. How old is the average US/Canadian/Australian/NZ/UK/Irish donor? [ ] 35 years of age [ ] 55 years of age [ ] 75 years of age
Free, downloadable PDF e-book, 20 Questions: www.AHERNCOMM.com
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4. How old is the average US/Canadian/Australian/NZ/UK/Irish donor? [ ] 35 years of age [ ] 55 years of age [X] 75 years of age
Free, downloadable PDF e-book, 20 Questions: www.AHERNCOMM.com
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Her!
PS: that’s all she wants from your organization.
SUBSCRIBE
Source: Mark Phillips, Bluefrog
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Jane Joyaux | Widowed @ 65 | Died @ 90
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“87% of millennials donated to charity last year” ~ Huffington Post
Is THAT where the real money is?
4%
11%
17%
22%
46%
<35 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Donors by age (percentage)
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Will you help it fly? 61
70
87 70
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Active donors
1st-time donors
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exactly
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Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) began to outnumber their elders in the donor-aged population starting in 2010. This monster demographic group is going to be the backbone of charitable giving from now until the mid-2030s.
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Source: Jeff Brooks, Future Fundraising Now, 2011
Thought for today...
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The LONG-story
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“When Harvard did a study after their last campaign, of their 254 million-dollar donors, 2 out of 3 started with first-time gifts of $100 or less.” Jerry Panas, 2017
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“Major” donors often start as “minor” givers
Reward loyalty as much as gift amount. Create a powerful “VALUES BOND.”
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“Commitment” is the best predictor of lifetime value
BRNC lists donors NOT by the amount they gave ... but by the number of years they “did their bit.” Some gave for four decades, some maybe will “until death do us part”...
88% of dollars raised comes from 12% of the donors
~ Jay Love, Bloomerang, quoting the Fundraising Effectiveness Project; April 2017, via Pam Grow
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Understand: Your truest of true believers hope to use YOU to establish meaning in THEIR lives.
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“Humans are driven by a will to establish meaning in their lives. They need purpose.” That’s your real job, in donor communications: to bestow purpose in exchange for support.
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Source: Neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, via the For Impact blog
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The donor must be IN your story
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A player, NOT just an onlooker
The SHORT-story
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“Donors are staggeringly ignorant of the causes
they support.” --
Richard Radcliffe
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DONORS MAY BE IGNORANT, but what they
DO have in abundance are their own
personal values, interests, beliefs,
connections, experiences, upbringing, lost
loves, secret passions, regrets, fears,
angers, hopes, and built-in empathy
[except for psychopaths]...
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Source: Mark Phillips © 2017 Tom Ahern 30
How Princeton Univ. became America’s top higher-ed fundaiser...
They call it “the GIVEN University.”
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WHAT ARE YOUR “TOUCH POINTS”?
Donor comms 101
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You ask. You thank. You report. You ask. You thank. You report. You ask. You thank. You report.
Appeals, thanks, & newsletters work together.
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The virtuous circle...
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Appeals, thanks, & newsletters work together. You ask. You thank. You report. You ask. You thank. You report. You ask. You thank. You report.
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The virtuous circle...
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The part the charity cares about
The part the donor cares about
Your thanks and your reports (newsletters) are your HUGS
Good hug? Warmth. Acceptance. The strength of the embrace.
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You’re in my home, brain and face:
“Why are you here?”
Bad guest or good?
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To make ME feel good!!!
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Important!
Wanted!
Needed!
Proud of myself!
Happier!
Pleased!
Entertained! Surprised!
Hopeful!
“The way to make it about you is to make it about me first.” Katrina VanHuss, about why she gave nothing to Parkinson’s research; via The Agitator, Oct. 2017
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The PERSONAL-
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I pay attention to what interests me. And what interests me most is me. Ask anyone.
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The gift of joy
The gift of joy
“Mom was wrong. Research shows that even when people perceive that flattery is insincere, that flattery can still leave a lasting and positive impression of the flatterer.”
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You ask. And flatter! You thank. And flatter! You report. And flatter!
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St. Jude’s language
• “I can never thank you enough” • “Because of you” • “Thanks to your support” • “Thanks to friends like you” • “The support of friends like you”
Source: Pam Grow
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The FIGHT-story
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“Find a common enemy.” “[This was] some of the first feedback I received as a newbie copywriter, and I never forgot it.” Lisa Sargent, Feb 2017
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“Create an enemy.” Us [the tribe] vs. them [the enemy]. Seth Godin: “...build a tribe, [people] who want to hear from [you] because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about....”
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“Giving is not about a calculation of what you are buying,” Yale economics professor, Dean Karlan, proved. “It is about participating in a fight.”
The New York Times | March 9, 2008
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vision enemy hero
served Source: Stephen Pidgeon and Tangible
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“Me?”
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VISION ENEMY
HERO
SERVED SERVED
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Anger Duty Exclusivity Fear Flattery
Common emotional triggers used by copywriting pros in fundraising
Greed Guilt Hope Salvation
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Curiosity builder Exclusivity trigger
Flattery trigger
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Don’t just ask me to DO something.
Ask me to FEEL
something.
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Don’t be afraid to show the ugly.
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Source: Reuters; 3-year-old Syrian refugee, Aylan Kurdi, drowned Sept. 2, 2015
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Source: NYU neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, in Emotionomics
“Negative emotions are linked to survival – and are much stronger.”
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Your amygdala
The SHALL-WE?-story
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You’re at A.
What’s your B?
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B
This campaign is reaching goal way ahead of expectations
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“Make it bigger.”
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“Can Community Colleges Save the Economy?”
Time magazine, 2009
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Make it urgent.
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B
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Make it relevant. (To the target audience.)
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B
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Impact
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The SPURT-story
(a.k.a., acquisition)
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The feel-good effects of giving begin in the brain. It’s called “giver’s glow,” says Stephen G. Post, director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at New York’s Stony Brook University. The response, he says, is triggered by brain chemistry in the mesolimbic pathway, which recognizes rewarding stimuli. Philanthropy “doles out several different happiness chemicals,” Post says, “including dopamine, endorphins that give people a sense of euphoria and oxytocin, which is associated with tranquility, serenity or inner peace.” This pleasure and reward system evolved some 1 to 2 billion years ago, and at its most basic level, is tied to the joy we receive from eating, sex and social interactions. Viewing the brain with MRI technology during moments of generosity or selfless behavior has led scientists to uncover that even the thought of giving can engage this ancient response. Elizabeth Renter, 2015, US News and World Report
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The WRONG-story
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RU telling half the story?
Remember: If there are no problems to solve, donors have nothing to do.
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If only the big type matters, what does this tell me at a glance?
No need, no enemy
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The donor is fundraising’s customer.
Donor communications ONLY exist to
produce customer satisfaction.
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... and unhappy customers give
elsewhere.
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My free how-to e-newsletter… www.aherncomm.com
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