Stories or Data: Which Makes the Stronger Case?
Posted by Zach Hochstadt on December 2nd, 2009
Posted in Blog, Email Campaigns, Nonprofit Copywriting, Storytelling
In this month’s issue of Free Range Thinking, Andy Goodman explains why stories are more powerful than data in prompting donors to make a gift. The article presents research data that verifies what many successful fundraisers already understand: donors are significantly more likely to respond to a personal story — even if the data show that the problem is significantly larger than a single person.
What’s surprising is that — counter to many expectations — presenting a personal story and data may not be the more powerful combination. Studies for Save the Children show that a personal story all on its own still gets a better response than presenting stories and statistics combined.
Zach Hochstadt is a Mission Minded Founding Partner and runs Mission Minded’s Denver office, leading the company’s creative teams in the areas of message development, writing, graphic design, and web design and development.
See all posts by Zach Hochstadt
[…] just conventional wisdom. In 2007, researchers Deborah Small, George Lowenstein and Paul Slovic conducted an experiment about what they termed the “identifiable victim effect,” something we might refer to as […]
[…] just conventional wisdom. In 2007, researchers Deborah Small, George Lowenstein and Paul Slovic conducted an experiment about what they termed the “identifiable victim effect,” something we might refer to as […]