The Psychology of Giving: Important Words to Use in Your Appeals

Three small words can make ALL the difference in your fundraising appeals. And they’re backed by science.

Like magic, they can help you become a better fundraiser. We’re sharing what they are, why they work, and how to use them:

Magic Word #1: You

Have you heard?

You is one of the five most powerful words in the English language. Marketers and copywriters have long used this magic word to appeal to the self-interest of consumers. You can deploy you to make a deeper, more personal connection with your supporters. Because when you’re asking for donations, you’re really selling your cause.

Using you effectively might mean breaking some of your die-hard writing habits, like never writing in the second person. Forget what you learned in your composition classes! Instead, you should speak directly to your supporters like you’re good friends.

The Research

For years, marketing copywriters have used the word you, citing a Yale research study that ranked you as #1 out of 12 of the most powerful words out there. But it turns out that the research never happened!

Luckily, marketing expert Gabrel Ciotti found better evidence for why this one word is so powerful.

You is at the top of his list of the 5 Most Powerful Words in the English Language. Why?

This powerful word is all about personalization.

There’s reputable neuroscience research showing that people’s brains light up when they hear their own name. It makes sense: our names are linked to our self-perception and identity. So our brains are actually hard-wired to respond to appeals that speak to us directly.

By appealing to your donors’ sense of self, you can persuade them to take action.

The Right Context

Your donors want to know that they make a difference when they give. Their donations are tied to their self-image. And using you in your fundraising appeals is an easy way to make sure that you’re focusing on your donors and their impact.

Take a look at your appeal letter. Do you see many “I” or “we” statements? That means you’re focusing on your nonprofit, rather than your donors. Re-write these parts to emphasize the impact that your donors have instead.

Fundraising copywriter Lisa Sargent offers some great examples of the our/your swap in action:

Our vision is to make the world a better place. You can help us with that.

Your vision is to make the world a better place. We can help you with that.

And:
Our victories vs. Your victories

Or:
Our hard work vs. Your hard work.

If you really want to persuade your donors, you can even use their first names! You can add your supporter’s name to your subject line, your story introduction, and weave it in when you make your ask.

Put YOU in action:

• Swap I and we statements for ones that begin with you or we, together
• Use people’s first names in your fundraising appeals

Magic word #2: Because

You should use this magic word because it’s a trigger for automatic behavior.

And you don’t have to overthink this one.

Convincing your supporters to take action can be as simple as giving them a reason why. When it comes to persuasion, it turns out that just about any reason is better than no reason at all.

How do we know?

The Research

In 1977, renowned Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer first demonstrated how the word because significantly changes people’s behavior. In her (now well-known) copy machine experiment, she had her research team approach individuals waiting to make copies and ask to cut the line using three carefully crafted phrases.

Researchers asked to cut the line for the copier in the following ways, with surprising results:

When they asked: “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine?”

The result was: 60% of people said yes.

When they added a reason, which was hardly a reason at all (since everyone needed to make copies): “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine, because I have to make copies?”

The result was: 93% of people said yes—a whopping 33% higher success rate!

And finally, when they added a more compelling reason: “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”

The result was: 94% of people said yes. That means the better reason was only 1% more effective than the lousy one!

Note: There’s a caveat here. When researchers had a bigger request (to copy 20 pages rather than 5), only the “because I’m in a rush” phrasing convinced people to say yes. We can take this to mean that for larger requests, you’ll need a slightly more compelling reason to persuade people.

Just by using the word because, researchers were able to significantly increase compliance with their request, whether they offered a good reason or not. They attributed the response to automatic behavior. Our brains are always looking for shortcuts, and the word because triggers us to comply. When we hear the word, we’re primed to act without thinking too much about the reason given.

The right context

When can you use because to compel people to give more automatically?

Fundraising guru Claire Axelrad offers a number of great examples of when to put this magic word to use in your next fundraising appeal:

• Instead of “Today I’m sharing Amelia’s story with you.”
• Say “Today I’m sharing Amelia’s story with you because she needs your help.”

• Instead of “Yes, I want to give.”
• Say “Yes, I want to give because children need me.”

• Instead of “Please consider a gift of $500.”
• Say “Please consider a gift of $500 because children need your help.”

• Instead of “Provide a meal to a starving child.”
• Say “Provide a meal because Miguel is starving.”

Whether to introduce a compelling story or to frame your ask, strategically placing the word because in your request is a no-brainer, since it can help you increase your response rate by more than 30%!

Magic Word #3: Thanks

Thanks for reading this far!

And we’re glad that you did, because saying thank you is a big deal. It’s a best practice in development work—and key to building strong relationships with your supporters. This magic word helps you turn your volunteers into donors and your one-time donors into your biggest champions.

But is there data to support this practice?

The Research

There sure is.

In a study published in 2018 authored by Jen Shang, Adrian Sargeant, Kathryn Carpenter and Harriet Day (all folks who have dedicated their careers to studying philanthropy) sheds light on the science behind saying thank you.

In their paper, Learning to Say Thank You: The Role of Donor Acknowledgements, these industry experts offer concrete examples that reinforce the power of giving thanks to make people feel good.

They took into consideration the barriers that fundraisers face when saying thank you, like:

• The difficulty of convincing your nonprofit to invest in saying thank you, and
• The difficulty of measuring outcomes related to building higher-quality relationships with supporters.

With these challenges in mind, they designed experiments to test whether saying thank you makes people feel better. The logic is that if your donors feel good, they will give more!

In one experiment, they looked at a donor database where on average, donors had made three gifts. Some of these donors received a thank-you letter that gave thanks (for the difference the donors had made—putting the word you to use in conjunction with thanks). A control group from the same database didn’t receive the letter.

The results?

Donors who received thanks gave more money.

Both groups responded in similar rates to the donation appeal that followed. But the research showed that donors who received an extra thank-you letter gave 60% larger gifts than those who did not.

Beyond the immediate increase in giving, the study also estimates that by saying thank you as a receipt for a gift (and for volunteering, and just as a way to stay in touch), “organizations have the potential to increase the good-feeling in their database by a minimum of 20% over five years.”

And a database of happy donors is a group of people who are primed to donate again and donate even more.

The Right Context

Giving thanks requires some planning. You can make your donors feel good and raise more money by saying thanks:

• Before sending your next fundraising appeal. Consider giving thanks to your existing donors just because.
• Every time a supporter engages with your organization. Saying thank you will prime them to respond to a fundraising appeal down the road.
• When you’re asking your donors to give again. Write an appeal letter that starts off with gratitude! Explicitly recognize your donors’ past contribution(s) and say thanks. Then make your ask.

In Conclusion

With simple words like you, because, and thanks, you can craft messages that leverage donor psychology to raise more money.

And if you still find yourself with writer’s block, there’s a cure!

You can banish the boogeymen on your blank page with our post on the language of a successful donation appeal. You’ll get more words to work with, including 9 moral adjectives that compel donors to give:

In addition to the big three explored in this post, there are a number of powerful words proven to drive donations. Do you have other go-to words when you write fundraising appeals? What are they?