Heart or Head? What Matters Most?

I recently came across an article and a blog post that address the emotional aspects of philanthropy.

The first is a short article that appeared in The Financial Times, by the founder of GreatNonprofits.org, Perla Ni. Ni reminds us that giving is not about parsing out the worth of what nonprofits do by the "holy grail of metrics," but about letting the work of a charity speak to our hearts. Ni says:

Many non-profits are trying to make a difference in people’s lives. And that’s hard to do. People are not products. We are complicated – changing our attitudes, ideas and behaviors can take years and it’s difficult to isolate which single factor contributed to any specific result.

And so, when people ask, 'how do I know whether this is a good non-profit?', I respond as follows: 'Go and visit. See for yourself. Volunteer for a soup kitchen and sit down next to an ex-felon. Ask them about their lives. What got them into trouble? How are they coping out of jail? How is this soup kitchen helping?' You will be amazed by the stories. It’s eye-opening, vivid and inspirational.

Similarly, in a blog posting by Kivi Leroux Miller, who writes the Nonprofit Communications blog, we are reminded of the need for story telling in our work. Kivi says:

The bottom line is that people don’t really care about the rational claims they hear in ads, or about stories about other people not like them (or people they admire or can otherwise relate to). If they can’t connect in some personal way, they ignore it.

Can your supporters relate to the stories you are telling? They don’t have to be in the same situation as the person you are telling the story about, but can your donors share an emotion with that person? Is there some common human experience they can latch on to? Can they see themselves helping that person through your organization?

Are you sparking the humanity in your donors with good stories and appeals to the heart? It isn't that accountability and "results," as measured with graphs and charts, are not important. They are, but they should be a reassuring background to the heartfelt stories that occupy the foreground of our work and fundraising appeals.