Fundraiser Magic: The Science of the "Ask"

Welcome to this edition of the Click and Pledge's fundraising command center podcast, where we talk the why, the what, and the how in the Click and Pledge's ecosystem.

This is the how series.

And today, we are tackling a question that I think genuinely keeps nonprofit executives up at night.

Oh, absolutely. It's that, that silent anxiety that shadows every major campaign. Are we asking too much?

Are we making our supporters tune out? Exactly. So today, we're putting on our research gloves for a deep dive to bust one of the most paralyzing fears in fundraising.

And the core question is a big one.

It is. Do we annoy donors by constantly asking them for money?

And that fear is very real. Mean in the offline world we have a name for it, we call it ask avoidance.

Oh, I know this feeling. Everyone knows this feeling.

Right. You're walking down the street, you see someone with a bright t shirt and a clipboard. Mhmm. And what do do?

You cross the street instantly. You don't even think about it.

You instinctively change your path Mhmm. Because that social pressure of having to say no face to face is just Yeah. It's uncomfortable.

It's too high a cost psychologically. So the big fear, the myth we're tackling is whether this translates online. If we ask our supporters to become fundraisers and solicit their friends, does it backfire?

Exactly. Do those donors just abandon us later? Do they get annoyed and just, you know, unsubscribe?

That is the crucial myth we are here to bust today and we didn't just guess. Yeah. This is where some serious academic rigor comes into play.

Yeah, needed real data, massive amounts of it. So this investigation brought together our CEO, Doctor Razvan, with a team of researchers from Virginia Tech, Doctor Shen and Doctor Barkhy.

When you say massive data, let's just emphasize the scale here for a moment. This wasn't a small survey.

No, not at all. We analyzed over ten years of click and pledge transaction data that cover more than 5,000 unique fundraising campaigns. And we track the behavior tied to almost $67,000,000 in donations. So this is a deep, deep dive into actual giving behavior.

So you're really trying to compare that old world social pressure, the clipboard problem with the new world of online platforms, which can feel, you know, anonymous.

Right. That's what we call depersonalization. Yeah. The transaction feels disconnected from a real person.

Okay. So to tackle that, you structured the analysis around two main questions, Rick.

Two core questions. First, the immediate impact. Does adding a human fundraiser, someone actively asking their friends, actually help a campaign compared to just a, you know, a passive donation page?

So question one is, does it work right now?

Pretty much. And then question two is the big one, the one that gets at the fear. Does being solicited online create that same ask avoidance that hurts an organization's future campaigns?

And you had to track those people over time to see if they disappeared.

Exactly. We couldn't just guess. The researchers used statistical modeling to isolate two groups for any given organization: donors who gave through a peer's fundraising page and donors who just gave passively on the main site.

So you could see if the solicited group was more likely to drop off later.

That's how we could test the psychological consequence of being asked. It was very rigorous.

Okay. Let's get right to it then. The immediate results. Question one. Does it work?

You said the data was definitive?

It was. Absolutely. Yeah. Campaigns that use personal fundraisers performed significantly better. I don't mean a little bit better.

Mean, it was an amplifier across every single metric that matters.

Okay. Break that down for us. What are those metrics?

Well, we recommend every organization use this because of three things. First, simply more money.

The bottom line,

the bottom line, they consistently raised substantially higher dollar amounts. Second, they reached more people.

So a wider net,

a much wider net, a higher number of unique donors, many of whom the organization probably couldn't have reached on its own. And that of course is goal for building your base.

Of course. And the third

more often, we saw a higher frequency of donations throughout the campaign. It shows this sustained stamina, like the fundraiser keeps the campaign top of mind for people longer.

Which brings us to the why. Why is it so effective online? You mentioned that word depersonalization.

Yeah. Mean, think about it. A generic donation page or a mass email is totally faceless. There's zero social cost to ignoring it. Your brain just files it away as noise.

But when a friend, a colleague, someone you trust sends you a personal link, the whole dynamic shifts. That personalization cuts right through the noise. It overcomes the detachment.

So you're not just clicking a button anymore?

No. You're responding to a person, someone you know. It injects social proof, maybe a little bit of healthy social accountability.

