What is a Generosity Moment?

Welcome to my weekly LinkedIn newsletter! Connected Fundraising Weekly will be my way of providing easy-to-engage insights around donor behavior, fundraiser enablement, and technology. I hope you enjoy the content, and please share if you think someone would benefit from what I'm writing!

I'm in Washington, DC for the National Council of Nonprofits' Confab gathering, which brings together all the state associations that help represent the interests and lobby for policy on behalf of the nonprofit sector. It is one of my favorite events in the nonprofit sector.

The reason is that it is explicitly an event focused on learning, listening, and exploring. I have no intention of pitching products but instead want to talk with representatives from all over the country to hear what struggles nonprofits, especially smaller organizations, are going through.

At the dinner last night to welcome sponsors before things formally kick off later today, we got to talking about the importance of moments during the giving process. This is a particular obsession of mine so I wanted to dive further into the concept of Generosity Moments.

What is a Generosity Moment?

The idea of a Generosity Moment is a simple one - it is the period that an organization can capture and convert the passion that someone has for their cause. This can come in the form of giving, RSVPing for an event, pledging volunteer hours, and other "hand-raising" activities.

Let's dive into three key concepts that I'm suggesting to embrace when aiming to create your own Generosity Moments.

Sparkline of a Donation

Many folks conflate the concept of sales and fundraising and this couldn't be further from the truth. I found an excellent video from the folks at NextAfter that helps unpack the flow of a Generosity Moment.

Their deep dive into the "sparkline" of when someone wants to give starts by explaining that the primary call for a gift is different from a sale. During a shopping experience on something like Amazon, someone has started with the intention of obtaining a good or service, and then that transaction may lead to affinity building for the brand (e.g. a fun landing page after to thank you for your purchase).

However, donations follow the opposite flow. The affinity is established first and then the donor works toward the transaction. Understanding that the reasons for action are flipped will be key because it can put your organization into a position to convert higher if you capture the Generosity Moment well.

The Peak-End Rule

This is where I love to talk about the peak-end rule. A summary of the concept is:

We remember a memory or judge an experience based on how they felt at the peak moments, as well as how they felt at the end.

During the giving process, be it online or through other means like direct mail, there will be a period where you will either be able to capture the donor's attention and convert it into a gift or that the experience will frustrate them and they will move on to something else.

So if we combine the concept from NextAfter that there is a conversion horizon for obtaining the gift and then the peak-end rule where there needs to be a focus on both a key memorable moment and ending on a high note, your organization can break your Geneoristy Moment into a few key steps. Yet, there's one final element that I feel many nonprofits miss.

Philanthropic Pyschology

The vast majority of online donation experiences are going to center on the message that the nonprofit wants to get across and hope that it resonates with individuals. This can be seen when online donation pages are focusing on abstract ideas of what the gift can be used for (e.g. this money goes to help 50 children) as opposed to engaging specifics that would appeal to a donor directly (e.g. my generosity will help a child).

The concept of philanthropic psychology is an exciting emerging field of study coming out of the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy that says that by shifting the focus and narrative of appeals from the situation of giving to the identity of the donor, the conversion rates will significantly increase and overall giving experiences will be much more positive.

When identities and psychological well-being are cared for right in fundraising copy, you can double giving

We had the honor of hosting a webinar with the folks at the Institute and they drove home the different layers of identity that should be considered when designing Generosity Moments.

Designing a Generosity Moment

That will be a much deeper post, but I wanted to bring all these threads together to help guide an organization toward building an amazing Generosity Moment. I feel like these three concepts are the building blocks toward making something truly special. Let's use a digital giving experience as the example flow around design for today's newsletter.

1. Start with a focus on the person, not the transaction itself
2. Examine the steps it will take to get someone to move from the status quo of non-engagement to the investment phase
3. Break those steps down into what will actually happen and what the donor will interact with during the Generosity Moment you want them to have - this involves discussing the colors of buttons, copy on the call to action, pictures, and photos being used, the videos that may be embedded, etc.
4. If you have broken things down into a few steps, mark down where the peak of the experience will be that occurs. Remember, focus on the person and not the transaction - so the peak for the donor may or may not be the actual act of giving (you CAN make giving fun itself, by the way!)
5. Especially once the investment stage has been crossed, how is your nonprofit ending the experience itself? Has there been something designed to not only make it memorable but also appeal to that person's sense of identity as a generous person?

There's a lot more to unpack here but we're going to be talking about Generosity Moments a lot over the next few weeks. In fact, we have an entire online summit dedicated to them called Dream Big, held on July 26-28 and featuring Rachel Muir, Team Gleason Foundation, and Woodrow Rosenbaum as well as other thought leaders and nonprofits talking about how to create amazing Generosity Moments.

Want to share your own Generosity Moment that you are proud of? Then submit it here and our Neon Cares committee will be choosing our favorite to reward with a micro-grant.