Influencing Donors Ethically

I took a seat in the Grand Ballroom in the Waldorf=Astoria on the second day of the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s 2006 New York Nonprofit Conference in early August with my coffee and bagel just as Heath Slawner began his general session on the power of influence. Slawner’s presentation shed light on the topic of influence and ethics in a fresh, new way that had me on the edge of my seat even before the coffee had a chance to kick in.

A partner at Montreal-based training and development firm Hart Resource Development, Slawner outlined six principles of ethical influence developed by Dr. Robert B. Cialdini, president of Influence At Work, a firm that provides influence-related consulting, training and presentations to corporations, government and nonprofit agencies.

The principles — reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking and consensus — can be used by any company or organization looking to ethically influence or persuade people to choose a behavior. The three principles that apply most to nonprofit fundraising are:

1. Reciprocity. The rule of reciprocity refers to the deep obligation people feel to repay those who have already given to them.

“In the fundraising sphere, one of the ways you can invoke it, especially with people who don’t directly benefit from an organization’s programs or services, is to position the support that you’re seeking as payback for what your organization is already doing or will continue to do or will start doing — and that’s what I call cosmic reciprocity,” Slawner said. “You’re not asking for something back because you’ve given to that person directly, but because you give to the community, because you give and improve the lives of the people who are around them.

“Reciprocity is really where it all starts and, for fundraising organizations in particular, it’s very important to demonstrate actively what they are doing for the community, what their successes are, what their achievements are, and positioning requests as payback for what they have already done and what they will continue to do,” he added.

2. Scarcity. This rule says that people want more of what they can only have less of. Slawner said fundraisers can use it in this way: Instead of positioning appeals in terms of the benefits of supporting your mission and work, as organizations often do, talk about what they and their community stand to lose by not supporting your cause. Don’t position it as a threat, he warned — merely explain what the community stands to lose if the organization isn’t able to provide its services.

“That has a stronger effect on people’s willingness to give,” Slawner said, cautioning that your statements of loss should be true. “If you’re putting up threats like what you stand to lose and it’s not true, it’ll backfire on you quicker than anything and you’ll destroy your credibility for months, years.”

The rule of scarcity also says that people will support something that is rare and unique, so you should focus on what is uncommon about your organization to prospects.

“Spend 10 minutes thinking about all of the things that you do, and I think that once you combine them together you’ll see that you do represent something unique and uncommon — and that’s what you want to use to position yourself in your marketing materials,” Slawner added.

3. Consistency. “The principle of consistency tells us that nobody wakes up in the morning wanting to be erratic. People are psychologically squeezed to follow through on things that they’ve already said they’re committed to,” Slawner said.

Build appeals based on what you already know about donors in terms of their previous commitments and their previously stated beliefs. The more public, active and voluntary a commitment or a statement of support is, the more likely it will be followed through on.

Slawner added that when trying to get commitments of support from individuals, if you are initially turned down, don’t give up. There is a moment of power after someone says no to something where if you ask them again, right away, for a smaller commitment, there’s a good chance you’ll get it.

Heath Slawner can be reached at heath@hartresource.com or 514.481.0321.