That makes perfect sense for the immediate results. But now for the big one. The fear. Yeah. The long term cost.

Does it create that fundraising hangover?

The digital clipboard problem.

Right. Did those solicited donors get annoyed and leave?

This was the real test. And this is why having ten years of data was so critical. We looked at organizations that used fundraisers in one campaign and then we tracked how their next campaign performed.

And the assumption based on the offline world would be that their next campaign would do worse because some donors would be turned off.

That was the hypothesis we were testing. Yeah. And the data gave us an answer that was just resounding. The core myth of digital ask avoidance is busted completely. We found no significant evidence of it.

None.

Wow. So being solicited by a peer online didn't cause donors to pull back or unsubscribe later on?

Not at all. Yeah. Which is so counterintuitive if you're thinking about that person with a clipboard.

So why is it so different online? What's the mechanism there?

We call it the virtual buffer. Think about the psychological cost again. Ignoring a person on the street is high pressure. Closing a browser tab from a friend's email.

Low pressure. Very low. You just click X and move on.

Exactly. The online world gives you that psychological distance. It minimizes the negative reaction. Yeah. But it gets even better than that.

Better than just zero avoidance?

Yes. The evidence actually suggested the opposite was happening. We observed what we call a positive reinforcement effect.

Okay, what does that mean?

It means that organizations that used peer to peer fundraisers in a past campaign, their subsequent campaigns actually performed better.

Wait a minute, so asking didn't just hurt them, it actively helped them next time around?

Yes. Specifically, we saw increases in the number of unique donors and the frequency of giving in the next campaign.

How is that possible? If my friend isn't asking me again next year, why am I more likely to give?

Because when you give through a friend, you're not just having a transaction with a charity. You're participating in a social event. You've now invested social currency. You're part of that organization's success story.

Ah, so it changes you from a passive donor to an active participant.

Precisely. It builds momentum. It forges a stronger connection between you and the cause. So when the next standard appeal comes around, you're already warmed up. You're more invested.

That is a fundamental takeaway for everyone listening. The Peer Ask isn't just a revenue tool, it's an engagement tool that builds a more committed donor base for the long haul.

It changes the entire calculus. But here's the most shocking part of the whole study, and it points to this, this massive ongoing missed opportunity in the sector.

Okay, this is where you listening really need to pay attention. Despite all this evidence, more money now, no avoidance and a boost for the future, What did the data show about how many people are actually doing this?

The number is staggering. Out of those 5,471 campaigns we analyzed, only about 9% actually used the peer to peer fundraising feature.

9%.

Just four seventy four campaigns out of more than 5,000.

So 91% of organizations are just setting up a passive page and leaving all this money and engagement on the table.

That's what the data suggests. They're missing the engine of growth. We think it's a mix of inertia and just that lingering, unfounded fear of the ask avoidance myth.

It's just easy to set up a page and wait.

It is. But the data proved that personalization is the secret ingredient. And if that's true, the future has to be about scaling that personalization.

Which is where new technology comes in.

Exactly. The takeaway for us is don't be afraid to ask and make it easy for your supporters to ask. So we're exploring innovations, things like AI driven tools. We've talked about an Intelli or Intellibooster tool.

How would an AI do that? How could it replicate that personal touch?

Well, the goal isn't to replace your friend, but to mimic the helpful conversational guide. An AI tool could help a supporter by suggesting fundraising goals, providing them with tailored messages they can send out, and just reducing the friction that stops them from becoming a fundraiser in the first place.

So it's about scaling the personalization that the research proves is so effective.

That's the vision.

So the conclusion of this deep dive is crystal clear. That fear of annoying your donors online, it's largely a myth. The power of the peer ask is the real engine here.

It boosts your results now, and it builds positive momentum for the future.

Don't let the ghost of that clipboard stop you from activating your greatest asset in the digital world, your supporters. For more information about this research and all Click and Pledge products, we recommend you visit clickandpledge.com and request a one on one training or demo.

Whether you're a client or just curious about our platform and the data behind it, just ask us. We will gladly get together with you to chat. And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to stay up to date with all the latest and greatest features of the Click and Pledge Fundraising Command Center.