Your Donors Have Too Many Choices (and It’s Your Fault)

You ever have a gut feeling about something but inevitably no one has ever done scientific research about said gut feeling so you can’t really PROVE that you were right the whole time?

Like, when I say that Braveheart is the greatest movie of all time, and everyone across the universe says things such as “But what about the Godfather?” or “But Karate Kid Part II is the best because they finally made Pat Morita, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in the first Karate Kid, became the star of the movie, and we got to finally learn about his backstory which makes this the best movie in the franchise, and of course Peter Cetera’s ‘Glory of Love’ is the single best song to have your first wedding dance to, and I dare you to say otherwise” or other similar crazy talk?

Well, in the pantheon of nerdy fundraising things, I finally have actual scientific proof about what I have muttered to my nonprofit friends for the last decade.

Hooray for science!

It was a delightful article about the paradox of choice. The idea that when you give people more options they don’t make better decisions.

They actually make NO decisions.

They freeze and get overwhelmed. And even when they DO finally choose, they’re less happy with what they picked because their brain is haunted by all the options they didn’t pick.

Now, was this study about donors and sponsorship packets?

No.

This was a study about jam.

Yes, jam. Or jelly. I’m sure there was jelly involved.

At a gourmet grocery store, shoppers were presented with either 6 flavors of artisanal jam or 24. The group that saw 6 options bought significantly more jam than the group that saw 24.

More options. Fewer sales. 

Not because the jam was bad. Because the brain looked at 24 jars and said “absolutely not, I’m going to the chip aisle because Doritos are on sale, and I’ll be damned if I’m paying $8.99 for a Party Size of original flavored Doritos that I could eat in one sitting.”

Same thing with 401(k) plans.

The more investment options a company offered, the less likely employees were to enroll - even when the employer was literally offering FREE MATCHING MONEY.

Employees left free money on the table because there were too many choices and their brain said “Cool money stuff. I’ll deal with this later.”

This is literally what nonprofits do to their donors every single day.

The Jam Problem Is Your Fundraising Problem

Let me do my best to describe your donation page right now.

There’s a button that says “Donate.”

Great. The donor clicks it. And then…

Sixteen giving levels. Three recurring options. A dropdown menu of seven programs they could designate to. A checkbox for “make this a tribute gift.” A field for “company matching.” An option to give by credit card, ACH, PayPal, Venmo, cryptocurrency (get that Ethereum money bruh!), and possibly a carrier pigeon / Game of Thrones-esque raven.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, the donor’s brain does the same thing it did in the jam aisle:

“This is too many choices. I’ll come back to this later.”

Psssssst. Come closer for an fun fact.

They won’t come back.

They were READY to give. They had their credit card out. They believed in your mission. And you lost them because you turned a simple act of generosity into a SAT exam with a dropdown menu.

Every option you add to the giving experience is a potential exit. Not because the options are bad but, because the brain actually doesn’t want to think. It wants to act. And when you make it think too hard, it acts by leaving.

Oh, and this goes WAY beyond your donation page.

The jam problem shows up everywhere in nonprofit fundraising. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Your annual appeal has too many programs listed. “You can support our after-school program, our food pantry, our job training initiative, our mental health services, our capital campaign, or our general fund!”

The donor reads that and thinks: “I don’t know which one matters most, so I’ll just…not.”

One program. One story. One clear thing their gift does. That’s what converts.

Your event has too many ways to participate. Buy a ticket! Be a sponsor! Donate an auction item! Volunteer! Buy raffle tickets! Bid on the silent auction! Sign up for the paddle raise! Text to give!

The donor walks in overwhelmed and leaves having done…kind of nothing. Because (and I’ve talked about this endlessly here) when everything is the priority, nothing is.

Your board orientation has too many expectations. Twelve action items, a matrix, color-coded responsibilities, and a 15-page packet.

The board member reads it, feels the weight of every single jar of jam, and defaults to the only thing that doesn’t require a decision: showing up and eating the chicken.

Your email asks donors to do too many things. Share this post! Register for the event! Read the blog! Watch the video! Forward to a friend! And also donate!

That’s six calls to action in one email.

The research is clear: they’ll do zero.

Now, here’s the part I love.

It’s a bit dorky, so hold on for a second.

A psychologist named Herbert Simon won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978 for a concept he called “satisficing” which is a a combination of “satisfying” and “sufficing.”

The idea is simple: set good-enough criteria for a decision and move on.

Not the BEST option. A GOOD option. Pick it. Move. Done.

Simon reportedly had three sets of clothes and ate nearly the same thing every day. Not because he was boring. Because he was a genius who understood that every decision you DON’T have to make frees up brainpower for the decisions that actually matter.

