Neon One Webinars: Hello, everyone! Welcome to at least my first official, me on one webinar of the year, which is exciting. We're gonna get started very, very shortly. We have an action packed. I got a little bit of a preview folks of the of the slides today. This is an action packed session with our partners and friends at Eyewave. Neon One Webinars: So I am very excited to have you here. Welcome good morning, or good afternoon, depending on where you are speaking from. My name's Tim Ser. Antonio. I'm just gonna be helping coordinate things. We also have our our staff member, and fellow researcher, Abby Jarvis here. And so the neon team is gonna be supporting this fee Neon One Webinars: fantastic session on decoding donor motivation with sharing Koshi of I wave Neon One Webinars: and I'm gonna let him introduce himself in a moment. Just a few housekeeping items, the biggest question we always receive. Neon One Webinars: Will this be recorded? Yes, will it be recorded? It will be recorded. Yes. Will you get the slides? Yes, sharing. Are we going to get the slides? We are absolutely going to get the slides. So don't worry. There's going to be an email that goes out tomorrow. Neon One Webinars: You gotta give us a little bit of time to get things organized, but that will go out tomorrow, and then otherwise we're gonna be watching the QA. There is also a chat. I wanna make sure that the chat is working. Can people tell me where you are talking from? And yes, Leah, absolutely. That's why we say it Neon One Webinars: right here. So where we hearing folks from. We got Chicago here, Sharon, where are you? You are a world traveler recently. So where are you in the world? Right I am. I'm actually at home today in sunny Des Moines, Iowa. Neon One Webinars: Awesome. Well, we got Toronto. We got New Jersey. We got more Chicago we got Montana, Hartford, Michigan. And beyond. So this is an international office audience here, Cherian, I don't wanna take up more your time. So why don't you go ahead and introduce who you are and take it away. But we are going to be here to support. Watch those questions. You can use the chat, or if you wanna make sure that Sharon Neon One Webinars: see something. Use the Q&A. Use the QA. Otherwise Sharian. Take us away. Let's let's explore Cherian Koshy: thanks so much. Thanks so much, Tim, and thank you all for being here. I was just emailing Tim the slide deck. So that's ready to go, so kept my promises. There. It's great to see all of you here. Lisa. I'm originally from Burns Hill, Apple Valley, so it's great to see another Minneapolis person. And let's see Lauren, I used to live in Ripon, Wisconsin. I don't even know if Wisconsin people know where that is, and Jim, too, from Minneapolis, St. Paul. Great to see Cherian Koshy: you all there from all over the country or the Continent, actually, because we have plenty of Canadians which I'm thrilled about because I have Canadian studies to share. So Cherian Koshy: if you all are not familiar with me and my presentation style, and wanna give you a quick overview of that before we we get started. I try not to be what my coach says is a should head. I'm not here to beat you over the head like Travis Kelsey yelling at their coach. Which I feel like happens a lot in the sector where, consultants or other vendors in the space will clobber you into saying you should be doing this. You should be doing that, and you're not doing enough. And my friend Michelle, on Linkedin today said something that was really thoughtful and profound, and I really appreciate it. And it what what she said was, you're doing enough. Cherian Koshy: and you are great just the way you are, and I want to start this presentation by saying, I'm going to go through quite a bit of science, quite a bit of of evidence-based practice around what what we're seeing, both in terms of donor motivation and psychology, but also in terms of of generational studies and whatnot. Cherian Koshy: You can decide how to show up for this buffet of knowledge. I want to make sure that you can follow the information, and that you can evaluate whether or not this is right for your organization, or whether or not it's Cherian Koshy: something that you choose to do, wholesale or in part, whatever that looks like to you. So when we talk about donor motivations and leveraging leveraging psychology, I want to start from the perspective that I've been in your seat. I've worked in nonprofits for more than 25 years, and primarily in small and midsized organizations. So I would sit down for a lot of these webinars. Cherian Koshy: many of them, I would say I'd watch later, and maybe get to them. So if that's you, if you're not watching, live, I totally understand. And hopefully this is actionable for you as well. But I recently built some software which was then acquired by Iwaves. And now I work with iwave to help share what we've what we continue to learn in the sector, and it's just a joy to work with our our customers and clients on that front. But as part of what I worked in nonprofits doing was really around fundraising, and Cherian Koshy: what I was challenged by as a fundraiser is the idea that donors would say one thing and do another. And so I started exploring that and got the chance to work with Dan Ariely. He's a professor at Duke with his irrational labs. It's actually led by Kristen Berman, and then also some some work at Harvard around behavioral science. And the thing that Cherian Koshy: both of those programs and sort of all of the evidence around behavioral science tells us is that we tend to think of ourselves, and certainly as nonprofit professionals. We tend to think of our donors as rational information gathering people. We like to think of ourselves as people who Cherian Koshy: gather a bunch of information and then make an informed decision about how we will proceed. Now, if you fall asleep for the next 45 min. The thing that I want you to come away with is that that is absolutely a bunch of croc. That is not true at all. We do not, we are not Cherian Koshy: We are not necessarily rational people. And there are books like like Dan's book called Predictably Irrational, that are really helpful if you want to kind of dive into this information. So the lie that we were told in the Enlightenment is, I think, therefore I am. And ever since then, ever since that Cartesian philosophy of I am a thinking, rational being. We've sort of focused on Cherian Koshy: building and gathering information. And this this has affected how we reach out to donors, how we talk about our organizations, how we show up in different spaces. Now, I wanna sort of prove to you now, if you've seen this on Linkedin already, because I sneak peaked at a little bit. Cherian Koshy: Give everybody else a chance. But I'm going to show you a picture in a moment, and I want you to write in the chat. What is the first thing that you see. What's the first thing you see. And so, Abby, you can't, Abby Cherian Koshy: Abby Weppers. So yeah, we're deep and bat menacing bat. Bats right like it's actually a demon. Now, here's what I want you to to kind of think, bad as this spins. Do you see the angels good for you, Andre. You saw the Angel. It. It turns out that about 50% of people who see this Cherian Koshy: actually see the the demon first and it turns out that about 25% of people don't ever see the Angel, which is really interesting. I wanna prove to you that it's actually there, there is an angel there. So I'm gonna I'm just gonna run back so you can see that it's