Overcoming donor resistance to ‘taboo’ causes examined in new Rogare paper
Melanie May | 11 April 2022 | News
Donor resistance to communications about ‘taboo’ causes such as death and dying, and how charities can overcome this, are explored in a new Rogare paper.
Published today, this is the second of fundraising think tank Rogare’s series of praxis papers, which showcase research recently completed by a fundraising practitioner for their PhD or Master’s degree, with recommendations about how fundraisers can apply this research in practice.
The new paper explores how fundraisers can overcome this ‘silent resistance’ to such causes to help donors better acknowledge and engage with the social problems charities are trying to solve.
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Written by Blind Veterans UK’s David Harrison and based on the research he did for the thesis of his Master’s degree in marketing at Birkbeck College, University of London, it analyses how Marie Curie’s visual communications have evolved in the way the charity talks about death and dying.
In his research, conducted whilst working at Marie Curie, Harrison explores the reasons why people have adverse reactions to taboo causes – causes that are too uncomfortable or painful to acknowledge. He argues that how charities have often communicated these causes results in ‘bewildered confusion’ among donors, resulting in ‘psychologically inflexible’ responses designed to distance themselves from the cause.
But by ‘deliteralising’ their communications to dissociate the taboo subject from reality charities can encourage a more psychologically flexible response and encourage supporters to engage with the cause.
Marie Curie, for example, used an animated video and song to show the many idioms Britons use to refer to death – such as ‘go belly up’ or ‘kick the bucket’ – without actually saying the taboo word ‘death’.
Harrison makes several other recommendations in the praxis paper, grounded in two ideas from the domain of human psychology: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and the Narrative Transportation Model.
Harrison said:
“Studying a Masters in marketing while working full time as a fundraiser for Marie Curie, I became increasingly confused by the academic focus on the measurable anger responses of societal backlash as the main topic when considering activist branding.
“At the same time, while working for an organisation communicating the intensely painful topic of death and dying, I noticed that colleagues at Marie Curie were focusing increasingly on how we could encourage individuals to acknowledge death, rather than mitigating backlash.
“These two factors led me to identify both a knowledge gap in the academic literature and a professional knowledge gap, and to draw attention toward the resistance posed by taboo and/or intensely painful topics.
“In this research I develop three strategies for charities to encourage individuals to acknowledge, and form positive action toward, an organisation’s cause to develop new donor relationships, increase awareness, and change attitudes and opinion.”
Dr Claire Routley, the editor of the Rogare paper series, added:
“Rogare’s approach is always to build new practice ideas that are grounded in sound theory and evidence. David’s research does just that. By unpicking the psychological theory that explains resistance to taboo causes, he shows how fundraisers can use those ideas to develop their own communications that are specific to their own social issues, rather than broadly copy what others have done but without necessarily understanding how or why it worked for them.
“And as someone whose speciality is legacy fundraising, the focus on ways to talk about death is particularly interesting and insightful.”
Rogare’s first praxis paper was published in July 2021. Written by Dr Lucy Lowthian, it summarises her research at Plymouth University into the psychological well-being factors that influence people’s intention to leave a gift to charities in their wills, and presents a new model based on the four factors of: connectedness, self-efficacy, purpose in life, and identity importance.
Rogare is working on its third praxis paper, which will look at how Services Marketing Theory can be applied in fundraising and should be published in July/August.
Rogare is inviting anyone interested in turning their research into a Rogare praxis paper to contact Claire Routley via LinkedIn or the contact form on its website.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.