There’s a messaging tactic that small nonprofits can learn from the political fundraising this election season.
(And by the way, you’re probably as tired of political fundraising as I am. But let’s separate our tiredness from a tactic we can learn from.)
The tactic is telling your donors what their gift will stop from happening.
You see this in political fundraising when you’re told that “a gift will stop the other party from gaining power.” Or “you’ll stop some bad thing from happening.” You get it.
This is a message that most small nonprofits don’t take advantage of enough. We constantly talk about the things that the donor’s gift will make possible. But we forget to say the things that the gift stops from happening.
Take child sponsorship for example. Classic child sponsorship marketing tells people that their gift will provide an education for the child, provide food for the child, provide access to medical care for the child. All of those things are outcomes that the gift will make possible.
But that misses a whole slew of things that the gift stops from happening that are powerful and motivating!
For instance, when a young girl is sponsored and stays in school, she doesn’t become a child bride. Sponsoring a boy means he stays in school and doesn’t enter the drug trade. Sponsoring any child means they stay under the eyes of loving adults and don’t get caught up in sexual trafficking.
Each of those is highly motivating to donors. And I think you can see how using this messaging tactic would make for fundraising that more people would respond to.
So I ask you, in addition to telling donors what their gift to your organization will make happen, do you tell your donors the negative things that their gift stops from happening?
When you do, you will have given your donors additional powerful reasons to give a gift today. And in my experience, that has two powerful results:
- Donors have a better picture of your organization’s work and what their gift accomplishes.
- You raise more money.
