Who is good at creating social norms that inspire giving?
- Thu, January 13 2011
- Filed under: Marketing essentials
Yesterday, I blogged on the importance of social proof, citing research on social norms that shows people are more likely to take action when they believe others are taking action. For example, when people see an empty donation box, they are less likely to contribute in what would be a lone act.
So what’s a good example of using social norms online to build a sense of community around giving?
My favorite example is DonorsChoose, which is always the gold standard in nonprofit marketing. Very few organizations do a better job thanking supporters, celebrating their community, and making people feel part of the cause.
On the DonorsChoose home page, in real time, the organization displays messages from donors on why they supported DonorsChoose. When I gave to a classroom in Washington, DC, this morning, DonorsChoose asked why I gave and (with my permission) shared my message within minutes on the home page:
Reading messages from other donors is moving - and it is motivating.
The DonorsChoose website is full of social proof - from supporters, from teachers and from students.
What are you doing to shine the light on the people who support your organization? Do as much as you can! When you let your community show its support to others, you inspire others to act.
Comments
In addition to motivating other donors, giving supporters the opportunity to leave messages adds to the sense of connection and community. It’s great to make a donation, but even better to take the time to tell an organization why you want to support its mission. That’s one reason nonprofit organizations choose to use give2gether to create their online fundraising campaigns.
We take it a step further with “conditional giving”: a community (school, town, face book, the world) must come together to meet a set goal or the organization doesn’t receive any of the money raised and the donors can opt for a refund. Sounds counter-intuitive, but we the results of ten years of game-theory research and live lab experiments to show it works.
Similar to the phenomenon of people wanting others to give first or also, conditional giving motivates donors because they can see that their participation is important to the common good - their absence could result in the failure of the entire project - they matter to the group.