YakShaving

I was reading Made To Stick..(I know, I know… I’m slow. it takes me a while to FINISH books because when I find something interesting I have to run to google or wikipedia for further research.. its a sad pathology, really).

Well in this case (as it does rarely), it proved fruitful.

Made To Stick references some research that establishes the emotional nature of requesting charitable donations from people.  I won’t go into detail here, because I really think people should read this book, but the research showed that people who are primed analytically with alarming statistics about poverty and human atrocities in Africa are LESS likely to donate than those who read a story of a single girl who could use the donated money to dramatically improve her life.  This is not new news– Charities have been doing this since the 1950s  (I even remember seeing stuff the Save-a-Child TV campaign when I was a wee lad).   But what is interesting is thinking about new models that use the same technique:   Kiva.org (Peer to peer microfinance lending) is fantastic because it uses this emotional model to connect a donor with a person in need.

Here’s a link to Small and Lowenstein’s research paper.

And here’s an easier-to-read article from SSI review about the same topic.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.
– Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)