Does your non-profit or business have a web site, brochure, vision or mission statement that contains way too much information or is just too darn confusing?
According to recent research, having too many options, decisions or choices actually reduces interest, saps brain power and in the case of non-profits may even lower donation potential.
Economists Richard H. Thaler and Cass R Sundstein post on their blog “Nuges” and they report that:
“When more choices are available, more decisions are required. Psychological research has previously noted how increasing choices can turn people off, leading them to opt-out of the decision making process. (For retailers, this phenomenon means lower sales and profits.) Now a new paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology claims that increasing the choice set saps people’s brainpower and energy more quickly.”
Lesson learned: Keep it simple. Unless you want to confuse and loose potential donors, keep those direct mail pieces, web sites, mission statements and any other crucial piece of your organizations communication pieces simple and to the point.
Too many choices + direct mail = giving donors the option to opt-out of the decision making process.
Yoav