Research by the Institute of Fundraising has shown that people give when asked. Is this stating the obvious, or genuine insight?
Guy Corbett-Marshall, chief executive, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
I’ve been too close this this fire for over twenty tears now, always having in the back of my mind an awful quote, the origins of which I don’t recall: “Don’t ask, don’t get!” So, for me, it’se second nature.
If you ask our supporters why they give to our charity, a common response may well be “because I was asked”, but it will almost certainly be delivered in a vaguely innocent manner, never said pointedly and accompanies by a preface with the word “obviously”.
We work in an industry with a relatively high turnover of staff and many new fundraising inductees taken into the fold each year. Is it not remarkably useful for them to be made aware that to start the giving transaction, it is far more common to have to ask than to wait for the gift to come?
Dr Beth Breeze, researcher, Centre for Philosophy, Humanitarianism and Social Justice, University of Kent
Sometimes the obvious needs re-stating and it is reassuring to know that the common sense wisdom of ‘if you don’t ask you don’t get’ is underpinned by solid research evidence.
The leading non-profit academic, American economist Professor James Andreoni, refers to this insight as an ‘iron law’, concluding that: “People are more likely to give and also tend to donate more when they are asked.”
That said, nothing is as simple as it first sounds. Asking may be necessary but it is not sufficient to bring the cash in. It needs to be the right ask, made in the right way, to the right person.
Ian MacQuillan, head of communications, Public Fundraising Regulatory Association
If people gave to charity without being asked, there’d be no fundraiser: no ‘chuggers’, no direct marketing agencies, no legacy or corporate fundraisers, and no IoF.
So yes, this is stating the obvious. But it doesn’t do any harm to do that now and again. Face-to-face fundraisers are on the fundraising frontline, literally and metaphorically. One of the most regular objections to face-to-face is: “I give when I choose to”. This market research suggests that isn’t the case.
The question is how we use this information. We need to construct a sophisticated message that reasserts that most people give to charity because a fundraising professional asked them to, without sounding arrogant and without antagonising or patronising those people who do make spontaneous donations.
Fundraisers have a duty to ask for support. Ensuring that people understand that should mitigate the feelings of guilt and indignation some feel when they are asked to donate.
Prof Adrian Sargeant, fundraising speaker and consultant, www.studyfundraising.com/
Excuse me sir, but are you one of those wonderful, warm people who offer gifts spontaneously , or are you one of those mean-spirited old so-and-sos that has to be asked for every cent they give?
Well of course the questions posed by the IoF won’t have been quite that crass, but the result will have been the same – a whacking load of social desirability bias in the response. Anytime you ask someone “did you have to be asked to give?” the answer will inevitably be “hell no!” The result is a figure which was doomed from the outset to underestimate the real impact of our profession on giving.
The notion that 34 per cent of all the sums donated in this country are spontaneous outpourings of public generosity is absolute nonsense. Spontaneous giving does exist, to be sure, but a more accurate representation would be 5-10 per cent, or for some charities, even less.
Valerie Morton FInstF (Dip), fundraiser and consultant
To a fundraiser, it is obvious, but to many donors this would come as a big surprise.
We all like to think that we give as much as we can to the charities we support, but in reality, unless we are told that a charity needs money and we are given a clear idea of how much we should give, we are never likely to give to the maximum of our potential. Many of the items we have in our houses or wardrobes we purchased as a result of good marketing, and giving to charity is no different.
Some fundraisers fail because they are frightened of making the ask, and hide behind carrying out research and writing reports. But asking people for support is the most rewarding job in the world. Done well, it makes the donor feel great and enables the charity to achieve wonderful things. Obviously this is genuine insight.
This article first appeared in The Fundraiser magazine, Issue 16, April 2012