The Agitator

I read an article that proffered various "new marketing realities" that marketers need to consider coming out of the recession (if and when!).

Among the observations: "Customers are no longer buying on impulse. They don’t have the access to credit they used to have, and they’re hoarding their limited resources. Bottom line: They’re spending less."

I was struck by the comment on impulse buying.

It makes me think about the interplay between emotion and rational assessment as these factors relate to making donations these days.

The Agitator has always emphasized that emotion is the engine of most giving, and the driver of impulse giving in particular. That’s just reflects a reality of human hard wiring.

But money is tight, so there’s also plenty of cause to believe that future donations will be far more carefully considered in terms of both affordability and efficacy.

Arguably, donors have been dealing with affordability by making smaller average gifts. We’ve seen a lot of evidence of that over the last year.

Whether they will become more discriminating in their giving — more carefully assessing which of the organizations they have supported previously are having the most impact or benefit — is harder to get at. One empirical measure might be whether they simply are giving to fewer groups. But even there, is the winnowing out process emotional or rational?

At the end of the day, I’d still bank on hard wiring. Don’t pull back on the emotional side of your appeals. But, at the same time, be more conscious than ever of the need to document and communicate the results your nonprofit has achieved … bearing in mind that results trigger emotional satisfaction too!

Tom

P.S. Regarding true impulse giving … yes, I think it will decline some. Maybe we’ll see that in response to DRTV and telemarketing appeals. But of course it will never go away. Our hard wiring will prevent that!