How to harness persuasion: Cialdini’s 6 principles and you

How to harness persuasion: Cialdini’s 6 principles and you

How do you persuade someone to help your cause?

Maybe a little neuropsychology will help. But first, I’m not a scientist. But as a fundraiser, I think neuromarketing is fascinating. That’s why I love Roger Dooley’s blog. I find he often sparks new fundraising ideas for me.

This week, Roger’s blog sent me on a journey (serendipity, remember?). I found a nice summation by Tom Polanski of the work of Dr. Robert Cialdini, who identified six principles of persuasion.

Here’s the piece by Tom Polanski. As I read, I kept thinking of so many applications for us as fundraisers!

Here are Cialdini’s 6 principles. See what you think.

Reciprocation

When someone gives you something, you feel indebted to them and want to give back.

Premiums have long been used to take advantage of reciprocation. You see it in your mailbox daily. Address labels, small gifts, and even nickels have been successful for direct mail acquisition programs. (More here and here on premiums.)

Information can also work – if your cause involves research, for instance, you can share what you learn.

And this experiment cited by Cialdini is interesting. Could sticky notes persuade people to respond to a survey? One-third of the surveys had hand-written sticky notes. One-third had a blank sticky note. The remaining third had nothing but the survey.

Those with handwritten notes had a 69% response rate. Even a blank sticky note did better than none at all.

Worth a try for your next mailing? I think so!

Social Proof

We all use others around us to guide our decisions – whether we know it or not. (I guess to some extent, we’re still herd animals.)

Veritus Group writes about an experiment Cialdini uses to illustrate social proof. The upshot: the most powerful motivator was being told other people were doing it.

For fundraising, you have many options. Say you know you have many donors from a particular town or neighborhood. You can solicit others in the same town and tell them many of their neighbors have already given.

Or you can tell prospective donors “people like you, who care about {the cause}” have already given.

Or use social proof to guide people’s decisions about how much to give. Suggest a gift amount because it’s what most people give. Or circle the amount you want them to give and add a note that says “many people give this much”.

But be careful! Jeff Brooks also warns about using social proof badly – and getting poor results. Don’t tell prospective donors not enough people are giving! That’s a great way to suggest they don’t need to bother, either.

Commitment and consistency

It’s not just you. We all hate to back out of a commitment. We like to feel truthful after we’ve said yes.

If you can get someone to commit – to just say “yes” to something – the chances are they’ll follow through.

This is more true the older we are. This is good news for fundraisers because donors are almost always older people.

Think about advocacy organizations using petitions. Signing the petition says you care about the cause. I’ll bet it also makes it more likely they’ll persuade you to give.

Liking

People are more likely to say “yes” to people they like, find attractive, or have something in common with. Not surprising, right? If you’ve ever bought a car or insurance, you’ve probably seen it at work.

But the fundraising lesson isn’t to hire fashion models. The more you know about your donors, the more likely it is you’ll find common interests. Honing this skill is critical for major gifts fundraisers.

But it holds for all of us. The more you learn about your donors, the smarter you get about their concerns. Then the better you can address those concerns.

Here’s an example from my past. I worked for a parks organization that puts on events through the warmer weather. Huge events, sometimes drawing hundreds of thousands. But by surveying our donors, we discovered the events weren’t important to most of them. The parks themselves were what mattered.

So I changed the focus of our fundraising asks to fit the donors’ priorities. In fact, I often mirrored the language donors had used in the survey. Donors felt heard. We had a terrific retention rate right through the worst of the recession.

This is also interesting: if you ask for a favor, the person who helps you is likely to do another (bigger) favor for you. So don’t be afraid to ask. If your request resonates with your donors’ interests and they’re able to say yes, they’ll feel great.

Authority

We want to listen to the experts. Credibility is key in guiding people’s decision-making.

So, what’s your organization’s expertise? How do you prove it? Testimonials? Case histories? Stories? All of the above?

(I was just listed on Feedspot’s list of bloggers… maybe some cred to be with lots of smart people? What can you use to show your nonprofit’s skills?)

Then remember your credibility (and your donors’ and prospective donors’ trust) is gold. Don’t risk it. (For instance, by being dishonest about what their gifts will do.)

Fundraising isn’t about manipulating people. We don’t trick people into giving. As fundraisers, we should encourage people’s natural generosity and inclination to help.

Scarcity

Look at any online store and you’ll see this one. Amazon tells you there are only 6 left. Suddenly, you feel the need to click “buy” right away.

And luxury goods are sought after because they’re rare.

When you’re seeking sponsors for an event, you can limit the number of sponsors at each level. As you fill the spots, you can tell other prospective sponsors “There’s only 1 spot left at the gold level”.

And while you’re not selling luxury goods, consider whether your organization’s work fills a unique need. Then you can focus on your position. “We are the only organization in the area to offer children this experience.”

People are more concerned about what might be lost than what can be gained. So try focusing on what will happen should they decide not to give. What are the risks of passing on the opportunity to help? How will they feel if they let the chance go?

Photos thanks to Ryan McGuire at Gratisography and Dan Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash

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Put these principles to work persuading more people to support your cause.

This post only scratches the surface of course. Roger Dooley published a huge list of more specific triggers here. As I read them, I saw one application after another to fundraising.

If these help you raise money more effectively, I’ll dig into more. Please share your thoughts below.

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