My Husband Hates Olives
Me and Mr Husband fit into Pareto’s 80/20 rule. We have about 80% shared likes and for the other 20% we metaphorically go our separate ways. For example, I love olives, which my husband loathes, they make him heave.
Bear with me – there is a point to this, and it even involves fundraising – and specifically fundraising options!
Imagine this – Mr Husband and I are approaching the deli stall at our local market. Earlier Mr Husband made his loathing of olives very clear to the stall holder when he was offered a taste of some big juicy Nocellara olives. As she sees us returning, she has an opportunity to try once again, to enchant Mr Husband with fayre from her chiller cabinet; a morsel to persuade him to become a paying customer and even delight him enough that he becomes an advocate for her deli-delights.
What should she offer Mr Husband?
- A smorgasbord of olives, excluding the Nocellara ones she offered earlier because she knows he doesn’t like those.
- A variety of antipasti and some burrata, which he hasn’t been offered, which he might like.
I think you can see where this is heading.
When people first engage with a charity, they are saying they like what you do and want to see what you’ve got to offer. So, if you give them the chance to make a second cash donation and they don’t respond – you go straight in with a regular gift appeal.
But isn’t that like offering someone a Kalamata olive when they’ve already said that they don’t like olives the day you offered them the Nocellara. It might be different variety, but it’s still an olive
Not all supporters engage with charities in the same way. Or to be blunt (and a bit more precise) about it, not everyone supports for the same reasons. For some people the Warm Fuzzies are enough to encourage them to continue supporting. Others need something more tangible, you need fundraising options! .
As a small charity, maybe we should be building our fundraising mix by looking at what our current ways of engaging offer in return for active engagement. Something like the table below – which puts the focus on the motivation rather than the type of engagement.
Fundraising options
There are seven different motivations above (there are sure to be more). Let’s assume likes and dislikes are evenly split among our supporters and that we only offer cash and regular giving. We are only providing a suitable support option for 14.2% of our total number of supporters. This means that 85.8% of supporters will feel there is nothing available for them, with an occasional response which will be the exception rather than the rule.
You don’t have to offer options that are high cost and risky, to deliver a mix of engagement (I’m not suggesting spending thousands on marathon places), but it is essential that potential supporters are given proper options.
Proper options and proper diversity in their support choices.
If you need more persuading hunt out some analysis or ask around within your network, what the overlap is between lottery players and cash donors or retail purchasers and challenge eventers and see what they come back with. There will always be an overlap, but they should be viewed as outliers – they respond to activities that feed their need to brag about their personal achievements (the argument about psychological similarities between some of these is for another time).
If I must set myself a challenge this year, it is to get more small charities thinking about support diversity and what it means for them.
Hopefully later in 2025 I’ll be able to blog about an organisation that has embraced this idea and has taken steps to deliver support choices to the olive eaters and the olive haters among their supporters.