there. And these sort of Rorschach test. And Audra texted me earlier and said, like this actually came from Batman, there's a batman. Cherian Koshy: something there, Batman. Scene there where they talk about this. The the point is that our brains are wired to look at certain patterns. They're looking at certain concepts and ideas in order to decrease the cognitive load on our brain. Yes, exactly. The the dress is purple gold, whatever you think it might be. Cherian Koshy: Now, all of this is built into our brains from the get go. So babies are actually a really interesting example of compassion. There are tons of studies actually, that look at pre verbal babies and their ability to understand Cherian Koshy: what what does compassion look like, and what does that drive them to do in terms of behaviors? So the science really indicates that people are Cherian Koshy: pre-built with with feelings of compassion, with an understanding of what empathy looks like, and that grows or diminishes over time, depending on how they interact with the world. And this has everything to do with. So with our biology, there's a vagus nerve that is really the compassion center of our bodies. And so, as you think about. I know we've gone deep into the science now, and you're like, wait. what are we talking about? Cherian Koshy: Every one of your stakeholders, whether they're a donor, whether a volunteer or just a community member has this inbuilt system that helps them to identify when something is emotionally jarring, when somebody is being hurt, when someone is, is in distress. Cherian Koshy: I shared this morning I started to read this book called Speaking Story by my friend Sally, and she talks about this in the first chapter of her book as well that it actually Cherian Koshy: actually drives all of us when we hear something from the stage, when we see your website, when we hear your fundraising appeal, either verbally or in print or on digital, all of these things are impacting. How we, how these nerve centers, how these compassion. Centers are reacting to the circumstances of your cause, and it doesn't just need to be people. I know that there are some people. Cherian Koshy: if you're in the the webinar that might have an organization that's dealing with the environment. That's a little, you know, one step removed from a people impact versus like helping Cherian Koshy: people who are are dealing with homelessness or or starvation, or something like that. All of these drive towards that compassion center of our brain. And it really at the core. This is the formula, the only formula. There will be a test later. The only formula that you have to remember when you think about Cherian Koshy: decoding donor desires and its relationship. Times benefit is less than greater than or equal to cost. Cherian Koshy: Let me give you an example of where this plays out. Cherian Koshy: If I have a high relationship and a low benefit, the cost doesn't really matter. The example of that is my kids. Cherian Koshy: I have such a high relationship, and all of you do with your own kids that even if the benefit to me personally of doing something for them is very, very low or nonexistent or even negative. Cherian Koshy: I will do that thing for my kids as that relationship. And and so the the data, the science, the the journals talk about non kin giving, because the further away you get from your primary family or your secondary family. Cherian Koshy: the more that relationship component decreases. And then you start to look at the benefit to me, whatever that means to you as a person. Cherian Koshy: Some people are looking for the benefit of altruism. They want to feel good. And we'll look at some studies that talk about that. There are other people beyond just the the good feeling, the warm glow that happens. They're looking for some other element of the the benefit. Now these people are very, very different in their psychology. All of those are things that that are well talked about and well traveled out there in the Behavioral Science space. Cherian Koshy: particularly in fundraising. So I'm not going to go through those I'm going to assume that you can. You've already heard those things, or you, you can find them on your own. What what I want you to understand is that that relationship. Cherian Koshy: plus that personal benefit is what's going to drive their evaluation of the cost of doing something with your organization. And I want to be very clear. We're not just talking about the cost of donating. We're also talking about the cost of time Cherian Koshy: or the cost of leveraging my own relationships for your cause, whether that's being an ambassador sharing the truth of your organization, whatever it might be. So all. So, for example, taking that last piece, if I happen to be already happen to be a donor to your organization or the cause means something really Cherian Koshy: significant to me. Cherian Koshy: Those relationship benefit components play in a different space. So I might be willing to tell everybody and their grandmother and their pet canary about freshwater friends for Audra's organization, because I care about. And so I just did it right. There's no benefit to me. There's a bit of a relationship because I've worked with that organization before, but Cherian Koshy: there's no there's no true benefit to me. The cost is relatively low for me to say that. And so maybe some of you look at the website later. Maybe you are willing to entertain a conversation with someone about donating to that organization. These are the ways in which this plays out at a high level. Cherian Koshy: Let's talk, then, about what that means from the new frontiers of donor psychology. So, as I mentioned before, we're not going to be talking about things like scarcity or urgency or social proof. Those are sort of table stakes in terms of behavioral science. You've undoubtedly seen those things before. If not, let's chat about that later. What I want to do is, talk about the more recent studies Cherian Koshy: that take this to a different level. And so each one of these will have a visual as well as the actual scientific data, the the research that you can follow most of that's available for free. So you can follow that research on your own. Cherian Koshy: This is probably the most unique one that I found. That's a few years old. It's from 2,014 about homophones, and how it affects priming. So we don't have time to do a lot of priming exercises and a lot of like fun things around priming right now. But basically, the idea of priming is that if you hear something first that's going to drive your decision making in the future, or or you know, as you are Cherian Koshy: are impacted by some piece of information that will drive your your future decision. So one piece of that, and priming and anchoring are kind of cousins. When it comes to behavioral science. I have a colleague, Bernard Gross, who's out in the UK. Who did? A little study where they stood on Second Avenue and said, Hey, we're on Second Avenue. Would you consider a gift to Cherian Koshy: whatever organization and people would make a gift? And then they said, Hey, we're in the Bronx at 100 and 30 Fourth Street. Would you consider a gift to whatever and just that little bit of language change primed someone into thinking about their gift differently and thinking about a larger number, and it had statistically impacted their gift. So where did that show up for me? Cherian Koshy: I worked at an arts organization, and we would put our