We have a tough job…
…fundraising is hard – life seems to be on a perpetual merry-go-round of human and naturally induced tragedies. I first wrote about this a fair few years ago. And if I had to make one observation to bring this up to date, it’s less about people being desensitised to messaging, and more about self-preservation.
Some days it feels as we are being overwhelmed with so many concerns. From the big-ticket items such as international conflict to the more local issues, which often feel more immediate and tangible because they are happening to us, now.
For the first time in 10 years…
… the sector has experienced an overall drop in income. It’s not surprising – fundraising is hard and – there’s very real sense of food on the table or make a donation, but not both. My question to you, before you go and read this, is what can be done? Do we carry on with business as usual, using the same techniques, the same channels, the same style and content when we know that people have much greater concerns, or are we going to re-think our strategies from the ground up.
I grew up watching Roadrunner constantly out-smart Wile E. Coyote. I used to get great enjoyment from the latest disaster befalling him, usually at the hands of a purchase from Acme Inc. As I got older the ridiculous cartoonified antics of the duo gave way to something far more sinister: thoroughly realistic television and cinematic gore. And as CGI technology has improved so the explicit nature of imagery has increased.
How did we cope?
I believe part of our evolutionary process is a change in the way our brains process images and narratives that are distressing to us. But something seems to have gone very, very wrong. It’s as if our brain can only process in one of two ways: accept everything as fact or dismiss everything as fiction. And to self-preserve, our brains have opted for the latter.
Our tolerance of graphic violence is far greater than it ever was. When we see news of genuine human suffering we experience an initial feeling of outrage at the atrocity. We feel panic, fear, revulsion, anger, distress. This then gives way to apathy, often disguised as ‘thank god it’s not me’ or ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
What Greenpeace has to say
Recently I received an email from Greenpeace about the refugee crisis. They believe apathy has set in, and in their words “…have we become desensitised…”. Have we? I don’t know.
But the email gave me an idea for a future blog; if negativity sells, and in my experience it does, think the war in Ukraine, the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the aftermath of Covid, fires across Europe, the list goes on; how can we maintain marketing or fundraising momentum when we so quickly become immune to situations that initially haunted us.
I can only assume that Greenpeace’s perceived apathy isn’t about being desensitised. If it was, then we would fail to respond to any type of emotive marketing, unless it was pitched at our own unsatisfied consumerist longings. And we do respond initially. But interest quickly wanes, with each event having a shelf-life in people’s psyche. So what does makes us stop if we assume it’s not desensitisation?
If I were able to answer this question I could bottle it and make a fortune, alas I’m no closer to the solution than anyone else. But in terms of fundraising it raises the problem of how to keep people interested in your cause because, let’s face it, you’re pretty much communicating the same message time and time again, albeit dressed in different clothes.
So why is fundraising so hard, is it because we don’t have a tangible product?
Is it any wonder that fundraising is hard? You’ll probably argue that it’s the same for any marketing, but I don’t think it is. How many of us are devotees of certain brands or products? When you have a tangible product that runs out and needs replacing, marketing become so much easier than when all you have to sell are ‘warm fuzzies’ and someone’s sense of well-being.
I’m going to ponder these ideas for a while and try and make sense of them. I can conclude that we haven’t become completely apathetic to the plight of others. We just need to hear about it in a different way.
Get in touch for a chat and we can ponder it together.
