If the government withdraws its support, so will donors

Unless you focus on shared values

New behavioural research coming out of the UK and Germany sheds light on donor motivation during economically difficult times (and in the face of governments withdrawing their support)

Donors share a sense of responsibility with people with similar values

Researchers studied how government cutbacks affect public opinion on donating to charity.

The main conclusions:

1. When participants in the study learned about their government’s cutbacks on development aid, they felt not more but less urgency to help out themselves.

According to the researchers, that is because the government’s actions suggest that this issue is (momentarily) less important. Government policy normalises that helping out the underprivileged is not a priority at the moment.

This outcome surprises me and is in fact the opposite of what I had expected.

2. When governments withdraw their support, people expect the responsibility of picking up the slack will shift largely to wealthy individuals and businesses.

To some degree, this might explain what we see in our trend analyses with regard to people’s donation behaviour. Fewer people donate – ‘regular’ donors are the ones to cancel their pledges. Meanwhile, high-value donors start to donate even more.

There were also a few positive findings

3. Donors who felt an emotional connection to a charity felt a stronger urge to donate/keep donating.
4. People’s donation behaviour remained most stable when donating felt like a collective social action taken with like-minded people.
5. Loyal donors did not want to donate in response to a need, but much more because of their connection to a shared mission.

How does this research affect your communication with your donors?

• Do not emphasise
  Avoid making the suggestion that you and your donors must fill the gap left by the government withdrawing its support.

-> ‘If it’s not important to the government, it also becomes less important to me.’ ‘Let the rich people pick up the slack.’

• Do emphasise

Donating as an expression of the values people share with others (social norms are powerful in Germany. Something that is important to us all.)

6. Urgency remains important, but working together toward a common cause fosters a long-term relationship.
7. You can inspire trust by clearly demonstrating to people that their donation was well spent, has real impact and makes a tangible difference in people’s lives.
8. When donors understand that their donation contributes to the realisation of the common cause, it strengthens your relationship with them.

The best way to learn more about your donors’ motivations is via a Donor Relationship Survey.

Read more about this research.

(A small side note about this research is that it consisted of a qualitative study using surveys, not an A/B test with campaigns and donations.)