campaign goal up at the top of our written appeals. We would use an account number in the Johnson box at the top of our our direct mail to help prime people of larger numbers to drive pieces. Of that you can choose whether or not to do that, as I said before, these are buffet options. I'm not telling you what to do, but what this study indicates is that subtle Cherian Koshy: homophones, words that sound the same, but are spelled differently like bye, bye, will drive actual decision making. So these subtle language cues that you're using in your appeals will either drive people to look at your appeals Cherian Koshy: more significantly, more seriously make. And you know whether it's a donating or volunteering option whatever that will look like. So it really demonstrates. And that number 3 is the thing that I want you to to focus on is that connection between language processing and the behavioral response. So Cherian Koshy: there's a whole lot of language that goes into a direct mail piece or an email piece. And I want you to really think about do does that language drive not just the short term decision that we want, but the long term decision that we want out of this donor or stakeholder, as the case may be. For example, a lot of the evidence suggests approves, I would say. Cherian Koshy: proves that the word gift performs better than the word donate. Cherian Koshy: Now I've seen people who say that despite the science, we've done an AV test in our own own organization and donate now or donate today performs better in our own situation. And if that is true, if you actually do a statistically significant AV test, and that performs better, of course, that should add to the overall data picture that you're using for reaching out to donors. However, what I want you to kind of think forward about is. Cherian Koshy: does the gift language create a longer term understanding of what it means to be part of your organization than donating the the data, the science, the studies don't necessarily talk about that. But I want you to take these pieces of information that I'm showing you, and think about what those look like over time as part of your organization's strategy. Cherian Koshy: So key takeaways from the language component and how that affects your decisions. The first is around word associations. I had a Comms professional in one of the organizations that I worked at, who hated who hated it when I used the phrase, the heart of the art but those rhyming components do make a difference in how people resonate with the the Cherian Koshy: that you're talking about or the framing of what you're talking about. And the science does prove that out. So it's really it does sound hokey. It does, you know, from a branding or from a professionality perspective. Maybe it's not Cherian Koshy: apropos for every organization, and that's why the second takeaway is really important. That subtlety is key. You don't want to have every Cherian Koshy: phrase always rhyming, or always be alliterative, or always be, whatever it might be. Always use a homopho homophone. That's not what I'm suggesting. You want to be subtle about this, because it's a it. At a certain point it becomes overwhelming, and it's just too much. And maybe you've seen that before. The other thing to be mindful of is that phonetic queues so rhyming. Alliteration is pretty straightforward, but rhyming and and homophonic language would depend on the language and the culture. So as you're thinking about that linguistic context, be mindful of that as well. Cherian Koshy: The second thing is the entourage effect, and this is the idea. We tend to think of donor behavior as wanting to do something for themselves, whether that's social status craving or getting some sort of. Maybe there's organizations here that offer Cherian Koshy: some kind of token benefit, or something even larger, like some more significant recognition. It could be a name on a wall. It could be a name on a building. What does that look like from the perspective of your donors. Well, this study, again, from 2014 talks about how we normally tend to Cherian Koshy: compare ourselves to our social circle that is inherent in kind of how we operate. Even if we don't act that out, we're always comparing ourselves to one another. The best example of that is my 7 year old daughter went to a little birthday party last week, and they're all. There's that moment where they all kind of look at each other and see what each other's wearing, and they're not mean or anything about it. But they're looking at each other right? This is a social status comparison that's really Cherian Koshy: driven by our our core behaviors, our core desires. So when you think about those benefits that you offer your donors, whatever it might be. Cherian Koshy: is there an opportunity to elevate their happiness and their attachment to your organization by being able to share that experience with others. A lot of times we think about this as deluding Cherian Koshy: the impact of, for example, a gala or a tour, or some kind of vip experience. But in fact, it increases their perceived status. So an example of where we've done, where I've done that before. I used to work, as I mentioned, for an arts organization, and we had a lounge where donors at a certain level would be able to access that lounge where access things like vip tours or Cherian Koshy: you know, access to artists and whatnot, and the the kind of going language is. The idea is the concept that we want to make these exclusive, so that people pay more, go, donate more, in order to access those benefits. We use this data and this science to say Cherian Koshy: what really matters is the ability of that person to be the spokesperson into their networks. So they like the arts. They want to share that experience with others. We actually printed out cards, invitation cards, sort of like Cherian Koshy: like tickets, if you will that allowed people to bring people other, their friends, their colleagues, whatever, to the lounge or to some of these other Vip experiences, and they were really well used, and it translated really well into those giving discussions, those opportunities for people to to give on their own, which made those original donors feel really good, and we did the same thing with with our volunteers and other stakeholders. Cherian Koshy: And the real reason behind this science is, we read, the study is that it deepens their sense of belonging. They are owners in the process. They're the ones that are introducing someone to the cause, and they're the ones that are making that that reality, that opportunity feel really good for someone else. So it's not just their own feelgood. It's that they're able to do that for someone else that really drives that Cherian Koshy: that opportunity. I think it also hearkens to our values about inclusivity that we're able to go beyond just those major donors and invite. Allow our our major donors and and our team to think about, how can we share some of those experiences with Cherian Koshy: whether it's guests to our program, or whatever it might be, to enable that inclusivity and really demonstrate. I want you to sort of put a PIN on this really demonstrate that even with smaller gifts or smaller commitments of time, they are making a difference. So put a PIN on that because we're gonna come back to that in a minute. Cherian Koshy: Obviously, we're continuing to elevate status through association. So it's not just that you are a donor. You are an ambassador donor kind of