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Can one page in a study make a difference on its own? Page 35 in Overcoming Psychological Barriers to Giving, a new report from National Center For Family Philanthropy, offers fundraisers key strategies for helping donors move past mental obstacles to making donations. The other 46 pages contain detailed information and tactics — albeit written for the donors, not fundraising professionals — about overcoming the hurdles that prevent them from making contributions.

Fundraisers starting with page 35 – titled Moving Past the Barriers – are presented with five solutions for activating donors. On the surface, the five recommendations might seem simple, and that’s the point: initial efforts at overcoming donor resistance should be easy for a fundraiser.

The five first steps include:

* Act, or do one small task that gets a donor familiar with a specific organization or cause;

* Reframe, or shift a donor’s mindset about the impact of even small charitable actions;

* Simplify, or narrow the first-step choices presented to a donor to a few easy, desirable options;

* Connect, or facilitate communication with peers who are experiencing similar reluctance, build these donors’ confidence and create footholds to next-step actions; and,

* Get Help, provide consultants, issue experts or other authoritative voices that can facilitate conversations about the reasons behind donor resistance.

Development professionals looking to build on the five solutions need look no further than the pages preceding Moving Past Barriers. The report offers detailed descriptions of, and ways around, eight barriers reflected in the observations. Even though these steps are written for donors seeking to gain insight into their own reluctance to make contributions, those responsible for crafting messaging should readily be able to incorporate the ideas presented into their outreach material. These barriers include:

** Too many choices. Marketers have long known a plethora of choices often results in inaction. By providing a mental path to limiting options, fundraisers can spur activity.

** Burdensome and tedious tasks. For some, donating is as simple as writing a check. But for those with more complex situations, especially those involving family finances, the legal, administrative, interpersonal and fiscal considerations of adding a new recipient nonprofit can be daunting. Anything that can be done to alleviate any of these considerations should be welcomed by prospects. The potential funder can then be freed up to think about the impact of the donations.

** Lack of urgency. Fundraisers already know this, which is why end-of-year appeals that might benefit a donor’s financial position are effective. But deadlines can also be applied to crises or opportunities, with appeal language that highlights the increased impact of gifts made within a designated period. Additionally, the more a given cause is within a funder’s proximity, the more powerful the appeal is.

** Fear of attention and public scrutiny. Given today’s hyperpolitical, hyperpartisan environment, funders might rightly fear being associated with a cause. In such instances, fundraisers can highlight the benefits of contributing through donor collectives, donor-advised funds or pooled funds, all which probably offer lower profiles. Another tactic for overcoming this barrier is highlighting a success story that specifically showcases the benefits of donors’ actions.

** The worry that you need to learn more to make good decisions. There is a heightened level of uncertainty in giving when a funder is being pitched by a new organization or for a new initiative. Fundraisers can overcome this by orienting marketing collateral around new elements toward an educational, rather than a fundraising, perspective. Fundraisers can also facilitate communal learning, such as pitches to giving circles or events for groups of like-minded prospects.

** Lack of trust in nonprofits and others. The larger and loftier the goals of a nonprofit, the more reluctance potential donors feel regarding giving, according to the report’s authors. Furthermore, people “tend to overestimate the risk of corruption or poor governance among nonprofits,” according to the authors.

Effective storytelling that focuses on grantees — especially their challenges, expertise and needs — can go a long way toward establishing trust, as can testimonials from outside sources. In some cases, a manager might choose to present the organizations as a nimble startup that has significant resource constraints. In others, it might be beneficial for nonprofit leaders to portray themselves as running an established institution — one that needs to invest in highly competent, appropriately compensated leadership.

** The possibility of uncomfortable family dynamics. Large public gifts from a funder might impact how friends and family of that funder view their fortunes. In some cases, family matriarchs and patriarchs established expectations by freely communicating their values and reactions to issues, while at the same time being open to the concerns and values of other family members. Fundraisers suspecting these types of dynamics could be an issue can prepare material that addresses family dynamics, potentially even presenting philanthropy as a net positive for the entire family or otherwise defusing potential conflict.

** Feeling too uncomfortable with risk and uncertainty. Addressing this prospect concern might help new organizations overcome reluctance for funding. Fundraising professionals with deft touches may be able to frame a funder’s entire charitable portfolio as having characteristics similar to an investment portfolio — a mixture of blue chip and speculative giving commensurate with a funder’s risk aversion level.

Some of the language appropriate to investing in speculative stocks may apply here — fundraisers may present the idea that higher-risk funding may yield higher levels of benefits for the recipients, or going in with a group of donors may share the risk.

The full report – including page 35 and 46 other useful pages – is available here: https://www.ncfp.org/knowledge/overcoming-psychological-barriers-to-giving/

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Source From Non Profit Times