Modelling the Donor: Part 2- Entropy and the Donor Ask

Welcome to this edition of Beep Behind Each and Every Product, covering the latest products and features in our platform at Click and Pledge. Today, we are taking a deep dive into, a really fundamental question for all of us. Why does perfectly good fundraising material sometimes just fail? We're looking beyond the usual metrics, beyond the mission statements, we're actually going to explore the cognitive science and believe it or not a little bit of physics behind how donors make decisions.

Exactly. Our mission today is to show you why that instant delete or that immediate unsubscribe isn't really a judgment on your cause. It's, it's about cognitive friction. We recommend you start reframing inefficient fundraising as just generating too much surprise.

Surprise?

Yeah. The surprise is noise and the human brain is, I mean, it's fundamentally wired to eliminate noise as fast as it possibly can.

So the goal is to shift from that high noise, high surprise stuff to, what did you call it, low entropy, high confirmation messaging.

That's the one.

But okay, before we get to the fix, we really have to understand the science that's going on under the hood.

We do. We suggest you view your donor not just as a supporter, but as a really sophisticated prediction machine.

A prediction machine?

Yeah. This whole concept is rooted in something called the free energy principle or FEP. It's a pretty complex idea from neuroscience.

Yeah.

But it basically suggests that all living things from an amoeba to you and me are constantly trying to minimize prediction errors.

Okay, that sounds incredibly abstract. Let's make that concrete. If I'm sitting here, what is my brain predicting?

Your brain is predicting, well, everything. It predicts the temperature in this room, the sound of my voice, what's going happen next in this conversation. And when the input, what you actually hear and feel matches the prediction, everything is, you know, low energy, it's fine.

But if you suddenly switch to another language.

Right. If I suddenly started speaking Chinese, that would be a huge prediction error. Your brain would have to spend an enormous amount of energy to try and resolve that surprise.

And if I can't resolve it, the easiest thing for me to do is just ignore it or, you know, leave the room.

Precisely. That drive to minimize prediction error is a core biological function. So now let's apply that to fundraising. The donor has this powerful internal model of themselves and of you and this model is the bedrock of their identity.

Okay, let's unpack that internal model. What specific predictions are we dealing with when a donor say opens one of our emails?

The predictions are deeply personal. They're about self perception like I'm a person who cares deeply about literacy programs or maybe I'm a reliable monthly giver And crucially, they have a model for you. For our organization? Yes. This nonprofit is effective and they only contact me when it matters.

Or on the other hand, this nonprofit is kind of annoying and doesn't seem to remember what I've donated to before.

So that internal model is like the operating system we absolutely have to respect. Yeah. Every single thing we send out, a mail or a social media post, anything is just sensory input that their brain has to process against that model.

And if the input confirms the model, the whole process is effortless. The donor just thinks, yes, this fits, this is who I am. But if you contradict the model, the brain just screams surprise and that surprise costs energy to process. A lot of energy.

So let's talk about that contradiction, that bad surprise. This is what we're calling inefficient high entropy fundraising. What does that prediction error look like in someone's inbox?

It looks like noise, pure static. The donor's brain predicted something relevant and it got, well, junk. High entropy is almost always a result of lazy or generic communication. We recommend avoiding obvious prediction errors like, inconsistent branding.

Oh, right. When it makes the donor pause and think, wait, is this even legitimate?

Exactly. Or the classic example asking a long time major arts patron for a generic $10 donation for hurricane relief a cause they have never ever shown interest in.

Okay wait I can totally see how irrelevant asks are high entropy but what about jargon? Why does that cause such a quick delete?

Because jargon is work, it's high entropy because it forces the donor to spend energy just decoding the message. When they see phrases like leveraging synergistic modalities Oh no. Or optimizing organizational throughput. Their brain just flags it as effort. It does not confirm their internal model of being a helpful person who cares about impact.

They don't care about your operational vocabulary.

They predicted a message about solving a problem and they got a vocabulary test instead.

