Why They Give (Part 1)

Part 1

As development professionals, we think we know why people give. But even years of experience, logical deduction, and general impressions can’t tell us the cold, hard truth. In an industry run on “best practices,” we need to ask ourselves: Are our fundraising methods based on “general wisdom” or actual, measured human behavior?

Understanding charitable giving is an actual science, one that economist John List recently discussed in the Freakonomics podcast How to Raise Money Without Killing a Kitten. We thought his insights were startling, and you’ll probably agree. Click below to listen to the entire podcast or read our witty summary that follows.

First, List offers hope to fundraisers everywhere: Americans give about 2.2 percent of their personal income to charitable causes. It may be a small percentage, but it’s a ton of money. And from 1971 to 2011, giving rates have actually escalated about twelvefold.

So how can we tap into that sense of charity? Here’s what List’s 15-year research program has uncovered:

Give them a warm glow.

Guess what? Donors don’t care about your good cause.

Instead, they care about how giving to that good cause makes them feel. What donors really want is warm fuzzies. And we need to figure out how to give that to them.

“Fundraisers for years have gotten it wrong. They need to appeal more to the actual donor rather than the recipient of those dollars,” says List.  When it comes to that warm glow, “[people] give money to that cause you can actually sit around the Thanksgiving table and brag to your mom about how good of a person you are because you just gave money to that specific cause.”

Lay on the guilt.

How many times has a Girl Scout knocked on your door and you didn’t buy a box of cookies? Zero. Zip. Zilch. You tell yourself it’s because you love Thin Mints, but really, it’s because you can’t bring yourself to slam the door in that little girl’s face.

“Once you open up that door, you feel a lot of social pressure to actually buy a few boxes of cookies,” says List. “You would rather sit on the couch, but once you’re at the door, then you feel obliged to help out the Brownie Scouts.”

Guilt not only works for small givers, says List, but also for the folks who write six- and seven-figure checks. Social pressure from friends and society is a huge determinant of what they decide to do with their money. If you can leverage social pressure, you can boost your fundraising success.

What else did List discover? Read Part 2 >>>>