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How to develop a ‘character’ in your fundraising stories in 3 steps — according to Dr. Russell James

iMarketSmart

In one experiment, people could donate to help children in a famine. For some people, donations helped five pictured children. For other people, donations helped only one of the five children. For some people, the drugs would save eight children. The requests included the children’s names, ages, and pictures.

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Agitator Cliff Notes: “Hacking Marketing”

The Agitator

From my dog-eared pages: What is the template for the donor story? Last week, I talked about the jobs-to-be-done framework to look at donor motivation. This asks what is the donor hiring your nonprofit to do at an emotional level ? As you can tell, there’s plenty of meat on these bones. And are you doing it for them?

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Understanding Why People Give (hint: it’s not what you think!)

Get Fully Funded

Understanding the psychology behind giving can help you understand the donor’s motivation, which will help you plan your next campaign, your next fundraising event, or your next face-to-face ask. Donors may give out of empathy, sympathy, fear, guilt, or even anger. What makes someone give to one organization versus another one?