Altruism, Empathy, and Efficacy: the Science Behind Engaging Supporters
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ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY 0 ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY ABOUT THE PUBLISHER Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication (CSIC) is a research and action center dedicated to increasing social impact through the power of marketers, communicators, fundraisers and journalists working together. As part of the University’s School of Continuing Studies, the Center accomplishes its mission of educating and inspiring practitioners and students through applied research, graduate courses, community collaborations and thought leadership. To contact the Center, please email [email protected] or visit us online at http://csic.georgetown.edu/. ABOUT THIS GUIDE What you have in your hands is part applied literature review and part hypothesis on how we can better motivate audiences to support nonprofit causes, using the research of social scientists and the experience of social impact practitioners alike. Social impact practitioners can take many forms. They can be fundraisers working at a nonprofit or social marketers working on one of the many government-funded behavior change programs. They can be communicators working for socially-driven companies or even journalists working for cause-driven media outlets. But ultimately this guide is designed to help you—under whatever label best suits you— to make better decisions in how to talk to your supporters. The social impact space, much like the marketing and communications industry at large, is filled with cautionary tales from “gut” marketers who make decisions based on what they think will work best, instead of what we know will work best based on the science of human behavior and the measuring of past performance. With this in mind, every effort has been made to ground this guide in both academic literature and the pragmatic, measured experience of dozens of social impact practitioners—the communicators, marketers, and fundraisers who spend their lives activating audiences to support causes. The social impact space is a living, evolving industry, wherein best practices have been forged from thousands of individual experiences and immeasurable hours of social science into one conversation. 1 ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY As a result, at Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication, we encourage you to challenge what you see here—to put the best practices from this guide through the filter of your experience and pull up the 100+ sources cited here to make your own decisions. With each experience and measure added to the conversation, the social impact sector becomes measurably stronger. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Evan C. Parker is a Fellow with Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication and a Lecturer within the University’s School of Continuing Studies, where he teaches a course on how to activate audiences to support causes and nonprofits. In his free-time, Evan serves as the Senior Vice President for Clients and Accounts at EveryAction, the online software from NGP VAN used by thousands of nonprofits for fundraising, organizing, and engaging supporters. 2 ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY TABLE OF CONTENTS About the Publisher ............................................................................................................ 1 About this Guide ................................................................................................................. 1 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 1: YOUR NONPROFIT IS JUST A TOOL IN YOUR SUPPORTER'S TOOLBOX ...................................................................... 5 Assumptions, Meet the Real World ................................................................................ 6 The Attention Economy .................................................................................................. 7 What Does This Mean for My Nonprofit? ....................................................................... 8 The Science Behind Support for Causes .......................................................................... 9 Prosocial Behavior and Nonprofit Organizations ........................................................... 9 What Drives Support for Causes and Nonprofits? ....................................................... 11 Your Organization is the Means, not the Ends ............................................................ 13 What You Can Do: Connect Authentically With Your Audience ..................................... 14 #1. Change the Protagonist of Your Organization’s Story........................................... 15 #2. Use Research to Get the Right Message to the Right People at the Right Time ... 6 CHAPTER 2: ALTRUISM: YOUR SUPPORTERS' MOTIVES AREN'T AS PURE AS YOU MAY THINK ....................................................................20 Selfish vs. Selfless ........................................................................................................ 21 The Science Behind Basic Human Values ...................................................................... 22 Why Does Universalism Dominate Social Impact Communications? ......................... 24 Other Not-So-Pure Altruisms ........................................................................................ 26 What You Can Do: Let Your Supporters be a Little Bit Selfish ....................................... 28 #1. Appeal to “Other” Human Values ........................................................................... 30 #2. Don’t Confuse Public Posturing with Supporter Motivation ................................... 31 CHAPTER 3: EMPATHY: GETTING PEOPLE TO FEEL IS AS IMPORTANT AS GETTING THEM TO THINK .........................................37 The Science Behind Empathy .......................................................................................... 39 Empathy Drives Prosocial Behavior ............................................................................. 40 Language that Drives Empathy .................................................................................... 40 How Do We Trigger Empathy? ..................................................................................... 44 What You Can Do: Use Empathy to Authentically Motivate Your Supporters ............... 46 #1. Tell Better Stories ................................................................................................... 47 #2. Don’t Overwhelm Your Audiences ......................................................................... 51 3 ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY CHAPTER FOUR: EFFICACY: HELP SUPPORTERS FEEL THEY'RE HAVING IMPACT.....................................................................................58 The Science Behind Supporters’ Decision-Making ......................................................... 59 Prerequisites for Prosocial Decisions........................................................................... 62 The Types of Efficacy ................................................................................................... 62 What You Can Do: Show Your Supporter They’ll Have an Impact ................................. 66 #1. Make the Problem Solvable ................................................................................... 67 #2. Stay Positive, Avoiding Maladaptive Responses................................................... 69 #3. Report Back as a Way to Say “Thank You” ........................................................... 72 CHAPTER FIVE: THE CASE FOR SUPPORT: DELIVERING YOUR BEST MESSAGE TO YOUR SUPPORTERS .....................................................79 Build a Comprehensive Case for Support ....................................................................... 80 #1. Establish “The Need” .............................................................................................. 81 #2. Introduce Compelling Beneficiaries ....................................................................... 83 #3. Show the Supporter How They Are Essential to the Solution ............................... 85 #4. Demonstrate Urgency ............................................................................................. 87 #5. Use Differentiators to Show Supporters Your Organization is their Best Partner 88 Remember, Ethics Above All Else .........................................................92 Acknowledgements and Methodology ..................................................95 4 ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY CHAPTER ONE YOUR NONPROFIT IS JUST A TOOL IN YOUR SUPPORTER’S TOOLBOX 5 ALTRUISM, EMPATHY & EFFICACY CHAPTER ONE YOUR NONPROFIT IS JUST A TOOL IN YOUR SUPPORTER’S TOOLBOX Every day, social impact practitioners—the marketers, communicators, fundraisers and journalists trying to do good in the world—work to activate audiences based on assumptions the practitioners have about what drives people to support causes. Often these assumptions come from a little bit of experience and a lot of what social scientists call confirmation bias, our tendency to seek out data that confirms what we already believe to be true.1 We also tend to ignore data that upsets our worldview. But it turns out that many of the assumptions we make as practitioners are borne out of sound science. People want to make the world a better place. People can and will be charitable, if they think it’s the right thing to do. People want to feel like