component that elevates that person's Cherian Koshy: social standing. So it leans into both the needs of the organization and the donor in terms of their perception. Cherian Koshy: Of course, there's relationship building components. Now you have someone else who's carrying that water for you. Another water. Welcome! Shout out there, right another component there of saying you're able. The other person is doing this work. So it's not you as the fundraiser, or you as the executive director, doing all the work. It's an opportunity to connect those donors in that way. That makes a difference. Cherian Koshy: And then ultimately creating that positive impact and loyalty to your organization. Cherian Koshy: We saw loyalty, Skyrocket, as soon as we saw, as soon as we instituted this program, where donors could invite other people to do tours or to do like backstage tours and things like that which cost us no money, like no money at all. It was somebody's time for an hour, and we did it over. Lunch it was. It did not impact us in a really significant way, but it drove that loyalty because they got to be the host of the of that group of people, and it was really powerful for them. Cherian Koshy: So the the next thing I want to talk about is what I call altruism assurance behavior. Cherian Koshy: And this is after they made the gift. The donor has made the gift, they need to justify their giving decision. And this is particularly true around larger gifts. So the example that I'll give you is after I buy my my macbook or my ipad Cherian Koshy: apple starts sending me emails about all of the features, all of the benefits, and they're subtly reinforcing that I made a really good decision by buying that product. So this post donation rationalization is really important because Cherian Koshy: they there was a momentum that went into their decision to make a gift to your organization right before they clicked. Donate or give whatever you decide to put on that button there was that moment of trepidation. Should I do this? Should I not? Particularly for larger gifts, but even for smaller ones? Right? Cherian Koshy: Is this the right decision, and they overcame that barrier. They pushed the button, they pulled out their credit card. They pushed that button. What do they need next? A lot of us believe that they need gratitude, and the reality is. And the science says that what they really need is rationalization. They need justification. That they did the right thing now that could look like an impact story. So I don't want to exclude that. But it's really important to kind of think about Cherian Koshy: that loyalty to your brand has everything to do with their perception of both value. Did they get what they wanted out of that? Did they feed someone? Did they save a pet or something like that, whatever it might be, but also that virtue. They were a good person, doing a good thing. Cherian Koshy: and that's really critical to them, continuing that behavior in the future. So we want to reinforce their self perception, their self regard as a donor or a volunteer or a community member and make sure that that is Cherian Koshy: quite literally after, immediately after they make that decision. Cherian Koshy: So that we're reinforcing, like you see, on the right side of your screen here, that emotional investment, that attachment to the thing that they did so as you think about them making the decision. Cherian Koshy: Don't think about it from a rational perspective of. They bought the thing they they bought the ticket they donated to your organization. They decided to volunteer. We need to create an emotional and attention. Sorry! An emotional attachment, so that it pushes that behavior deeper into their identity. Cherian Koshy: So Cherian Koshy: don't don't set you. You got the gift fantastic that element lends most organizations to rest on their laurels and say, we're okay. We we got the gift and we're we're done now until we ask for the next gift Cherian Koshy: impact reporting. And, Liz, I'm sorry, Leah, to your question. It absolutely makes sense for scholarships and subsidies. If you're able to do this impact reporting component that even better to say something around scholarships that justifies their giving and says, like you were, we're able to put the scholarship out there right away or for example, I'm on the Afp global board, and we have Cherian Koshy: university scholarship that's going out right now for for people to go to Afp icon in Toronto. If you that applies to you would very much encourage you to apply for that scholarship. And if you get that scholarship, one of the things that Afp does very well. The foundation does really well is to say, here are the people Cherian Koshy: who got that scholarship, and that's a communication to the donors to say, Thank you for making this gift to the foundation. You've made an impact immediately, so that I remember that I did something that was meaningful. Cherian Koshy: So as soon as and let me be clear about this, this is most important. As soon as someone makes the first gift. Cherian Koshy: That first gift to your organization is perhaps the most important. So if you're thinking about the engagement continuum and donor behavior across a JA. Journey, they find out some information about your organization, or they seek out information about your organization. We want to get them to make a very small commitment. First of all, maybe it's they. They come to an event. Maybe it's they they share an email address with you, or they download something from your website. Or they watch a video something that is very, very low commitment. Cherian Koshy: And once they do that, we want to reinforce and create that emotional attachment. Think of the the this work that we're talking about right now as putting the PIN to attach it to a bulletin board. To say this is something or a magnet that goes on their refrigerator. Right? So you've got this little thing. May you know this. Cherian Koshy: this thing that they did. They watched a video. They opened your email. They, whatever it might be. We want to stick a thing in there to make sure that it stays top of mind. And even if it's a a small gift, a pledge, whatever it might be. This is your foundation for the future. If you can keep reinforcing. Cherian Koshy: you did a good thing. Cherian Koshy: This is really how psychology works right, and if you think about it, you play this out every single day of your life. The things that Cherian Koshy: you have a strong emotional attachment to are things that you keep repeating are the things that you keep doing over time, whether it's Cherian Koshy: let me. So this is a bad example. But here's the example. Right? The example is your phone. Cherian Koshy: How many of you have looked at your phone in the 30 min that I've been talking most of you. Cherian Koshy: all of you. Probably it turns out the science says that we can't not look at our phone and it pulls us away because there's a reward center that's activated when you look at your phone. Cherian Koshy: So it is celebrating the second bullet point. It's celebrating those that attention by giving me some sort of feedback. So as you're thinking about. How do we? How are we celebrating that? Fair enough, fair enough. I appreciate all the posting that's happening. But as you're thinking about, how do we reinforce that behavior? Think about that positive loop Cherian Koshy: that tells someone you did a good thing, and it's not just you as an organization. Maybe it's a board member who's