Behavioural science strategist joins DonorVoice
Howard Lake | 9 March 2016 | News
Experience and relationship company DonorVoice has appointed Kiki Koutmeridou, PhD, to advise its fundraising clients on making the most of behavioural science.
It claims that she is “the only behavioural scientist solely focused on the field of charitable giving”. The subject has featured in several conferences and events for fundraisers over the past few years, but Koutmeridou argues that the sector has barely scratched the surface in applying this knowledge base.
Koutmeridou, who has an Msc in Neuroscience and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology, said:
“The big danger is thinking that reading a book or two, or attending a conference session by an unqualified, non-practitioner, rehashing long published research completely out of context is even remotely sufficient.”
A speaker at the 2014 National Fundraising Convention, she will be helping DonorVoice, which specialises in providing a “proven and empirical process to measure and manage the donor experience”, in supporting charities take key fundraising questions from “what is the underlying motivation for my donors giving, and why?” to “should the ask go from lower to higher or vice versa – and why?”. The emphasis of course is on the ‘why’. Too many fundraising decisions are based on gut instinct or analysis of limited data.
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Win a free appeal audit
Kiki Koutmeridou, PhD
To mark Koutmeridou’s appointment, DonorVoice is offering the chance for three charities to receive a free audit of a fundraising appeal based on her expertise.
DonorVoice’s Charlie Hulme says that the audits on offer are not to be confused with the “industry standard ‘creative’ audit of subjective and personal preferences (that are almost always wrong)”. Instead of “we think” or “we like” the selected charities will receive a “scientific audit with every change backed by evidence, and an explanation of why”.
To be in with a chance of winning one of these three audits, DonorVoice is inviting applications. The winners will be selected at random from the first 50 submissions made.
Main image: hand reaches for why? button by Studiostoks on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.