Why donor identity matters to charities and fundraisers
When you think about identity, what comes up? Nationality? Religion? Your football team? Although these labels help us (and others) begin to define who we are, our identities are actually made up of multiple layers. By learning different types of identity and communicating accordingly, charities and fundraisers can create a serious advantage. Not only can they increase financial support, they can gain a legion of loyal followers who wholeheartedly identify with them and as them too. Read on for this fascinating psychological take on how donor identity influences charity fundraising.
When we think about charitable giving, there is often a focus on why people give to charity but what about who people are when they give?
Psychologists believe that through the act of giving, people aren’t just being kind or doing it out of duty – they’re solidifying a part of their desired identity.
So what is donor identity?
Donor identity is basically a collection of all the different elements that make up a person. This includes the different life roles they play as well as their personality type and characteristics. Sometimes identity can be about who a person aspires to be too.
Identity steers much of the motivation behind how a person behaves and why they choose to act – or don’t.
Once a person establishes their identity, they’re prone to making life choices based on that as well as behaving in ways that reflect their beliefs about who they are.
What are the types of identities?
The different identities of any person come from the many different areas of their lives. There are 7 key identities:
Relational identity
Relational identity is about where a person is in a family. Mum, dad, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, grandparent, sister, brother… all of these roles carry their own sense of identity and expectation.
Social identity
Our gender, nationality, sexual orientation, age or ethnicity all come into play for types of social identities.
The list of social identities is ever evolving. Heritage can be blended and blended again – A person might have an atheist Japanese mother born in the 1990s and a catholic German father born in the 1970s. Modern gender fluidity identities such as transsexual and non-binary further adds to the mix.
With every generation, more complex layers and individuality are added to people’s identity, some completely unexplored and unique!
Personal identity
These are the personality traits a person might be given if described which gives infinite possibilities. They might be easygoing, clever, kind, strong or thoughtful.
Personal identity is a blend of our foundational character, our influences and also what we choose to work on and show.
Regardless of our personal identities, we have the power to change our behaviours at any time.
Employment identity
What we do for a living is a large part of our identity and the person we are at work is often completely different to the ‘us’ in our own time.
Beyond that, the type of job also dictates identity - for instance, the characteristics of a nurse are completely different to that of a builder and a charity fundraiser wouldn’t act in the same as a librarian.
Religious identity
Our religious identity has all sorts of connotations for the way we behave. People often display their religion through attire or ritual and usually a part of a larger religious community.
Group identity
This is more about what we choose to do in our ‘play’ time. The types of hobbies we enjoy carry their own set of expectations about who we’ll be. For example, a muscle bound boxer doesn’t have the same reputation as someone who likes going on historical tours. Not to say you can’t do both!
Organisational identity
When people join focal organisations (like charities or associations) they’re usually a reflection of their value systems and a fine tuning of their personal identity.
For instance, someone who’s a grand master at chess and a member of the International Chess Federation is presenting to the world a particular part of identity that’s methodical, intelligent and competitive.
Likewise, when people decide to regularly give to charity and become ‘members’ of that cause, quite often it’s because it aligns with the type of person they see themselves as, or want to be.
The higher the association with a charity and their beliefs, the longer the loyalty and the more donations over time. If a charity organisation can brand themselves as being ‘the place to be’ for those ‘type’ of people - they’re already winning.
Aligning identity and charitable giving
Given what we’ve learned, it’s easy to see that, in combination, all the different types of identity and their nuances can create infinite outcomes… It definitely means that each of us completely unique!
Underpinning these different layers of identities is our need to belong. Not only does it feel good, this primal instinct relates back to the herd mentality where we’ll always try to avoid having to survive alone.
Intrinsically linked to ‘belonging’ is another key part of our identity: our values.
We want to belong to things that we consider morally right and acceptable. These values navigate our priorities whilst governing our behaviour.
Philanthropy and psychology research shows that, when we align our identities and values with our behaviour, we gain not only a sense of belonging, we secure our sense of self.
In other words, when we do stuff that ‘backs up’ who we say and think we are – we feel better about ourselves and we can confidently move forwards in the world.
People who donate to charity are the perfect example of those whose identity aligns with their values, a by-product of which gives them that sense of ‘belonging’.
Going deeper
Aligning identity to a charity can and does connect people to causes on a much deeper level than first thought.
And here’s the mike drop moment:
When philanthropists and donors begin to see themselves in a charities mission statement, communications and actions, there a marriage of identities that mutually fuel one another.
To be able to match the way a charity describes their supporters with the way the supporters describe themselves is a true masterclass in psychology.
Through this type of stronger connection, charities and their fundraisers are inviting the charity donors not just to define their best selves, but to become them.
Giving to charity has the power to reconfirm to the donor and others that this is who they are - therefore this is what they do.
And when a donor feel like their ‘true selves’, acting in a way that’s most authentic to them, charities can secure the best kind of donor they could wish for; loyal, committed and long standing.
The research on identity and giving
In October 2020, Dr Cassandra Chapman wrote a thesis based on the answers of over 1800 people from 117 countries about their charitable giving.
The role of identities had a clear influence on charitable donors, showing three key factors:
Nearly half of donors said that giving was directly associated with their sense of ‘self’ – which groups they belonged to (social identity), as well as their beliefs and values (personal identity). Nearly 60% talked about the identities of the ‘other’ – i.e. the beneficiaries in terms of their importance, need or power.
