Relationship Fundraising: New Thinking and Ideas

This session will track the evolution of relationship fundraising explore what we can learn from the science of how human beings form relationships to inform how we might build stronger, loving and more fulfilling relationships with our supporters. We’ll draw on the science of Philanthropic Psychology to look at the concepts of identity and wellbeing, showing how they can be leveraged to quite literally double your income. We’ll share with you our experimental testing and show you many examples of how organizations have put our ideas into practice. The session will close with a deeper dive into the concept of love and the role it can play in fundraising. It’s a perspective that is long overdue, as the sector defaults to the language of money (or gifts of money) in the communications it has with donors. We’ll look at how research can identify the kinds of love that might be meaningful and how to chart supporter journeys that build and celebrate that love. Finally, we’ll outline our latest project “Understanding the Love Language of Fundraising and extend an invitation to everyone to participate.