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| Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article |
Research: What drives donors?November 25, 1998; Canadian FundRaiser
Changes in lifestyles, values, and motivations over the past couple of decades have changed the way donors think and view potential recipients of their charity. Most of us know this basic fact, but often we're unsure of what changes have taken place or the ways they have affected the mindsets of the people whose money we hope to entice to our particular cause. Research can help achieve an understanding of the changes and the ways to target our fundraising activities to be most effective in opening the wallets of new target markets, according to Michael Sullivan, partner in The Strategic Counsel, a research and advertising company.
Speaking to a meeting of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives in Toronto, Sullivan suggested people used to give to charity for religious reasons, "for the good of their soul". With that motivation, the destination of the money (or volunteer time) was not necessarily as important as the act of giving.
Nowadays, he said, donors aged roughly 40 and under are much more pragmatic - what will my gift achieve, what use will you make of it - and more cause-related. Similarly, he pointed out, interests in different clusters of causes swing with the times, and these attitudinal trends can also be identified by research. For example, the environment was a major concern ten years ago; now, the focus is more on children and abused women.
Giving patterns among the young still in flux
The numbers of donors in society is shrinking as the young people coming into maturity have not yet established a pattern of giving, Sullivan noted, but those who do give tend to give larger gifts, partly because they are passing through their peak earning years and at the same time their expenses are reduced as mortgages get paid off and children leave home. Essentially, the consultant noted, research accomplishes six goals for fundraisers. It:
One interesting study Sullivan shared with the group involved polling people on the importance of various factors (e.g. is honest and trustworthy, uses its money well, never turns anyone away, etc.) in making a decision to give money to a cause. It then polled them on their impression of individual charities to see how they measured up on each of these factors, resulting in a chart of "gaps", showing where the charity was better than people's expectations of it or failed to reach those expectations.
- reduces risk and provides assurance that a contemplated route is the right one to take;
- helps answer such questions as "Do people give blood to support the Red Cross or do they give blood to contribute to others' health and safety?", or "Is the market for hospital lotteries saturated yet?";
- tests options, helps the fundraiser choose among two or more possible courses of action;
- identifies markets - new emerging groups of potential donors or consolidated groups of existing donors;
- convinces decision-makers in an organization, who may not be the fundraisers, that the potential for a campaign's success is great enough to justify the investment required; and
- tests messaging/creative, as with any advertising campaign, where the target market is shown the material and asked to react to it.
For further information: Michael Sullivan, Partner, Gregg, Kelly, Sullivan and Woolstencroft, The Strategic Counsel,(416) 975-4465, fax (416) 975-1883, e-mail counsel@pathcom.com.
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