Magic, mind reading and money

Bernard Ross was easily the most influential speaker I saw all day.

His presentation was about the application of techniques, which stem from psychology and neuroscience, to influence behaviour.
Amongst other things, he talked through a model which explores the psychological preferences that can be linked to charitable giving. Although mainly talked about (in this session) in the context of building relationships with major donors, the model provided valuable food for thought on how we anchor our creative campaigns to the motivations of all donors.

Ross, who co-authored “The Influential Fundraiser” argued that all of us are more motivated by one of these four motivators:

This applies not only to charitable giving, but also to achieving our own personal goals and aspirations. To illustrate his point, Ross took the model out of the context of fundraising and applied it to the (more personal) motivators we hold towards going to the gym.

Like, as I’m sure with much of the room, I am driven to exercise by what I feel is crisis point (no longer being able to fit into a pair of jeans and needing to do something about it NOW). I am then spurred on by my long-term vision (looking great in a bikini all summer.) However, is this the same as my motivators towards giving?

With the study of behavioural economics not necessarily adhering to the demographic audience segmentation we are used to using, how do we draw out what psychologically motivates our body of supporters?

Following on from my last blog ‘ask a stupid question’, I would argue that if you simply ask people, you would be likely to come out with inconclusive and inaccurate answers. When researching creative propositions amongst our supporters, I think these four key motivators provide a good platform on how we position a creative campaign, which steps up from the prevailing emotional versus positive point of view.

Charity | Chloe Allan | Engagement | Fundraising