How to hang out with older folks without annoying them

Want to develop an intuitive understanding of donors? Talk to older people.

Next best thing, read what they write at The Elder StoryTelling Place, a blog where people age 50 and up tell their stories. Nothing earth-shaking, just the kind of stories our parents and grandparents tell.

It's a shortcut to insight. As the Ageless Marketing blog notes:

While creative directors pore over research results and reduce their gleanings to one-page briefs that will guide creatives, the stories told by people who want to share their perspectives on life provide more certain guidance.

You aren't going to walk away with buckets of data every time you visit, but you will read genuine experiences and attitudes. You'll get a feel for how older people think, how they express themselves, and what matters to them. And it's entertaining. Highly recommended.

Technorati Tags: fundraising, stories, eldedrblogs

Comments

[Jeremy Gregg]

A good point, which reaffirms that we should not think of ourselves as marketers as much as case managers. There is a pastoral side of a fundraiser's work that requires getting into the shoes of the donor, something often overlooked by charities that consider their donors to be checkbooks.

Jeremy Gregg, Editor
The Raiser's Razor
http://theraiser.blogspot.com/

[Ronni Bennett]

It seems to me that marketers, advertisers and others, such as your area of non-profits, who want to reach elders rely primarily on what they think elders are like which apparently is that we are just wrinkled younger people.

Not so.

Surveys can't answer what elders are like, but a regular reading of The Elder Storytelling Place and the blogs of 50-plus people can reveal how our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors are different from younger people. It's not as easy as a survey, but it is more accurate.

Thanks for recognizing that and linking to my Elder Storytelling blog.