# The role of odd and even numbers in fundraising

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/05/14/role-odd-even-numbers-fundraising/
- Published: 2014-05-14T11:44:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Fundraising is made up of odd and even numbers of course. But how many people 
give you £11 rather than £10? And why is it that way? More importantly, what can
we as fundraisers do with that information?**

> [@howardlake](https://twitter.com/howardlake) Can’t call it “research” but I generally
> use odd numbers to prompt an ask, and to price a `gift` seems to work ok, and
> —
> David Baker (@bakehousetheman) [May 6, 2014](https://twitter.com/bakehousetheman/statuses/463666386859196416)

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 [@howardlake](https://twitter.com/howardlake) certainly outperforms the usual £
5 £10 £25 prompts…
 — David Baker (@bakehousetheman) [May 6, 2014](https://twitter.com/bakehousetheman/statuses/463666510972850178)

Dr Beth Breeze comments on the rounded donations she encountered amongst major donors.

“In the first Million Pound Donor report, I wrote about the prevalence of rounded
donations  (esp for exactly £1million) and the potential existence of a ‘million
pound ceiling’. In that first report one in five donations (19%) were for exactly
£1 million and 41% were for a rounded figure! 
“The preponderance of donations for
£1 million as opposed to £990,000 or £1.2 million is even more curious in an era
when donors supposedly respond to figures about what exactly the charity needs –
how likely is it that every great project costs exactly the rounded sum of £1 million(
or £2 million, £5 milllion or £10 million, which also appear frequently).“I think
there’s a few answers. One is that people give what they are asked to give – so 
despite the whole metrics/impact talk, fundraisers still aim for a target of £10
million or whatever, rather than a costed non-rounded number that is the real cost
of their project.

“I also think that there’s something about giving ‘a million’ that ticks boxes (
for the giver and the receiver): £1,000,000 is simply the figure that means ‘a serious
giver’ or ‘top league donor’ – all the social and psychological benefits seem to
kick in at that stage, what more would you get from a charity, or is a knighthood
any more likely if you give £1.1 million rather than £1 million?“
The section on
this is on p.5-6 of this report:[http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/philanthropy/documents/Coutts%20Million%20Pound%20Donors%20Report.pdf](http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/philanthropy/documents/Coutts%20Million%20Pound%20Donors%20Report.pdf)