Sneak peek of upcoming Spring donation collectibles

Every nonprofit wants to increase the amount of donations they receive — and for good reason. Nonprofit organizations are helping solve some of the world’s most challenging and pressing problems, from saving the rainforest to providing educational resources to those who need it most to defending freedoms on the Internet, and so many more important causes we don’t have time to list here. But how can they convince people to part with their hard-earned money and support these causes? Recent research in behavioral science has yielded some insights.

What Behavioral Science Says About Giving

Branding and Identity

At a recent nonprofit conference, Jann Schultz of Project Hope and Kiki Koutmeridou of Donor Voice presented their findings that donors are drawn to, and remain loyal to, charities with values similar to their own. They compare charities to brands, and suggest they use their brand to reinforce the identities that donors have built around giving. They also suggest charities adapt their messaging to target specific donor identities.

Social Presence and Recognition

Professors in the Department of Economics at Texas A&M recently conducted a study in which they offered people a $1 or $5 donation if they invited their friends on Facebook to donate. They found that people were more willing to encourage their friends to donate when they were recognized for their friends’ donations also. They concluded that people can be socially pressured into giving to charity, as long as they are recognized for doing so.

Leverage Reciprocity

Reciprocity refers to the social norm of responding to a positive action with more positive actions. For example, if someone does you a favor, you’re more inclined to give that person a nice gift for their birthday. Behavioral scientists at the World Bank found that reciprocity can cause people to donate more, referencing a study in which handing out candy increased the amount of donations. Closer to home here in the US, reciprocity is the reason organizations like NPR hand out tote bags and other goodies to their donors. Every time a donor sees the tote bag, they react positively and are more likely to donate again.

Give and Receive — NFTs

A Non-Fungible Token, or NFT, is a special type of digital token that is unique and not interchangeable (“non-fungible”). They’re used to create collectible assets with verifiable digital scarcity, such as the unique virtual cats in the CryptoKitties online game.

Could NFTs help convince people to donate more to charity? Let’s say people receive non-fungible “Impact Tokens” in recognition of their donation to a charity. The Impact Token would be an extension of the charity’s Brand, reinforcing the association between the donor’s Identity and the charity’s values. The Impact Token could also become part of the donor’s social media identities, increasing the donor’s Social Presence and Recognition. Finally, the Impact Token would serve as an additional goody awarded to the donor, allowing the donor to see the act of giving as a positive action and making him or her more likely to Reciprocate with future donations.

It’s clear that NFTs can leverage behavioral science to incentivize people to donate more, in a great example of how blockchain can be used for good!