Put a Deadline on that Ask

The latest edition of The Atlantic includes a dispatch on the psychology of separating people from their money: The Gift-Card Economy.

More specifically, the article goes into the connection between urgency and action: to wit, there is no action when there is no urgency.  The article examines the differences between preferences and behavior when it comes to gift cards: while we say we would prefer gift cards with a longer time horizon, we are far more likely to spend gift cards with a short-term deadline.

The article veers a bit into implications for future happiness and delves into some odd philosophizing regarding different “selves” and how our various selves make decisions about being cautious versus happy, responsible versus self-rewarding, etc.  It’s a line of philosophy the editors of the Atlantic are evidently fond of, judging by the number of times it’s made an appearance in the magazine of late.

Ignoring the “selves” detour, the research cited in the article confirms what all of us in the fundraising and mobilizing businesses have long known: without urgency, nobody does anything.  A deadline – a point very rapidly looming at which one can no longer make a difference – is critical to advocacy and fundraising success.

Check your grassroots and fundraising communications: do they have built-in urgency? Clearly delineated deadlines beyond which something valuable is lost (limited time gift matching, end of legislative decision-making windows, etc.)?  If there isn’t built-in urgency, can you generate urgency?  If there isn’t any urgency anywhere in your ask, is there a better time for you to make it?  A different ask you should be making?

My own bit of odd philosophizing (tf it’s good engouh for the Atlantic editors, it’s good enough for me): I’d bet our 24-hour news, ever-present political campaign cycle culture has upped the ante for urgency.  It’s possible that in times past, effectively conveying urgency wasn’t as a critical an element of successful fundraising and mobilizing as it unarguably is today. Atlantic folks?  Any thoughts? Evidence?

-Shayna