Fundraising Techniques

Following is some advice on fundraising from John List, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. This was transcribed from an interview conducted by Steven Dubner.

You can download the original podcast here.

Dubner: John List discovered that a good way to start raising money is is by telling people that you have put some of your own money in the pot already: you know, seed money.

List: So what we found is that the more seed money that you had not only induced more people to give, but those people actually gave more money.

Dubner: Alright, so seed money works. What about the old "matching gift" trick?

List: What the experts will tell you is that the larger the match is, the more effective or the more dollars you will raise, and that's just flat out false.

Dubner: What List found is that a 1:1 match does work well, but increasing the match to 2:1 or 3:1 doesn't do any additional good. But here's something that is worthwhile: Raffles. If you're serious about raising money, offer people a prize.

List: And just by doing that you end up increasing gifts by as much as 100%.

Dubner: And here's my favorite. It's called the "once and done." It lets you opt-out.

List: It's giving the control of the relationship to the solicitee.

Dubner: Here's how it works. Since charities know its annoying to constantly get solicitations in the mail, they give you a choice. If you send in some money today, and then check a box opting out, we'll never bother you again.

List: Given the "once and done" proposition, they not only give more money in that particular fund-raising drive, but they do not check the box, and in future months they end up giving more money than people who never received the "once and done" proposition.