Why not to give?
In the last post, I talked about why people donate (click here to read it!). Now, we are going to discuss the opposite situation. What are the barriers people encounter on their paths to become donors?
- Overwhelming problems
The guilt trip that some organizations lead their donors into can backfire. Yes, human beings have the inner need to help others, but if we feel the situation is too much to handle, the initial empathy and altruism can become depressed through guilt. If we feel that there’s nothing that can be done to solve the problem, our first response is just to walk away from it. Always leave the light of hope on! And it is not a fake kind of hope; because if we work in nonprofit organizations, isn’t it because we have hope and trust that we can change the world? - Limited funds
Especially with the recent history of financial crises, a lot of us think that we don’t have enough money to give and we fall into an illusion that “My donation is too small to make a difference.” That conclusion is absolutely not true! As an organization, make sure your donors understand that any amount of money, no matter how small it is, can be crucial to your operation. It can help you buy water for your volunteers, complete the rent you need to pay, buy materials for a community project, or buy an anti-malaria bed net that costs only $2.50 and protects two people for up to three years. One way to get around this problem is to quantify what every value of donation can do for your organization, with phrases such as: “if you donate $20, you will help us to…”. That way, people are able to understand and to visualize that every dollar really counts. - Lack of transparency
Trust is the most important relation you can have with any other human being. When people are looking to invest their money, they usually complete a thorough investigation on how the money is going to be used and where it will have the better impact. The same concept happens when people are looking to donate. “These guys want to know where their money went. What kind of impact did it make? Did their donation make a difference?” And you should be prepared to offer this information. You can set up a variety of ways to do that and some examples include: regular posts on social media, thank you letters and emails to the donors, mail exchanges between those who donated and those who received, annual reports to be sent out… Let your donors feel appreciated and informed about your actions and about their impact. - Lack of a relationship
Remember my last post? People want to be part of something bigger than their individual selves; they want to be inserted into the community. Donors give money because they believe in the cause and because they believe that your organization is able to fight for them. To make them believe in all of that, you need to connect with them. “You have to establish a connection between them and your mission before you can expect them to open their wallets.”
There is one more barrier when it comes to donation, and it can have nothing to do with your mission. You also need to use a tool that makes the act of donating easy and flexible. If the tool or technology you’re using is too complicated or if it doesn’t give enough options, it’s just too easy to lose donors at this point. Think about the convenience that stores offer when you buy from them, and try to implement improvements in the way you ask for and receive donations.
Now that you know the biggest barriers that people usually encounter when they are thinking about donating, you can prepare yourself and your organization to overcome these barriers. People want to participate in the improvement of the society and have the innate need to help. We just need to make it happen!
This post from “The Life You Can Save” has a list of 10 more reasons, in case you want to go deeper in the subject.
Edited by Isabelle Jade.
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