reinforcing and saying you did a good thing. Maybe it's someone like that scholarship recipient saying you did a good thing, whatever it might be that reinforces our behavior, makes us want to continue to do that again and keep the organization top of mind. So this is where information now plays a part Cherian Koshy: if if you were under the I talked about Cartesian philosophy a little bit, which is probably more than you bargained for in a free webinar, but when we think about Cherian Koshy: the I think, therefore, I am paradigm. A lot of organizations will try to inform people or educate them into giving. Cherian Koshy: and that objectively does not work because we are informed about quite a few things. There are certainly things that we don't know about rare diseases and and those types of things that we don't know about. But are there people suffering? Yes. Are there people who are hungry? Yes. Are there people who are are are dealing with war and famine and pestilence. Yes, all of the things right. We are not ignorant to these things that that information Cherian Koshy: plays a role in reinforcing a decision that we already want to make. Cherian Koshy: that we already want to make. If someone does not care about animals, they will never, ever, ever give to your organization. That's an animal shelter. It won't. You cannot inform them into making that decision. Cherian Koshy: But if they care about animals. Cherian Koshy: then they want those components of that relationship to pull them into a decision for your organization, a donation decision, a volunteering decision, an ambassadorial community, whatever that might be. Decision. Cherian Koshy: As soon as that's done. they want information to reinforce their brain. To say this, I did make a good decision. Cherian Koshy: So I want you to think about that. As the overall approach that fosters a rational rationalization of an emotional decision. And I think that I'm not. I say I think a lot. But the science bears this out really, really, clearly. Cherian Koshy: Now. Cherian Koshy: I don't want to upset anyone about what I'm about to say, but I want to give you evidence of why, this is an issue. Cherian Koshy: And this is what I call the missed moment. Momentum Cherian Koshy: when donors feel like their contributions have less impact, particularly around a time sensitive opportunity. Say, for example, a matching gift that happens at a particular time guilty. I'm guilty of this. I've done this dozens of times. When that happens. Cherian Koshy: they see that missed missed opportunity and decide Cherian Koshy: whether or not to give to your organization after that opportunity is over. So they missed your Givingtuesday matching opportunity. And now they've economized their giving. You said it was a 2 to one matching gift opportunity. They missed it. They didn't participate. What are they waiting for they're waiting for the Super bowl sale on Tvs. They're waiting for that same type of opportunity to maximize their gift. And the data. The science really bears this out in terms of their perception of impact. I'm gonna have less impact. If my $100 back in November was gonna be $200. But my $100 is only a hundred dollars today Cherian Koshy: that should logically make sense. But when they do these studies they're able to see very clearly that it drives decision, making in a way that deters future decision, future donations. So a lot of times we think of ourselves, especially in the olden days like when I was a kid, and this was the say anything was on was A was a contemporary movie. We think of ourselves as like Cherian Koshy: sharing this information to our donors, and they're listening intently. Cherian Koshy: like Diane Court is from her bedroom window. And this is, you know, there's no other sound. It's just, you know. It's just that playing outside of her window. But in reality, what's happening in the digital age is, there's a lot of this right? There's everybody who has a boombox, and this is it took me a while to get AI to do this, and it didn't like John Cusack at all. But Cherian Koshy: this is really what it does look like in your inbox. In people's inbox, your own inboxes, in your donors, inboxes, in in their direct mail. Even right? So it's not just the digital age that's driving this. It's also offline. So Cherian Koshy: my mom is 87 years old. Earlier this year she fell. And so I had to go out to her house in Minnesota and and deal with some stuff while she was in the hospital. So I pull out her mail. It's January. By the way, it's not the end of the year. I pull out her mail in January, and there are 25 pieces of mail. Now, I am not upset by this at all. I know people that are, and I understand that, and I respect that. I don't have any problem with the fact that my mom gets a lot of mail she donates to some of them. She doesn't. But I want to point out the one on the right side of the screen. Cherian Koshy: Your gift will be multiplied 7 times to feed hungry children. She did not respond to that. I don't know if she will. Maybe she will in the future, who knows? Actually toss these? So sorry? She's not going to be able to Cherian Koshy: but I don't know which organization. That is, but this is what that missed momentum will cause is because if she looks at that and says my $100 would be $700 to feed lots of hungry children. Cherian Koshy: Everyone in their grandmother is going to to look at that and say, I'm not going to feed 700 children, or whatever the case may be, right? $700 worth of feeding hungry children this time, because I missed that opportunity. So I'm gonna wait. I don't know which organization this is, but I'm gonna wait and see what that looks like for what it's worth. I went back a few a couple weeks later to check on her house and stuff like that, and there were still more mail. So direct mail is definitely not dead, like if my 87 year old, mom is as any example is definitely not dead by any stretch of the imagination. So when you're thinking about Cherian Koshy: how you're crafting campaigns, it is absolutely. I want you to be very clear in in hearing me out for this one. I am not suggesting that you do not, that you should avoid matching gifts. John List, Dr. John List does the preeminent study on matching gifts, and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that matching gifts work. Cherian Koshy: It absolutely does work. And I think if Doctor List was here, he would say, there's more to understand about how that economizes long term behavior, particularly with new donors. So yes, and be strategic about your campaigns. So Cherian Koshy: making sure that your your special offers don't set unsustainable expectations, my friend, a friend Gopin, who does a lot of stuff around email fundraising said that there were beyond the 7 times. There were ones that were like 20 times. And whatever are you drastically pulling out these unsustainable expectations for your for your potential donors, and then manage their expectations around those timeframes. Right? Cherian Koshy: Are there? Is that going to impact their regular giving patterns? Or are we really using matching gifts? Specifically, tactically. Cherian Koshy: sur surgically to drive a particular type of behavior? And then we're communicating very clearly, this is what you accomplish back to that reinforcement, and giving them the information to understand what that looks like over the longer course of of time with your organization. Also. Obviously, many of us use matching gifts around the end of the year. So