Are we more afraid of politics than our donors are?
Civil society and the social impact sector are under increasing political pressure, leading to organisations afraid to speak up. The current political landscape globally has led to many feeling paralysed – people and organisations alike, including in nonprofits. Direct attacks on charities, alongside funding and aid cuts, have left organisations considering how to act in ways that keep them out of the line of fire.
And these restrictive policies continue to gain traction.
But it’s not all doom and gloom! Politics shape our work, but we can be left wondering how much do our donors really want to hear about them. Which is why this session will walk you through a massive new study that has been undertaken to understand how nonprofit donors across the ideological spectrum want the organisations they support to respond to threats to democracy. We will look at this kind of research has informed actual donor messaging, as well as how that messaging has performed this year. The results might surprise you: it turns out that standing up for democratic norms doesn’t risk your reputation – or your revenue.
If you want to learn how to inform your messaging, find out how you can build support for messaging your donors actually want, or just want to know more about how nonprofits are approaching unprecedented scrutiny of their communications plans, this is the session for you.
Learning outcomes
- Explore what research tells us about how donors feel about the civic duty of nonprofits
- Learn how direct references to political news in fundraising performed for otherwise less-political or apolitical groups
- Discover how message research can inform your supporter marketing before it goes out into the world