Numbers numb; stories stimulate [COMMANDMENT 5]

A ten-week series on things you should know about fundraising.

Numbers numb; stories stimulate.

The human mind is pre-set to tune out numbers (especially large ones) and to pay attention to stories.

If your fundraising is built around statistics — like the number of people living poverty, or the number of people diagnosed with a disease — you are actively priming people to ignore your message. Or argue with it — and you will lose the argument.

Stalin is believed to have said, “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.” Unfortunately, he was right.

That’s why fundraising is built on stories. Vivid word-pictures of people.

The rest of the commandments (so far).