think about whether that actually is coaching our donors to wait and only give at the end of the year, generally because that's when we ask them. Or are we coaching donors to wait for a matching gift, because that's when we do those types of things. So what does that look like? And then and then as much as possible. I know this is one of those should head kind of moments. But Cherian Koshy: unique appeals make a difference in terms of how you you show up in someone's mailbox or inbox, or or what that looks like. Cherian Koshy: So the last thing that I want to talk about here in terms of of studies, this one's from 2,018 I got as part of my Hbs course I got to listen to Katie Milkman. And she she joined our class for for a bit, and it was really, really fascinating. I think everything that she does is fantastic. She did a study that is very specific to charitable giving. Cherian Koshy: and what she found in the study among her other colleagues is the is the idea of generosity, decay, so that the conception of gratitude that we have towards an organization declines over time. Cherian Koshy: There's an impact. There's a window sorry of where that gratitude will design will Cherian Koshy: create behavior where it will drive decision making whether it's to give back and to donate or to volunteer, whatever it might be. But just like, you know, a radioactive material, there's a half life. And after that half life, we, our memory of the the feeling that we have, the emotion and the attachment and the gratitude that we feel declines, and it declines precipitously, precipitously. Cherian Koshy: What this means is that you have a timeframe where you can act on that generosity, feeling. And then, after that, that, erosion impacts, and there are ways to kind of pull out of that death spiral if you will. Cherian Koshy: But I kind of want to show you the science that that Dr. Milkman used around this. So they looked at people whose visits to a hospital were in, you know, September, October, or November, and then, when they received their appeal. So 3 months later they received an appeal. All the way down to a month and a half later they were. They received their appeal, and the data is really clear. So they studied 18,000 patients. This, this is cold Cherian Koshy: outreach in a grateful patient program. What they found was it reduced? The response rate reduced from 1.5 to point 4% over time. Whether it was the first visit or the last visit didn't Cherian Koshy: significantly affected the decline percentage, the decline rate and it significantly impacted the overall donation rate. As you can see there. So this is in our space folks. This is in our sector that's really indicating that timing is of the essence. It is. It's not about communicating the urgency of the donor. It's me communicating the urgency to you as the nonprofit professional to say. Cherian Koshy: if someone has a moment of good feeling with your organization, they come to an event. They've gone on a tour. They've opened your email, or something like that. Their feeling towards your organization has ticked up Cherian Koshy: wh. Where that lands in terms of your strategy is a different conversation. But your timing starts to diminish your ability to interact with that person starts to diminish over time, and the key takeaway from all of these studies Cherian Koshy: is the idea of decay Cherian Koshy: over time, our relationship, that all of these studies, if I were to do a meta analysis of all the studies, it would tell us that donors, understanding of your organization and what it means to participate in your organization, declines over time. Now you're like, wait a minute. That is obvious. Of course it is. But the the thing that we need to remember when you go back to work in 1520 min is that Cherian Koshy: the donor that you talk to today is not going to remember you tomorrow. So the focus of your activities has to be in jogging the donor muscle memory or the volunteer muscle memory Cherian Koshy: that. That keeps your organization and the cause top of mind. That doesn't mean information overload. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean that you keep asking them to give over and over again. But we are acclimated in this digital age to accept a lot of information. Our inboxes are full. Our mailboxes are full, we are acclimated to that. Cherian Koshy: And so if you're designing generosity experiences without focusing on that donor muscle memory or that volunteer muscle memory. You are allowing the decay to continue, and now it requires a whole lot of effort. I say this from personal experience it takes a whole lot of effort to get back into shape as your donors as your stakeholders, and they have to exert a lot more effort to give to you again, or volunteer to you with you again. Cherian Koshy: So I want to touch briefly on the idea of generations. I am not a huge fan of generational analysis. I'll get to that in a moment. But I want you to see the data, and I want you to be able to use it. This is Canadian. The future. Given a study about Canadians. I don't think that Canadians are a whole lot different from Americans in terms of this generational study. What I want you to note about this is for Gen. Z. Late millennials, early millennials that worm glow Cherian Koshy: when they tell you what they want. They want a nice feeling. That's what these younger donors want, you'll note, and I'm a little disappointed by the formatting here of of the report. Cherian Koshy: which, of course, you can follow is no reward or incentive at all. Ex expected, I think, actually fits nicely with that top one of a nice feeling. So if you add those together, Gen. Z. Is 70% on Cherian Koshy: really nothing at all. Now they say they don't want anything, but we know that they need to be reinforced of their decision. So we want to make sure that we're Cherian Koshy: we're taking what they're saying. But we wanna be mindful of their psychology as part of this. You have access, or you will have access to the slides. So I'm not gonna spend a whole bunch of time on on each of these different data points, particularly around platforms. Ii don't participate in a lot of social media platforms. I'm the worst person to talk about with regard to these things, but you'll see that certain platforms outperform others Cherian Koshy: when it comes to these generational, their idea of of acting generously and then the amount of giving that they had get, that they gave in 2022 between that 50 and 1 99. This would be Canadian. So just be mindful of that. And as you're thinking about that engagement continuum. Getting them to do something small Cherian Koshy: is really really clear around, you know, if we get them to do one to 49 we could get. They're comfortable, giving 50 to 1, 99, so we could move them in that moves management approach with those introductory level donors. Here's the big takeaway from this Cherian Koshy: paypal giving fund study from from Canada. More than 9 and 10 of the Gen. Z. And millennial respondents say they're gonna give more to organizations in 2024. And that's a financial donation. So this is really really important, as as you think about outreach to younger donors and building that muscle memory with Cherian Koshy: Gen. Z. Millenials. And and you know, folks like my kids and whatnot. So think about that as you as you think about that with your strategy as you develop your strategy for 2024 and beyond and you know really clearly they're gonna they're ready to give more money. They just wanna