As a Catholic School kid who HATED wearing a uniform when I was that age, I kick myself for being so dumb as to not see the genius in this. I now literally wear one of three branded shirts every day. It’s the greatest. And I probably have to send an apology note to Sister Mary for my teenage shenanigans raging against the uniform machine.

Anywho, I read that and thought: I’ve been teaching nonprofits to satisfice for 20 years and I didn’t even know the word.

Even now, I have had to type and retype that word over and over again. Because I am a horrible speller.

Three buckets, not forty-seven tiers.

One name, one action for board members.

One story, not a stat sheet.

A specific ask with a specific number, not “would you consider supporting our mission in whatever way feels right to you?”

That’s satisficing. That’s reducing the choices so the brain can act instead of freeze.

And it works in jam aisles, 401(k) enrollment, and your annual appeal.

Soooooo, what can YOU do to implement some of these satisficing ideas!?

I’ve got three ways to simplify the choices you’re giving your donors so they actually DO the thing instead of thinking about doing the thing.

1.    One Ask. One Number. One Outcome.

Your donation page should not look like a menu at the Cheesecake Factory. (IYKYK) It should look like a really good local food truck: here’s what we have, it’s delicious, pick one.

Three giving levels is plenty.

Maybe four.

Each one should tell the donor exactly what their gift does. “$50 provides a week of meals for a family. $100 provides a month. $250 provides a full semester of after-school programming.”

That’s it. No dropdown menus. No program designations. No cryptocurrency. Just: “here’s what your money does, pick the one that feels right, and hit the button.”

Fewer options. More conversions. That’s not my opinion. That’s a very smart scientist telling you that. I’m just using random pop culture examples because I am a child.

2.    One CTA Per Communication. That’s It. One.

Every email, every social post, every letter should ask the donor to do ONE thing. Not three things. Not “share AND donate AND register.” One thing.

If the email is about the event, the CTA is register. Not donate. Not share. Register.

If the letter is the annual appeal, the CTA is give. Not volunteer. Not attend. Give.

If the social post is about impact, the CTA is read the story. Not everything else you could possibly ask them to do in a single Instagram caption.

One email. One ask. One action.

Your donor’s brain will thank you. And their credit card (or check, or Doge Coin) will follow.

3.    Make the Default the Right Choice

This one’s sneaky and it comes straight from the behavioral science. Because my blogs need more behavioral science.

When there’s a default option - the one that’s already selected, the one that requires no decision - most people take it.

That’s why organ donation rates are dramatically higher in places where the default is “yes” with an opt-out, versus places where you have to actively opt in.

YOU should apply this to your fundraising:

Pre-select a giving level on your donation page. 

Don’t select the lowest. Don’t select the highest. Just pick the one that represents the most common gift amount for your organization.

Listen, the donor can change it, but most won’t. Because the brain says “Oh Joy! Someone already made this decision for me! Huzzah! Moving on.”

Try to pre-check the “make this monthly” box. Yes, really.

Let people uncheck it if they want to give once. But the default should be recurring. Because once a donor is monthly, they’re yours for years. And the brain says “sure, that was already selected, fine.”

On the Board Member Menu, circle one option in advance for each person. “Janet, based on what I know about you, I think this one would be a great fit.”

You’re not assigning, but you ARE defaulting. And they’ll love you for it.

Moral of the story? Simplify Everything.

The paradox of choice isn’t just a psychology concept. It’s a fundraising strategy hiding in plain sight.

Every time you simplify a decision for your donor you’re removing this absolute mental chaos between their intention and their action. You’re making it easier for them to do the thing they already wanted to do. Which is to give you a boatload of money.

Your donors are not indecisive. They’re just overwhelmed. 

That’s the whole thing. A Nobel Prize winner, a jam study, and your donor’s brain all agree: less is more.

Now go simplify something.

OK! Now your turn!

Tell me:

How many choices are you currently giving your donors? Go look at your donation page right now. Count the options. Then tell me the number. I double dog dare you.

Bonus points if you simplify it THIS WEEK and tell me what you changed.

Send me your answer: patrick@dogoodbetterconsulting.com

And if you want help simplifying your entire fundraising operation - the donation page, the appeals, the board expectations, the stewardship system - that’s what we build inside Do Good YOUniversity. Less overwhelm. More action. Come build with us at www.DoGoodYOUniversity.com. Seriously, we have a boatload of experts that hang out with us to give you ALLLLL the answers!

Together, we’ve freaking got this.

-Patrick

P.S. Fun fact, I went to the grocery store after reading this article. Stood in the jam aisle. Counted the options. There were 31 varieties. I bought chip dip instead. Science.