I put together an Individual Monthly Contributors Campaign where we recruit people to join the Youth Power Pack, our pack of supporters who contribute financially to youth-led collective impact.
I’m now testing out messages to people and getting their feedback on how well the messaging is working for them.
You can send it directly to your friends as well and get their input! I’ll try it out a couple more times myself then share back the template that seems to emerge as the most effective.
One piece of feedback I got back was on our tiers of support.
What’s the appropriate dollar amounts for the tiers? (Before I had $5, $12, $25, $100, $250, $500) and the feedback was “think of quantities that people usually spend on things in their lives on a monthly / more frequent than monthly basis. People mentally anchor to common values like that. For example, for me personally, $40 seems ‘low’ and $60 seems ‘high’, just because there are a great deal of common life things that cost $40 or less that I pay for weekly (say, seamless dinner for 2) whereas there are fewer things at the $60 tier. You want to convince people that this contribution is not going to move the needle for them financially, yet, of course, if you can convince many people of that, you will have enough funds in short order. Also, there seems to be a wide rift between $25 and $100 that probably captures your sweet spot.”
What’s the benefit for the contributor? “You need to give people the impression they are getting something or a way to see into their investment somewhat - even if you just say “I’ll mail you an update every quarter” that is probably enough for now”
I’ve changed the tiers and now have them at $10, $25, $50, $100, $200, and $500. Let’s see how that goes.
Meanwhile, here’s an article I found about Donation Tiers and I’d be interested in your thoughts.
UPDATE: Changed tiers again to $5, $15, $25, $50, $75, $100 since $5, $15, and $25 seem to be the most common self-chosen values right now.
Idea brainstorm that may need to be broken out into different projects
Transforming foundational beliefs from charity to mutual aid and collective liberation
Create contributor profiles: why do people give financially?
Create tiers (and also illustrate that people DO pay for things: gyms, subscription boxes, content subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify), club fees, learning content (Lynda, college!), donations to politicians … what can we learn from that?
Create clarity in “benefits” (though we need to make sure that we’re not speaking transactionally or commodifying community but rather relationally and transformationally )
A.L.: It feels good to be chipping in for something that’s concrete. Feeling like being a part of something. Feels a lot more clear now after giving time. Money part makes this feel more real. This is a thing. It took me some time through volunteering to know there is enough work and stuff happening that here’s some money for you. Really liked the FAQs as opposed to a long paragraph.
Okay, but where do you get your money from?
Our first major donation was from another Black Trans group in the Twin Cities, since then our monies, herbs, and foods have come from a myriad of individuals as well as small, local, Black, IPOC, and/or Women-owned businesses, farms, and collectives. We’re not here for the money so we don’t typically give folks shine for loving on each other. If you’d like to donate, please do so here. We offer tax-exempt forms not clout.
Over the last year we’ve witnessed the earth shaking potential of social movements. We’ve seen them catalyze change through the George Floyd uprising and the power of the call to “Defund the Police”. We’ve witnessed the potential of people power as Americans fought to protect their votes as a would-be tyrant of a President sought to steal an election. We’ve experienced the bubbling ebb and flow of local struggles in the midst of a deadly pandemic and wondered how a collective mass movement response could change the tides and demand healthcare for all and dignity for all workers forced to risk their lives for a system that underpays them. If you recognize the importance of social movements, join Momentum’s sustainers and help us dedicate resources to building the movements we need now.
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