Win Donors with Tools of Persuasion

Newswise — Building on the extraordinary success of its sold-out inaugural issue, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, published by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, continues to provide provocative insights and research from world-class faculty on nonprofit management, philanthropy, and corporate citizenship.

Writing in the Summer 2003 issue, now arriving in subscribers' mailboxes, psychology professor Robert B. Cialdini draws on years of research into influence and persuasion to offer four proven tools that will help nonprofit fundraisers to win donors.

Cialdini, who is Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, describes the ways savvy individuals can make full use of these four tools, or social psychology principles, for bettering society and providing fulfillment to willing donors of nonprofit organizations.

The tools are: 1) "reciprocity" -- people try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided them; 2) "scarcity" -- opportunities seem more valuable when they are less available; 3) "authority" -- people tend to defer to legitimate authorities as a decision-making short cut; and 4) "consistency" -- once people make a choice or take a stand, they encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.

"Although use of these principles optimizes influence, they are employed optimally by only a fraction of those who could benefit from them," Cialdini points out in his article. "Many nonprofit leaders regularly fumble away the chance to employ the principles because they do not understand them or know how to harness their force. Others know quite well what the principles are and how they work, but they import them dishonestly, achieving short-term goals while leaving a target feeling manipulated."

Illustrating his points with vivid examples of success, results of prior research, survey findings, and case studies, Cialdini provides a powerful roadmap for guiding nonprofit leaders to not only increase donations, but to draw people to their cause and feel positively about the work of the organization as well.

Other subjects addressed in the Summer 2003 issue of the Review include corporate and nonprofit partnerships, nonprofit management, social entrepreneurship, and organizational effectiveness. These subjects are addressed in feature stories and the following departments:· "Upfront" comprises six to eight briefs summarizing ideas or survey trends;· "Toolkit" spotlights strategies for improving management and attaining the goals of social sector organizations;· "Case Study" examines actual management practices and lessons learned in a social-purpose organization; and· "From the Frontlines" are first-person essays penned by individuals on the frontlines of social service.More information on these and other articles are available online: www.ssireview.com. A one-year subscription costs $69.

The Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) is published by the Center for Social Innovation (CSI) of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The Review crowns an initiative launched three years ago with the founding of the Center. Significantly expanded last summer, CSI was created to promote innovative, effective, and efficient solutions to important social problems by adapting business knowledge and experience to challenges faced by the nonprofit sector.

The Stanford Social Innovation Review is made possible by the financial support of CSI's investors, including philanthropists Louise and Claude Rosenberg (MBA '52), Susan B. Ford, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.