#31: Francesco Ambrogetti — How valuing your donors' identities, feelings and emotions builds loyalty

03/03/21 • 48 min

Today's guest was fundamental in shifting my thinking about fundraising after I read his book, Emotionraising, a few years ago.
The book used evidence and research from neuroscience, behavioural economics, marketing and fundraising to understand how people go from simply being aware of a cause to actually taking action by donating or volunteering.

It validated much of what smart fundraisers had been saying for a long time: We need to embrace the emotional part of the brain. We need to embrace the fact that human beings are highly emotional creatures — including in their giving.

The author of that book, and today’s guest, is Francesco Ambrogetti.
Francesco is a senior leader in fundraising and marketing at UNICEF. He has over 20 years of international fundraising experience with UNICEF and with other UN bodies in Geneva, Bangkok, and Panama. He has advised organizations like The World Bank, WWF, Doctors Without Borders, and The Red Cross.
His new book — Hooked on a Feeling: How Passion and Devotion For Good Causes Become Memory and Identity — is all about keeping that emotional flame alive after someone makes their first and second donation to your cause.
It’s about cultivating loyalty and commitment — and helping first-time givers become ongoing supporters.

Today we’ll cover:

[4:12] - What role our emotions play in life and decision-making
[8:10] - The 6 emotions that drive our decision making
[15:00] - If we take advantage of people when we try to create an emotional experience
[18:57] - How avoiding emotions betrays our donors
[21:00] - If first-time donors remember the organizations they’ve given to
[23:15] - Mike's experience with an organization after a mystery shopping donation
[26:30] - How emotions become a part of someone’s memory and identity
[32:56] - A surprising thing that creates customer loyalty
[34:28] - What you can do to implement these concepts in your organization
[41:21] - Francesco’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and marketers

You can connect with Francesco on Linkedin. You can also learn more about what he’s doing by finding his new book, Hooked on a Feeling, and his video series The Good Suspended.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here.

Sign up for the FREE 5-Minute Fundraising Fix video series and become a smarter fundraiser today: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a text

Today we’ll cover:

[4:12] - What role our emotions play in life and decision-making
[8:10] - The 6 emotions that drive our decision making
[15:00] - If we take advantage of people when we try to create an emotional experience
[18:57] - How avoiding emotions betrays our donors
[21:00] - If first-time donors remember the organizations they’ve given to
[23:15] - Mike's experience with an organization after a mystery shopping donation
[26:30] - How emotions become a part of someone’s memory and identity
[32:56] - A surprising thing that creates customer loyalty
[34:28] - What you can do to implement these concepts in your organization
[41:21] - Francesco’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and marketers

You can connect with Francesco on Linkedin. You can also learn more about what he’s doing by finding his new book, Hooked on a Feeling, and his video series The Good Suspended.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here.

Sign up for the FREE 5-Minute Fundraising Fix video series and become a smarter fundraiser today: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Previous Episode

#30: Can the Enneagram make you a better fundraiser? —with Marc Pitman

Send us a text

Building a successful nonprofit is about relationships.
The people we hire on our team, and the volunteers we work with, are not cogs in a wheel. They are human beings who bring their humanity to work: their dreams, passions, insecurities, fears, and concerns.
If we want to build a fundraising engine to sustain our mission, we need to start by building a healthy team, including a healthy us. We need to understand ourselves, and those around us.
Because building better relationships with our team has a direct impact on the bottom line.
One tool we can use to understand ourselves and our team is the Enneagram — a personality framework that helps us understand how different people cope with the world, and how they manage their own fears.
On today's show, Marc Pitman is going to walk us through each of the nine types of the
Enneagram. Mark also gets into how understanding the Enneagram can actually help you
become a stronger, more empathetic leader. And yes, raise more money.
Mark is a renowned author, an international leadership and fundraising coach. As founder of the Concord Leadership Group, he just released a book called The Surprising Gift of Doubt - How To Use Uncertainty To Become The Exceptional Leader You're Meant To Be.
Today we’ll cover:

[3:47] - What the Enneagram is and how it is different from other personality assessments
[6:40] - Why the Enneagram matters for your organization
[10:45] - Enneagram Type 1 - The Reformer
[14:15] - Enneagram Type 2 - The Caregiver or The Pleaser
[18:00] - Enneagram Type 3 - The Achiever
[22:02] - Enneagram Type 4 - The Artist or Individualist
[25:56] - Enneagram Type 5 - The investigator
[32:51] - Enneagram Type 6 - The Loyalist
[38:05] - Enneagram Type 7 - The Enthusiast
[46:18] - Enneagram Type 8 - The Challenger
[52:02] - Enneagram Type 9 - The Peacemaker
[56:20] - Marc’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketers

Marc would love to connect with you. You can find him on social media or by visiting the
Concord Leadership Group’s website, as well as fundraisingcoach.com or The Nonprofit
Academy.
Become a smarter fundraiser with a FREE video mini-course at fiveminutefundraisingfix.com.

Next Episode

#32: How to create a donation page that converts visitors into donors, with Tim Kachuriak

Send us a text

Do you know how many of the people that visit the donation page on your website actually end up making a gift?
If you're like most nonprofits, the answer may shock you. The industry average conversion rate on donation pages is as low 4%. That means we are failing 96% of potential donors who visit our donation page.

It also means we're losing valuable donors who might otherwise be willing to give to our cause, but for some reason are driven away or don't take action.
Today's guest is on a mission to change that. Tim Kachuriak is the founder and chief innovation and optimization officer at NextAfter — a fundraising research lab and consulting firm that works with nonprofits and NGOs to help them grow their digital fundraising.

In our chat, Tim walk through what an ideal donation page looks like top to bottom — based on extensive research, testing, and optimizing with some of the biggest nonprofits out there.
So pull up your donation page and take notes, because Tim is going to share tested tactics to reduce friction for your donors and increase conversions from people who come to your donation page.
Chances are, your donation page can use some improvement. And if you don't optimize it, you are leaving money on the table.

Today we’ll cover:

[3:32] - Good Friction vs. Bad Friction
[5:30] - The #1 mistake made on most donation pages
[8:37] - What you should see at the top of your donation page
[13:18] - How to craft the copy before the giving form
[18:27] - How video performs vs. copy on these pages
[20:25] - Making the giving form conversational
[25:40] - How to effectively offer a monthly donation
[28:45] - What information we should be asking for from the donor
[31:00] - Communicating trustworthiness during the payment process
[39:02] - Should you include a verification page?
[41:17] - Tim’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketers

Get connected:

If you’re looking for more information and resources to optimize your fundraising efforts, you can find them at nextafter.com. You can also find their free donation page template here.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the Build Good Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here.

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit:

fiveminutefundraisingfix.com