When explaining charity preferences, individual identity and beneficiary identity were both mentioned. In particular there was a strong sway towards wanting to help the most vulnerable – children, animals and the sick. Here, identities most commonly mentioned were based upon family, geography, religion, friendship groups, charity organisations and simply ‘being human’
Donors motives depend on the beneficiaries. Donors were more likely to self-motivate when donating to medical research or religious charities, using stories based on their own experiences. Meanwhile for social welfare, animal and international charities, donors were motivated by empathy for others.
What this study demonstrates is that there are a wide variety of motivations when giving. This highlights the need for charities and fundraisers to understand the identities of donors to give the best results in campaigns or in face to face fundraising.
In a 2016 online publication “Identity in Charitable Giving. Management Science” (Judd B Kessler and Katherine L Milkman), behavioural scientists explore the notion of ‘priming’ donors by combining facets of their identity with normalising generosity in a charity campaign.
They found that generosity increased significantly when priming a personals identity as a previous donor. Interestingly, if a person was a member of a local community that would also generate more donations.
The ‘primes’ were most effective when they highlighted an element of a potential donors identity that was supposed to by most relevant to their sense of self.
Results clearly demonstrated that identity had a clear influence on behaviour and by using identity primes in practice, a higher fundraising yield could be obtained.
How can charities and fundraisers use identity to help raise more money?
To make the best possible impression and build positive long lasting relationships, professional fundraisers and charities need to consider how they can get a potential donor to identify with their charitable organisation.
With face to face fundraisers, there is much potential.
When a fundraiser approaches a member of the public to talk about supporting a charity, that person isn’t a donor yet, but they do have identity.
Maybe they’re a parent, politically ‘left wing’, disabled, Christian, or a person living with cancer… Maybe they’re assertive or studious or thoughtful?
In any given moment just one of these ‘layers’ could be at the forefront when a fundraising professional approaches them.
It’s this that the most savvy fundraisers and charities are prepared for and it’s this nectar that can open all kinds of donor possibilities.
Open conversation and plenty of questions helps to ascertains as many of those identities as possible giving opportunity to make links to their cause.
Sometimes simply speaking to donors as if they are a particular kind of person - using specific language and words that evoke good feeling and unification can be transformative.
Here are some key tips for fundraisers to think about to establish and encourage identity and charity alignment:
Desire to belong
As we’ve mentioned, when we feel like we’re a part of something it retains the sense of self.
If a charity or fundraiser can encapsulate a feeling of ‘join us’ rather than just ‘give us money’, they’re basically handing a slice of identity straight to the prospective donors.
For instance, as the supporter of a dog rescue charity like Dogs Trust, you’re not just donating money, you’re confirming your personal identity as someone who’s kind that rescues animals.
Perhaps for someone who donates to National Trust or Friends of the Earth, they’re reflecting the part of their personal identity that is caring towards nature and is fighting for the planet.
Unifying individual donors
To continue emphasising a sense of belonging charities and fundraisers should always refer to donors as ‘supporters’ ‘members’ or ‘sponsors’, because they’re instantly creating a sense of team and unity.
A step further might include calling donors ‘life savers’ or ‘planet protectors’ which reflect back the list of personal identities that are aspirational.
Donors are more likely for them to continue giving because it’s consistent with their personal identity and to stop would go against that.
Actions not words
Of course charities and fundraisers should always highlight how generous donors are and be sure to thank them thoroughly with emphasis on the difference they’re making.
But to really bring it home charities should find ways to share experiences and stories that bring their cause to life, reinforcing how the organisation mirrors a donors own ethics, beliefs and identity.
Read why story telling is so important in charity fundraising
A great example of this is Dogs Trust, who allow regular donors to arrange visits with the dogs they’ve sponsored. By seeing a dog they’ve saved in the flesh, they solidify their identity as animal lover, who’s kind and caring - in fact, here’s the proof!
Another example might be inviting donors to help with a mass beach clean with the ocean clean up charity. Donors witness first-hand how volunteers work alongside the organisation with the common goal of making the ocean healthy again. In turn, their identity has gone beyond someone who cares about the environment, to environmental activist.
While not every donor will take them up on the offer, just knowing its available to them reinforces that all important message:
“Our charity values align with yours, we are a part of your identity and you are a part of ours.”
Personification
We already know that donors want to be treated as individual people, not just cash cows.
Simple changes like personalising emails and letters help to build relationships, but another way charities can show the importance of donors is to ask for feedback.
By genuinely caring about who their supporters are and what have to say, a charity can dismantle any sense of hierarchy, whilst building upon community and identity.
Surveys, questionnaires, meet the donors’ interviews and interactive social media are all ways to get to know your supporters better, establish relevant different social identities, personal identities and relational identities) so to find a level playing field to reiterate that shared identity.
Ultimately the end goal should be that when donors meet the needs of the charities and their beneficiaries, they’re actually meeting their own needs too.
The success of the charity becomes the success of the donor complete with a feeling of accomplishment from both sides.
Taking time to carefully and intelligently get to know how a donor sees themselves (and how they want to present to the world) gives much insight.
By understanding how identity entwines with lifestyle choices, charities can make donors feel great about being the very person they aspire to be.
Everything from the information a charity fundraiser provides, to how the donor is thanked and communicated with throughout can and will influence the length and quality of commitment.
Ongoing, relationships between charities and their fundraising donors can be built based on what resonates with and empowers the donor, rather than the charity centering communications on themselves.
Are you interested to know more about working the fascinating world of charity fundraising? We invite anyone with personality and drive to reach out to our friendly recruitment team to learn more about the role of professional fundraiser.
