Can nostalgia help your fundraising?

Seth is talking about nostalgia, how it is a basic human emotion and much under-utilised by many marketers.

This complements an article at Third Sector (registration required) in March about a study that showed how nostalgia could, if harnessed correctly, encourage donors to give (although Jeff had his doubts.)

We sometimes forget in fundraising to look backwards and see where we've come from and share past memories and stories with our supporters.

For nonprofits with long histories I definitely think it is something that you should look to test. 

My nonprofit has recently done a nostalgic test mailing to donors with a connection to our founder and it's had some fantastic results. 

Some donors who haven't given for years have given again.

The average gift is over £50 ($75)

In a number of cases the nostalgic element has prompted people to give their largest ever gift (in one case over 50 times their previous largest donation) and has produced a stream of correspondence (together with a gift) as people recall meeting our founder.

As some wag once said, "nostalgia ain't what it used to be", but it is certainly something that can be used successfully by fundraisers to the right audience.