Annual giving: peer pressure does work with alumni
July 25th, 2005 by Karine Joly
Jay Lipe, the blogger behind Smart Marketing, has just confirmed the power of peer pressure in a recent post titled “Peer pressure: A strong marketing motivator” where he recalled his experience with a very clever fundraising piece: a Printer’s Proof of donors to his MBA class at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Stenciled across this newspaper formatted document are the words “Proof”, and the sentences “Is your name not listed and you would like it to be? It is not too late!” are found in the mouse type further down page 1.
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All in all, this is a very effective opt-in approach for a marketing effort. The subtle strands of peer pressure work their way into my brain. I end up thinking to myself thoughts like “Hmmm, Steve Johnson gave and I know he’s looking a job” or “Alice Needham gave? I thought she was in the Peace Corps.” For me there’s no greater motivational force than peer pressure.
Guess I’ll have to dust off that checkbook and do like Steve and Alice.”
It might be a good idea to share this post with your favorite person in the Annual Fund Office.
You’re not the only one who’s trying to back up all your initiatives with external data. Lipe’s blog post makes a great real-life example to back up the peer-pressure approach.
Related Posts:
- Higher Ed TV: Yale’s “Senior Gift in a Box” - Fundraising YouTube-style
- 3 questions to a higher ed blogger: Andrew Shaindlin, Executive Director of the Caltech Alumni Association from “Alumni Futures”
- Why should university alumni associations blog? Because… it works
- It’s 10PM - Do you know where the hackers are?
- Online donors are better givers than regular givers
An interesting alumni giving strategy my alma mater used involved sending an assemble-it-yourself cardboard box for collecting money. They then had a “counting day” on campus. It served as a physical reminder to give, and if you lived far away it added to the pressure to mail a check.