Traps to avoid in fundraising

Linguist and progressive thinker George Lakoff has written an interesting piece titled 12 Traps That Keep Progressives From Winning. With just a few revisions, the piece could be titled "12 Traps That Keep Nonprofits from Effective Marketing and Fundraising."

Go read it.

The one that hurts nonprofits most is the one Lakoff called "The Rationalism Trap" -- the belief that you can rationally argue someone into changing their mind or behavior, that if donors just knew the facts, dammit, their gifts would pour into your office! People give (as also they vote) for mainly inner-directed reasons: They give because it feels good. They give because their faith or cultural values tell them to. They give because they want to be seen (by themselves or by others) as some particular kind of good person. The rational reasons play only a tiny part in most giving decisions.

Go where your donors really are, not where you wish they were. Nothing else really works very well.

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