What is in this report?

This is a unique survey conducted in both Canada and The United States to assess the characteristics of charity advertisements, appeals, and promotional materials to learn which characteristics drove the most impact on people. It used real ad creative and measured the impact on people, and then evaluated many different characteristics so we could derive “what mattered”.

A summary of this report is available here.

What are the 3 major takeaways?

1. The development of effective fundraising communications and appeals starts with understanding the key strategic drivers, namely: emotions & a sense of urgency.
2. Charities are weaker at leveraging the importance of emotion and urgency.
3. Charities should pre-test their communications & appeals before going public to ensure they only launch strong content to maximize the impact of their media investment.