Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog | Homer Simpson for Nonprofits: The Truth about How People Think and What It Means to Your Cause

Homer Simpson for Nonprofits: The Truth about How People Think and What It Means to Your Cause

This is the title of a new eBook I just finished with Alia McKee and Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies. It’s a guide to behavioral economics for nonprofit leaders and in here is why you should be reading it: You will be seeing behavioral economics everywhere this year. It’s the topic of a slew of business books - and it should be the topic on the minds of everyone in nonprofit marketing and fundraising, too.

As we explain in the eBook, behavioral economics challenges the notion that people will choose the best action or the most logically presented choice and explores the bounds of rationality — identifying social, cognitive and emotional factors that can influence the decisions people make. The big takeaway? People don’t arrive at most decisions through a process of weighing costs against benefits. We are irrational. In their book Nudge, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein put it simply: Real people make decisions like Homer Simpson, not Spock.

So why is behavioral economics important to nonprofit organizations? For us, these irrational decisions have high stakes. We’re not asking people to buy a Coke. We’re asking them to protect our environment, to safeguard our children, to fight for human rights. We’re asking them to change the world. Their individual decisions — which often don’t take into account one’s own best interest let alone the interest of the greater good — matter a lot. We need to be sure we’re asking people in the right way, or their Homer brains might undo our Spock arguments.

Learn how to deal with all the Homers out there! Get the eBook for free here.

Enjoy!

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/22 at 09:17 PM

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Comments

Hi Katya—wasn’t it you (or maybe it was Mark?) who said that people decide with their right brains / emotions, and then later justify with their left brains / logic? That has stuck with me ever since, and I’ve been fascinated to watch myself do it!!

Posted by Margaux O'Malley on 02/23 at 09:53 AM

That was classic Mark: The right brain decides, the left brain justifies!

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/23 at 02:13 PM

Perhaps we should hire cultural anthropologists to help us write our appeal letters?

People give for all sorts of reasons. They want to give back to your cause, because they’ve been helped by it. Or they think it makes good business sense to support your cause. or they just give because it feels good.

I like this post. And I do think that given the current economic climate, a lot of people will be asking themselves the question, “What charity can I not give to this year, to save money?”

However, I do think that an assessment of Lean fundraising and major gifts might prove more lucrative for nonprofits than just trying to figure out behavioral economics for the majority of their donors.

http://wildwomanfundraising.com

Posted by Mazarine on 02/23 at 02:29 PM

I downloaded the ebook and just love it. What a great idea. These ideas are so important and your book gives concrete ways to apply them. I did a little review here: http://nonprofit.about.com/b/2010/02/23/the-logic-of-the-illogical-homer-simpson-for-nonprofits.htm

Posted by Joanne Fritz on 02/23 at 06:22 PM

Thanks, Joanne! That is great!

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/23 at 06:34 PM

Thank you Katya. This paper is fantastic. I quoted from parts of it about the need for great stories on a teleconference last Thursday night with our advisory group and board.

Posted by Kirt Manecke on 02/28 at 08:00 AM