have some really clear understanding of Cherian Koshy: what your organization does. What's the impact? So you'll see here on this slide. How many different causes they give to. So you're not the only one with any of these groups. Gen. Z. Is 5.3. Millennials are 4.8 Gen. X. My generation is 4.7. So we're falling behind in terms of donor habits. But Cherian Koshy: it does indicate that there's a strong trend towards younger donors giving to giving generously and giving to other giving to multiple organizations. So be that as it may, I want you to think about then donor engagement strategies and particularly kind of tacking onto this Gen. Z component. This study from Cherian Koshy: 2022. So a little over a year ago, indicates that existential guilt appeals most motivate Gen. Z's charitable engagement. And it's, you know, pretty specific about what this looks like, where guilt plays out in terms of how you think about your your marketing and your your fundraising appeals is really, and a question about ethics and values and your mission. So I don't want to deep dive too much into that, because we don't have time, and that's very nuanced for your organization. But Cherian Koshy: the idea that I want you to kind of pull through this is there, or guilt appeals trigger feelings of, as you can imagine, guilt in terms of failing to act. Or if you don't do this, something bad is going to happen. So it's not what's called in the literature poverty, porn. It's not showing pictures of babies with distended bellies and whatnot that may play a part in it. Unfortunately. And I think those things are wrong, but like flat out wrong. But I do think you wanna you wanna be mindful, if you're looking at, just Cherian Koshy: to read this study, to follow up on what that research looks like, and how that might play a part in Cherian Koshy: loss, aversion in your appeals, because I do think that's a powerful component when you're thinking about engaging a new generation of donors. Here are the 3 things that come out of this study from last month so very, very recent. First of all. Cherian Koshy: remember what I told you to put a PIN in in terms of completion of the donation experience. Your Gen. Z. Donors are worried that their small gifts aren't going to make a difference. You can correct that. You can correct that to day you can get Gen. Z. Donors to understand that their smaller gifts make a difference. Cherian Koshy: They do set tend to have a general lack of trust around financial Su stewardship. So if they've made a gift, reinforce financial stewardship right away, make them feel good about that. That will drive their trending behavior towards more giving. And they want you to think about developing data driven narratives to share how the funds were used. So when we talk about data driven narratives. As I'm talking over this, I want you to look at the screen. I want you to watch this video very quick. Very briefly. It's just a minute long. Cherian Koshy: and I want you to hop in the chat and tell me, what do you see happening? Cherian Koshy: So most people tend to see what Andrew said in in the chat, that the Cherian Koshy: that the circle is a bully we have attached to this idea. Let me get out of this the screen here. We've attached, meaning to this Cherian Koshy: to these shapes that there was. These are just shapes that are moving around the screen. And so when you think about telling your story Cherian Koshy: as an organization? I want you to understand that data is a summary but there's a story behind that data that makes it meaningful. And there's a great book called Data Story by Nancy Duarte that will help you kind of think about how to build those data driven narratives, and do so in a way that Cherian Koshy: drives behavior that drives and lends itself to that donor psychology. But remember that our brains are wired to see the story, even in inanimate objects, like a circle and a triangle, and to build that story around what we think is supposed to happen. So people are writing that narrative, and you you all probably did as well as we were talking about it. I'm going to talk about how this is important. The only reason for this slide is if you take the slides and you want to share this with someone internal. Your organization about how we use visuals to drive the story. Cherian Koshy: So as we land the plane, what I want to talk about is how data and interpretation creates data storytelling. And our key is really to decide which story to tell. Cherian Koshy: To whom? In what format, when do we tell it, and why? These are all the components that you need to decide upon. As you're thinking about the the donor Cherian Koshy: desires, the donor decisions that are coming into play and how this can easily get screwed up. So I got this email this morning. Cherian Koshy: says, Hey, I'm John. With everseal coatings. We install high performance, resinous floor coatings throughout the Midwest, many of them being in the area where I live. I saw that your Vice President product strategy at Iwaave. Do you have any potential projects that we could look at? I believe it's not headquartered anywhere near Wauke, Iowa. It's nowhere near. But this is an example of doing it wrong. Cherian Koshy: It's not. I don't care about floor seed floor coatings from a business perspective. I don't care about that, for from the I wave, that's not what we do at. I wave right like not at all. And this is not the right Cherian Koshy: person, the right time, any of it. Right? It's a huge mistake in terms of of what that looks like. And this is why I'm worried about some of the things that we do with regard to decision making, because we'll look at demographic data and say, Oh, hey! These, you know, these are the demographic components, but Cherian Koshy: that could represent 2 very, very different people demographically. So as you think about segmenting your donors and talking to them differently. Demographics are helpful. but actually doing some more experimentation and some study will help you understand what motivates these donors, and what I often recommend is the idea of using a conjoint analysis, a rule developing experimentation format, which is what Qualtrick says is the most optimal version of of research, because it enables you to make to actually not even talk to your donors. But look to similar groups and be able to make some decisions. One example of that is St. Jude's Research Hospital. I wasn't on the team that did this. I was working on another large organization, but using AI to determine what stories are the most effective, and it drove Cherian Koshy: 25% increases in their donation revenue through Youtube because they were able to do that. And these are some examples of some studies are some, some of the components that you'll have access to, and you can look at for for St. Jude. So the last thing that I want to talk about is, how do we use data and AI to drive these pieces? Ultimately. So Mckinsey talks about how personalization is really important non personal communications will drive people away. Drive your donors, your volunteers, your community away because they've acclimated to personalization. And you know, these are some examples of of what? Where personalization is important to them and where it's not. But ultimately people do care about that, and consumers reward those that get get it right? Donors will reward organizations that get it right as well Cherian Koshy: as you think about what this looks like. It's really about using the data that you have first