Giving and gambling.

To qualify my clickbait headline, gambling and giving are good for you if you're not addicted. Giving money that you can't afford or feeling too much pressure to give (Olive Cooke) and gambling when you can't afford to lose are certainly not good for you, although they'll feel good at the time.

David J. Linden's book The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good. says that all these activities trigger an area in your brain called the medial forebrain pleasure circuit, and the activities might be different but it's the same area of the brain they affect. And we fundraisers want to tap into this pleasure circuit and encourage people to keep giving (as long as they can afford to, which is why the opt out should be clear, so that people can remove the 'pressure' if they want to). Sooo this is a long way of asking how we make giving even more pleasurable, so that donors enjoy it and keep wanting to donate? We know the standard responses: saying thank you, showing the impact of their donation (photos, videos, infographics, visits, calls from staff & volunteers possibly CEO/Trustee), keeping in touch with donors, sharing news about the charity.

What can we offer above the standard responses? Well friends, I've got some ideas that tap into the pleasure response just for you:

-Sending giving anniversary messages; on this date a year ago you started changing lives by giving. Thank you, over the year you have given x amount which has had this x impact. Crunching the personal data to find the date of when a donor started giving shouldn't be too much trouble, but the risk is that the data is wrong and the wrong date is sent to the donor - have a plan for what to do if this happens (it's likely).

-Post out stickers. Old school I know, but hear me out, remember 'I give blood' stickers? why not have a sticker that says I give to xx charity because I believe in helping xx. Be transparent about why you're send the sticker though, explain to the donor that you want them to have a reminder of their generosity and you also want to encourage others to give to help more beneficiaries. The problem with stickers is the plastic. Maybe it's a postcard that can be placed in people's windows, car windows, noticeboards and then recycled. Maybe it's a t shirt. Let me know what you decide.

-Thinking about data segmentation, how about asking donors if they want to be part of a local group. There are xx number of donors in your region, you're one of them, thank you. We would love to get you all together to have a photo and a small party to say thank you, celebrate yours and the charity's achievements, you can meet the staff. Bring a friend. This is an opportunity to ask for an increase in donations, recruit volunteers, and recruit new donors, collect donor case studies, photos and videos .