The reasons for why non-donors don't donate

When managing membership recruitment or fundraising campaigns is essential to know the area in which we move and understand the motivations of the people we are addressing. In a previous article we showed the five reasons that motivate a person to make a donation.

In this one we will focus on those who DO NOT give money. Why they don’t want to collaborate? A recent survey published by Grey Matter Research silvered the same question and, after selecting a representative sample of adult and non-donor population in the United States, they obtained interesting facts like the following ones:

1. 83% of non-donors agreed that they “wish they had enough money to be able to give to non-profit organizations." A 42% of them strongly agreed with this statement. At least they have the desire to donate.

However, the concept of "having enough money" among the non-donor is very relative. Those with an annual income of $ 100,000 or more feel the same way that those from households earning under $20,000.

2. 81% of all non-donors agree with the statement, “People who have a lot of money need to step up and support non-profit organizations, rather than people like me providing the support.” 45% of them strongly agree with this. Here, the annual income play a significant role: 61% of those with low incomes strongly agree with the statement, compared to 16% of those earning $ 100,000 a year or more.

Significantly, people under 35 are more likely to think this way. The same goes for liberal political ideology respondents (55%) compared to those from conservative ideology (32%).

THEIR CONCERNS

3. 40% of non-donors, regardless of tehir income, agree that any gift they could afford to give to a non-profit organization really isn’t enough to make a difference.

4. On the other hand, the 61% believe that many non-profit organizations are asking for money that “it’s just a turn-off.” 20% of them strongly agree with the statement.

5. 58% of non-donors also believe that if they gave to a non-profit organization, too much of their money would go toward overhead and expenses to make their gift worthwhile. A 20%, again, is strongly convinced of this.

6. Regarding the effectiveness of their contribution, a 57% of surveyed non-donors think that most of non-profit organizations don’t actually solve the real problems; these organizations just provide short-term solutions but the needs are still there. 80% of them strongly agree with this.

7. 34% of non-donors feel strongly that “If I wanted to support a non-profit organization, I am confident I could find one that would use my money wisely.”

8. A few think that this is all the government’s job. Only 38% feel they pay taxes to provide government services for people who have needs, so they don’t need to give money.

9. It’s also uncommon the consideration that everyone should need to get through challenges on their own without help from organizations. Just a 30% think this is the correct attitude, but we also see that only a 25% disagree strongly, showing that many people harbour at least some doubts on this topic.

A POINT OF HOPE

As we can clearly appreciate from the study, reach non-donors and getting them to cooperate economically is not easy. There are many variables that affect their points of views and their attitudes. Most of them think they are others (those who have more money) who should collaborate. The problem comes when those with “more money” also think that others should give money away, not they, and when a majority believes that any economical help the could provide will not be effective to solve problems or, even worse, will not be used to at least to trying.

In any case, we now know a little bit more about the reasons and concerns of people who do not donate. Therefore we can provide answers to their concerns and, above all, we can look at the most positive and hopeful data of the study: that an 83% of non-donors are willing to collaborate!

Article written by Jaime Sánchez-Carpintero