The Benjamin Franklin effect describes how doing a favor for someone can actually make us feel more positive about that person. The phenomenon is named after Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, who wrote about the concept in his autobiography. From The Decision Lab: While serving in the Pennsylvania Assembly, […]
Can’t afford to raise money?
If your org is a sometimes presence in the lives of your donors and prospects, that’s a problem. For now, and for the future. And that means you need to spend money to make money. But while fundraisers usually understand this, it can be hard to persuade the people with the purse-strings that fundraising isn’t […]
Write a better fundraising appeal
A better fundraising appeal? A better fundraising appeal is simple. You’ve probably heard this before. But my mailbox says too many writers are not taking it seriously. Do you want to write a better fundraising appeal? Do you want to get read? Keep your fundraising appeal simple. I’m talking 4th to 6th grade level, simple. […]
How to help people feel connected
Connected? What’s that? We’re zooming, we’re calling, we’re writing… but are we connecting? Here are some ideas to help people feel connected now. An article in Psychology Today explained the importance of feeling understood. In fact, the title was: Feeling understood is more important than feeling loved. Whoa. Maybe this is a good time to […]
Is this any way to treat a friend?
I don’t treat friends like this, do you? I’ll admit that I only open some of my mail. Like most people, I quickly sort out the bills and other “must-open” things. Then I go through the rest. One glance at the envelope is usually enough to tell me whether I want to bother opening it. […]