Abstract
Everyone has an opportunity to contribute to climate solutions. To help people engage with this opportunity, it is critical to understand how climate organizations and fundraisers can best communicate with people and win their financial support. In particular, fundraisers often rely on practical skills and anecdotal beliefs at the expense of scientific knowledge. Fundraisers could be motivated to achieve a substantial boost in funding for climate solutions, if there is evidence of the financial gains that science-based fundraising makes available. In this Perspective, we provide a preliminary foray into such evidence. We bring together findings from philanthropic research and climate psychology to identify what factors can help captivate donors. Then, through an experimental study of a charitable appeal for a climate charity, we show how putting these factors into practice may contribute toward an increase in donated money. This provides optimism that evidence-based fundraising can inspire donors to contribute much-needed resources toward climate solutions.
Highlights
When it comes to climate solutions, non-profit organizations have a vital role to play (Osuri, 2010)
Fundraisers often emphasize practical skills and anecdotal beliefs at the expense of theoretical and empirical knowledge (Lindahl and Conley, 2002; Bekkers and Wiepking, 2010; Aldrich, 2016). This is despite the inroads that have been made in the scientific literature into how non-profit organizations can use messages to increase their appeal to donors (Bekkers and Wiepking, 2010; Whillans, 2016) and, separately, what drives people’s concern for climate change (Weber, 2010, 2016; Center for Research on Environmental Decisions [CRED] and EcoAmerica, 2014)
There is much progress remaining for society to reach the level of funding necessary to achieve meaningful climate solutions (Yeo, 2019; Nature Climate Change, 2020)
Summary
When it comes to climate solutions, non-profit organizations have a vital role to play (Osuri, 2010). This is despite the inroads that have been made in the scientific literature into how non-profit organizations can use messages to increase their appeal to donors (Bekkers and Wiepking, 2010; Whillans, 2016) and, separately, what drives people’s concern for climate change (Weber, 2010, 2016; Center for Research on Environmental Decisions [CRED] and EcoAmerica, 2014).
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