# Emotional engagement – what business needs to learn from charity

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/05/10/emotional-engagement-what-business-needs-learn-charity/
- Published: 2011-05-10T17:04:51+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

In a blog for the [Harvard Business Review](http://blogs.hbr.org/kotter/2011/02/before-you-can-get-buy-in-peop.html?cm_sp=blog_flyout-_-kotter-_-before_you_can_get_buy-in_peop),
[Professor John Kotter](http://blogs.hbr.org/kotter) suggested that business people,
in order to accept the need for change, sometimes need to “feel the need for the
change” as well as understand it financially and intellectually.

I think there’s an alternative view here and that’s about acknowledging that the
approach Professor Kotter suggests is pretty much what any successful charity does
to build its campaigning, communications and fundraising success.

We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the balance between [using heart versus head in communications](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/../../../../../2010/12/01/pulling-the-emotional-trigger)
and it’s a tricky line to walk. Charities are not supposed to use guilt to fundraise,
imagery has to be impactful but not shocking or in poor taste and emotional blackmail
is a very definite ‘no’. But the same rules apply to businesses.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

I believe businesses can and should learn from charities in terms of how to get 
this right. That said, ‘business’ has to include social enterprises, community interest
companies and pretty much all charities who have to manage a trading arm, so perhaps
there’s also a case for charities learning from themselves and maybe breaking down
a few internal silos.

To start the discussion, here’s five ideas on how to help your audiences ‘feel the
problem’ without going too far:

 1. Look at what other successful organisations are doing and learn from their experience.
    We don’t need to reinvent the wheel and the web provides lots of case studies and
    examples for us to analyse and emulate where relevant.
 2. Businesses of all types, try and get hold of copies of a successful charity’s Cases
    For Support. Pay particular attention to how they get across the need for an audience’s
    support without obviously leveraging guilt. You’ll find cases for individual, corporate
    and institutional audiences which will perhaps more closely reflect your target
    markets.
 3. Appeal to positive emotions rather than negative ones. That doesn’t mean you can’t
    be hard-hitting. Disaster recovery charities of course talk about the catastrophe,
    but they also focus on what they are in reality doing, which is helping people 
    get back on their feet. A proactive and positive action.
 4. Leverage as many human senses as you can in support of your communication, selling
    or persuasion. Humans are complex creatures and our emotions are triggered by all
    of our senses. That’s why videos showing the joy and peace of mind some charities
    bring are so powerful. Similarly even the smallest of businesses can appeal to 
    emotions using the senses – ever been to a [taste event](http://www.thamefoodfestival.co.uk)
    for example?
 5. Don’t expect instant financial returns. Sorry to have to break this news to you
    but other than in the most extreme cases, appealing to people on an emotional level
    may take longer than offering 50% discounts over a weekend sale. This is offset
    by the key benefits of building a more emotional engagement with a brand. Translated
    for your accountants, this means: greater likelihood of repeat purchases, more 
    cross-sales potential and less likelihood of losing business to a competitor.

I’m mindful that not all of these ideas will be palatable to some more short-termist
business leaders but whilst money may still make the world go round, that world 
is a very different place in 2011 and might just mean we have to think differently…

 

 * **[ArtsForward business support programme open for applications](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/09/22/artsforward-business-support-programme-open-applications/)**(
   22 September 2016)
 * **[Book Trade Charity & Bookbinders Charitable Society announce merger](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/12/12/book-trade-charity-bookbinders-charitable-society-announce-merger/)**(
   12 December 2016)
 * **[Free business insight offered to charities](https://fundraising.co.uk/2022/10/20/free-business-insight-offered-to-charities/)**(
   20 October 2022)