“You can try to press different emotional buttons”: The conflicts and strategies of eliciting emotions for fundraisers

Abstract

In a competitive climate in which charities must increasingly rely on fundraising with the public, emotions such as hope, guilt, and fear are powerful tools that can be used strategically to secure donations or participation. This paper explores data from interviews with 23 fundraisers and voluntary sector workers, managers, and officials, to argue that decisions around how, why, and when to invest in the elicitation of emotion in fundraising are often difficult and conflicted, with some identifying a battle between ethics and effectiveness. We identify 3 key levels of conflict that must be negotiated: at the level of the charity sector, where the emotional ethics particularly of larger charities have been met with some resistance from the public and press; at the level of the organisation itself, where the ethics of representation are often a subject of conflict between fundraising and other departments such as policy; and, finally, at the experiential level of individual fundraisers themselves, who report being routinely internally conflicted around the rights and wrongs of using emotion in their work. A strategic approach to eliciting emotion emerges in the data as a useful way to address some of these areas of conflict, with fundraisers making careful "balancing" decisions about how and with whom to mobilise certain emotions at specific times.

The impact of face‐to‐face street fundraising on organizational reputation

“…However, our findings contradict this assumption. In line with previous criticism of face-to-face street fundraising (e.g., Bennett, 2013Bennett, , 2018Bennett & Barkensjo, 2005;Dean & Wood, 2017;Sargeant et al, 2012), we observed a diminution in the respondents' perceptions of an organization as well as their willingness to engage voluntarily. In fact, if an organization applies face-to-face street fundraising, many pedestrians seem to base their evaluation of the organization on the fundraising method rather than on organizational characteristics, at least when limited information is provided.…”

“…Missing professionalism of these street fundraisers has led to critical voices regarding unethical behavior in the past couple of years (Ward, 2018). Dean and Wood (2017) found that particularly missing knowledge, the intentional provision of misinformation, and invasive approaches of chuggers cause negative feelings among potential donors, which may lead them to question whether these organizations are acting responsibly and can be trusted. Neitzsch (2012, p. 15) confirms that "the partially aggressive and dubious behavior of some fundraisers has brought a bad image to the whole sector."…”

Advocacy Research on Homophobia in Education: Claims-Making, Trauma Construction and the Politics of Evidence

“…Charities have shifted from voluntary organisations that relied on altruism and goodwill to effectively operating as businesses in a crowded marketplace where they must compete for funding and public recognition (Hibbert, 1996). Charities have thus more actively courted potential donors and developed strategies to maximise fundraising (Dean and Wood, 2017). Appeals to negative emotions – such as guilt, fear and sadness – are particularly effective in motivating people to donate (Bagozzi and Moore, 1994), especially when coupled with an argument that a donation will help others (Fisher et al, 2008).…”

Toward a triadic understanding of charitable giving: how donors, beneficiaries, fundraisers, and social contexts influence donation decisions

“…Yet, as Breeze (2017a) highlights, the role that fundraisers play in charitable giving is rarely studied. The small literature on this topic has been qualitative in nature and largely focused on the experiences of major donor fundraisers who develop one-on-one relationships with high-value donors and philanthropists (Alborough, 2017;Breeze & Jollymore, 2017;Dean & Wood, 2017).…”

“…Successful fundraisers know how to use emotional levers when soliciting funds (Dean & Wood, 2017). Major donor fundraisers work as trusted brokers who build the donor's confidence in the charity and help the donor to understand the charity world (Breeze & Jollymore, 2017).…”