That's the prediction error right there.

So we've established that noise requires mental energy. And this is where it gets really actionable for everyone listening. If the brain gets input that creates a high prediction error, this surprise, it wants to fix that uncertainty immediately. So what is the lowest energy solution for the donor to stop noise?

The lowest energy action is removal. They take immediate action to eliminate the source of the uncertainty. They don't sit there and try to figure out why their name was spelled wrong or why they're being asked for money for something they just funded last month.

No time for that.

None. They just hit delete, they click unsubscribe, they throw the letter in the trash, and in their brain's world, they've successfully eliminated the problem.

That is such a powerful way to reframe non conversion. We have to stop seeing a deletion as a personal rejection. Right. And start seeing it as the donor's brain doing its job, it's minimizing prediction error.

Exactly. Which means that efficient fundraising must be low entropy. It has to provide what we call good confirmation. It reduces their uncertainty.

And what does feel that like for the donor? How does that good confirmation reinforce their positive internal model of themselves?

It feels efficient. It feels like they're being seen, being recognized. This kind of communication confirms their identity. It says, I have a person who helps this cause and this organization knows exactly how I've helped and what I care about.

So instead of a generic mass appeal.

Right. We suggest using data to reduce that uncertainty. Send a thank you that says, because you contributed to the summer reading program, here's the direct impact on 15 students. And now here is the fall mentorship program, which is the next logical step that builds on your commitment.

They have to do almost no cognitive work. We've done it for them. We've connected the dots. So the path to the next action feels effortless, predictable.

It reinforces that positive loop. The act of giving becomes this low friction way to confirm their self image as a good, effective person.

Okay but, we can't aim for zero error, can we? If everything was perfectly predicted, there'd be no reason to do anything at all.

That is the crucial nuance, no you can't.

So we have to introduce a targeted productive error to get them to act. This feels like the real tightrope walk of a fundraising ask.

It is. We suggest creating a small but impactful mismatch. You're highlighting a gap between their predicted world and the real world. You're basically communicating the world you want, the one where this problem is solved, not the world that exists right now. Here is the problem that threatens that outcome.

So if my internal model is I am a person who saves animals and you show me a specific animal that can't get surgery without my help, you've threatened my self image, you've created an itch.

Precisely. You've created a prediction error that is specific, it's emotional, but and this is key, that productive error has to be paired with the easiest possible resolution. If you introduce a huge problem, but the way to fix it is complicated and confusing, you've just created more high entropy right at the most important moment.

So what does this all mean for the call to action then? How do we make sure we're offering the absolute lowest energy path to fix that error?

You must immediately, and I mean immediately, offer the lowest energy action to resolve it. You make giving the easiest possible way for them to fix that mismatch and confirm their self model. This means streamlined donation forms like the ones in our Connect platform. It means a big, visible, one click donate button. It means asking for the absolute minimum information to process the gift.

Right. That moment of motivation when you've introduced the productive error is so fragile. If they're ready to act, but they hit a confusing multi page form.

They'll just revert to the other lowest energy action to eliminate that new surprise.

Abandon the cart.

And the opportunity is lost. The physical path to conversion has to be just as predictable and low entropy as the messaging was. Friction is the enemy of confirmation.

So today we've reframed inefficient fundraising. It's not a failure of your cause, but simply high noise, high surprise, or high entropy. And effective fundraising is the opposite. It's low friction, low entropy, and high self model confirmation.

So if every non conversion, every delete is just the donor's brain successfully getting rid of noise, we suggest you look at your current campaigns. Find one piece of jargon, one inconsistent brand element, or one clunky checkout step. What is one thing you can eliminate today to make your communication a more predictable, low entropy path

For more information about this and all Click and Pledge products, make sure to visit clickandpledge.com and request for a one on one training or demo. Whether you are a client or curious about our platform, just ask us and we will gladly get together with you to chat.

And remember, this feature is absolutely free and is already part of the connected platform in our fundraising command center.

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