party data, or even third party data about where this person works and what their what their capacity is to give where they've given to other organizations to build and cultivate and propose gifts to other organizations. I've used the example here of major gifts, but if someone's given $50 to your organization for Cherian Koshy: a few years. And we know from all of the other data that's out there that they're able, or they've given $5,000 to another organization just like yours. Cherian Koshy: There's a lost opportunity there that can be leveraged in following that donor desire that donor trend at the individual level, to build that relationship to get them to the point where they see the opportunity, and they're invited into an opportunity to have an even greater impact. So Cherian Koshy: at the end of the day when it comes to that data and that AI component that that iwave can help you do. It's really important to recognize that human relationships and authenticity is really essential across the spectrum. As you're looking at this data as you're looking at the the science behind it. Cherian Koshy: nothing's going to replace us sitting across the table from someone we're sitting, you know, across a zoom Cherian Koshy: room, from someone and talking to them and understanding what are their motivations? What's driving their interest. What what do they really care about bringing them back and exercising that donor muscle memory? So the last thing that I want to leave you with, and now is a great time to throw questions into the QA. We'll spend a few minutes doing that is I don't know if you've seen the hot ones. We kinda like it in our family, even though language a little bit problematic. Some in some places. Cherian Koshy: Jennifer Lawrence is hilarious, but the language is is not great. There are a bunch of studies about hot sauce, and this is what I want to leave you with. Which I think is really important for all of you Cherian Koshy: when we, when when they do, studies around compassion. One of the things that they do is they have someone behind a a one way mirror, and they say to the person, this person in the the person on the other side of the one way mirror is gotta eat the chili and completely eat all of it. If they're going to get the reward for participating in this study, you get to decide whether to use mild or hot salsa. Cherian Koshy: Most people. Cherian Koshy: because they've been built in baby, you know, care about compassion. They will put the mild salsa in. Cherian Koshy: They. They want the other person to win, you know no consequence to them. Cherian Koshy: When that same person, in kind of study experiments Cherian Koshy: goes before the study begins. runs into them in the whole weight, or is rude to them in the whole way. Cherian Koshy: That person goes for the Hot Sask 9 times out of 10 they want to be aggressive. They want to engage in in antisocial behaviors. They don't want that person to win. Now, here's the thing that I want to leave you with. When they repeat that study. The person was aggressive. Cherian Koshy: and then the doctor or the person doing the study says, Hey. Cherian Koshy: you look great today. Thanks for being here. Would you like some water? They show a little bit of compassion. They empathize with that person a little bit Cherian Koshy: person picks the mild salsa, or the mild hot sauce. And Cherian Koshy: so what I want to leave you with is how important your job is. Cherian Koshy: Every single day you show up in the world. and you give people the opportunity to lean into their inborn traits of compassion and empathy. Cherian Koshy: And but for you Cherian Koshy: the world around them is telling them. Everything is bad. Everything is going, you know, Haywire, and they do not see a lot of the compassion and empathy. Cherian Koshy: and you bring that to them, and you show them a way out of what the world is telling them. So Cherian Koshy: never, ever diminish the work that you are doing. Know that what you are doing Cherian Koshy: is enabling people to live their best selves and make a difference in the way in which they show up in these generosity experiences. Because if it wasn't for you. Cherian Koshy: It's very likely the studies demonstrate that it's very likely Cherian Koshy: that their immediate reaction, as Leah mentions here, would be antisocial. It's quite literally called antisocial Revention in the data, in the in the academic articles, and it is Cherian Koshy: so important to me, and I know to Tim and everyone at at, and I wave and and neon one that you know how much of a difference that you make, and how thankful we are that you are there every day. Cherian Koshy: So want to answer a couple of questions. There's a couple here in the the QA. But would love for you to connect with us if there's questions that you can't stick around for whatever. Happy to to talk offline as well. So Andrew asks the principle of motivated reasoning play into the messaging narrative. How is it interpreted by audiences? Cherian Koshy: People often start with a conclusion selectively filter. Remember information the way it's designed to offer support for pre existing perspective or stance. Yeah. So there's complexity there in terms of what story you're telling. But Cherian Koshy: as you're thinking about. Cherian Koshy: start from where you are, your cause, your mission area. The people that you want to be focused on are the people that are bought in in some way. The easiest example is grateful. Patients. They've Cherian Koshy: gone to your facility. They've received some benefit. They've where their their family members received some benefit. That's the conclusion. I think if I'm answering and understanding your your story correctly. They see themselves in that spot and then now they are selectively filtering information. So one piece of that is to show up consistently Cherian Koshy: with pieces of information that reinforce the decision to give or reinforce the successful outcome in a way that that drives their behavior. So consistency is key. But making sure that it's Cherian Koshy: reinforcing an immediate is also key. Cherian Koshy: Tim, how'd we do? Neon One Webinars: There we go we did. Great! We did. Great! I I mean. Neon One Webinars: you know I'm here for the Descartes, and I'm also here for the hot one. So like like, and everything been between. And folks, not only have we recorded this, there was actually a lot more people who Neon One Webinars: did the usual thing and registered, and they will be getting the email with this. So so we know that, and thank you for for coming here. Live, too, Tyrion, as always, fantastic stuff. And folks, this is not gonna be the last time that you're gonna be c seeing cheering this year in the neon one world. So we're really excited to to continue to work with our great partners at iwave and wanna. Thank you for your time today. Neon One Webinars: Thanks for having me, Tim. Oh, always, thank you. Thank you. Alright, folks. Neon One Webinars: we will. An intent, not John Cusick. That's right. It looked like more like the guy from the Breakfast Club. Judd Judd Nelson. It looks like Judd Nelson. It was like, we're gonna do, Judd Nelson thrown with Timmy Timothy Chalome a. So they so they get around that. So Neon One Webinars: there we go. There we go. That's what it is. Okay, folks. Thank you. Again, have a great day. Everyone. We're gonna get to work on getting all of these wonderful materials packaged up for you. And you're gonna get an email of this tomorrow.