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By: Kimberly Reynolds
Believe it or not, providing a good answer to that question is extremely important to your fundraising success.
Ultimately, everyone's focus is on themselves. As the saying goes, we're all starring in our own movie. You need to design your campaign so that all the individual "movie stars" receive feel-good roles, ones that bring out the best in everyone.
There has to be real value delivered along the way for your fundraising efforts to elicit the desired response from your supporters. A true value proposition needs to exist for your volunteers and participants as well.
Your fundraising plan needs to clearly answer the question -"What's in it for me?"
A good place to start is by crafting a concise statement of the benefits that your fundraising campaign will deliver. This is not a monetary amount or goal. It is the intended positive result(s) that will be created by the funds raised.
For example, a PTA fundraiser needs to communicate what the net proceeds will be spent on - teacher supplies, playground equipment, etc. Your results will be dramatically higher than just saying that you are doing a fundraiser without specifying what the funds will be used for.
This statement of benefits is the first variation of answering "what's in it for me?" because you have defined how your group (and your community) will invest/benefit from the proceeds.
Next, you need to include that value statement into your group's communications with potential supporters. Volunteers and other members participating in your fundraiser need to understand this value proposition.
As group members, the benefits resulting from the fundraiser are one portion of the "what's in it for me?" for your participants. In addition, there are often other individual benefits for those actively involved in the fundraising effort—the satisfaction of helping reach the goal (and the resulting benefits), as well as possible incentive/prize programs.
Ultimately, the success of your fundraising efforts hinges on getting the maximum level of "buy-in" from the maximum number of supporters. Having your workforce - your volunteers and your participants - understand what's in it for them will boost the results tremendously.
The reason is that their belief/understanding of what benefits will result will come across more strongly to each potential supporter. In addition, that stronger belief will motivate them to approach additional prospects. So, you get better results from the improved communication and increased effort.
Lastly, those supporters that you've carefully cultivated will be more likely to contribute to your cause if they know clearly "what's in it for me?"
It's a scientific fact that people most often act in their own self-interest first and then consider the needs of others. That is why society places a high value on such selfless acts as the heroism of the firefighter or the courage of a soldier.
So, how can you appeal to the self-interest of a potential supporter?
- By defining precisely how their contribution will help
- By increasing the perceived value of what they give
- By increasing the perceived value of what they receive
Your fundraising participants need to communicate to each prospect the exact nature of the community benefit. To use the PTA example, a potential supporter should immediately be informed of the amount of school supplies their funds will provide. If it's new playground equipment, mention the cost of a specific item.
Add value to their perception of the impact of their own donation by linking it to the attainment of a sub-goal. If it's new playground equipment, mention the rough cost of a specific item and link it to their contribution.
An example is stating that a $10 contribution purchases a new basketball. The supporter sees a visual image in their minds' eye of the result of their contribution. That image has the effect of associating a donation with a pleasurable feeling, making it much more likely that the prospect will support your cause.
Besides increasing the perceived value of what they give, you also want to increase the perceived value of what they receive. You do that in different ways for different fundraisers – donor recognition items for contributions, more attractive packaging on items being sold for a profit, or making your charity auction a black-tie event.
Each of these approaches increases the perceived value without significantly increasing the cost. That means that each of your supporters will assign more value to what you are offering. That translates into increased funding for your organization.
So, what's it all mean? Just this. In planning your next fundraiser, be sure everyone knows how to explain your group's efforts in terms of the other person's "what's in it for me?"
This article was written by Kimberly Reynolds. Ms. Reynolds writes articles for Fundraiser Help . Feel free to use any of her articles to help your organization. Copyright 2002 - Kimberly Reynolds.
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