Making Sense of Emotions: An EthoSense Blog
Published in Partnership with SquareKnot Analytics
Unlocking the Power of Emotionally Motivated Giving
How not-for-profits can expand donor networks by identifying emotional motivators for charitable giving.
Published November 20, 2024
Attracting and retaining donors is a critical challenge for not-for-profit organizations. Traditional outreach often relies on demographic data, but this overlooks a key element of what drives individuals to give—emotion. In this blog, we’ll showcase how combining transactional data from SquareKnot Analytics with emotionally driven segmentation from EthoSense can help not-for-profits expand their donor base. By identifying past donation behaviors and targeting look-alike audiences based on emotional motivators such as compassion, community, and personal values, organizations can create highly targeted and scalable outreach strategies. This approach not only enhances the ability to find new donors but also allows for the incorporation of an organization’s existing donor list, helping identify Canadians most likely to donate based on both their past behavior and emotional triggers. The result? A powerful, data-driven approach that maximizes impact by reaching the right people with the right message, ensuring marketing campaigns are both emotionally resonant and highly effective.
EthoSense is comprised of 9 value segments, that further breakdown into the 80 EthoSense audiences. Exploring charitable giving and emotional motivators at the value segment level allows strategic insights about donors, while EthoSense audiences provide a tactical approach for outreach and communications.
The Power of Emotional Motivators in Giving
Our analysis revealed that 1 in 3 Canadians is likely to have donated in some capacity over the past 2.5 years, with 13% of the adult population more likely to be high-value donors, either through frequent giving or large donations. Meanwhile, 19% of adults are casual donors, with fewer transactions or lower total donations over the study period. When considering both the propensity to donate and median donation value, high-value donors are more likely to come from EthoSense’s Up & Comers and Experienced value segments, as shown in the chart below.
Up & Comers are driven by a desire for self-improvement and a strong social conscience. Their focus on accumulating knowledge and understanding society aligns them with charitable causes that promote equality, education, and social betterment. This segment likely views donations as a way to support causes that drive societal change and personal growth, making them valuable contributors to non-profits with missions of improvement and advocacy.
Similarly, the Experienced segment places a high value on education, knowledge, and intellectual growth. With a strong work ethic and appreciation for wisdom and enlightenment, this group is inclined to support causes that foster education and intellectual development. Their contributions are often motivated by a desire to give back to educational institutions or support programs promoting learning and self-betterment.
Up & Comers
Experienced
Chart Description: This chart displays EthoSense value segments by their likelihood to donate and median donation value. Bubble size represents the segment’s size in the market, with larger bubbles indicating greater market opportunities. Up & Comers and Experienced show high donation potential, both in propensity and median value, making them key targets. Traditionalists represent a large audience in the market, providing significant reach despite a lower likelihood to donate.
Using SquareKnot Data to Identify Key Donor Behaviors
SquareKnot’s transactional data offers valuable insights into donation patterns, helping non-profits identify when and how donors give beyond their existing donor pool. April, May, and June see the highest donation activity, while the highest median contributions tend to occur in the latter half of the year, with September specifically representing both the highest median and average donation value. With Giving Tuesday coming up, it’s no surprise that Tuesday is among the strongest day of the week for donations, both in terms of average and median amounts. While we all may hate Mondays, this is a pivotal day for charitable giving with Monday’s contributing nearly 30% of all donations made through the week!
By understanding these national trends, non-profits can create more informed campaign strategies. Comparing generalized donation behaviors to their internal donation history reveals opportunities to optimize timing and messaging, ensuring outreach is more targeted and impactful. SquareKnot’s data provides a powerful foundation for refining donor engagement strategies based on both timing and contribution patterns.
Chart Description: These charts illustrate donation patterns by month and by day of the week, showing both the volume of transactions and donation amounts.
Expand Your Donor Base with EthoSense Look-a-Like Audiences
Using EthoSense alongside Squareknot data allows not-for-profits to identify the propensity to donate and median donation value of different Canadians across the country. These insights provide a clear understanding of how likely different segments of the population are to donate and how much they typically contribute, offering organizations a more detailed view of any potential donner, both high-value or casual.
Together, these data-driven insights identify quantifiable and actionable look-alike audiences across Canada. These are individuals who share similar emotional motivators and giving behaviors as known donors, but who may not yet be in an organization’s database. EthoSense makes targeting these look-a-like audiences through traditional or digital media fast and easy, enabling non-profits to expand their reach, increase their donor pool, and communicate with potential donors who are more likely to respond to their message.
Maximizing Impact with a Data-Driven, Hyper-Targeted Strategy
Not only can new donor prospects be found, but any not-for-profit’s existing donor list can also be integrated into this strategy. By doing so, organizations can further refine targeting based on the specific characteristics of their current donors, gaining deeper insights into their motivations and behaviors. This allows for more personalized communication and engagement strategies that strengthen donor relationships and increase retention.
This approach is highly focused, hyper-targeted, yet scalable, allowing charities to allocate resources effectively while reaching the right audiences. By optimizing campaign timing and messaging through detailed donor insights, non-profits can enhance overall campaign performance, ensuring they connect with potential donors at the moments when they are most likely to give. Additionally, this data-driven method improves resource efficiency, as it enables non-profits to concentrate their outreach on high-potential donors, maximizing the return on investment.
In the long term, this strategy builds stronger donor relationships and increases donor loyalty by creating more personalized experiences that resonate deeply. As a scalable approach, it provides a foundation for ongoing engagement, with each campaign offering more data and insights that can be used to refine future outreach, fostering continued donor growth and retention.
Hotspex Inc. is dedicated to solving brand building challenges by leveraging unique insights into human and consumer motivations. Hotspex offers a best-in-class research approach to building global brand equity coupled with Hotsepx Media, our aware-winning in-house media planning and execution experts. EthoSense, Hotspex’s newest data product, is a market segmentation model focused on translating the Human Motivation Framework to audience activation in Canada. Find out more at hotspex.com, hotspexmedia.com and ethosense.ca
SquareKnot Analytics delivers high-quality consumer insights by integrating spending data with survey responses from a verified panel of Canadian consumers. Their innovative approach ensures data integrity and provides brands with actionable insights. Squareknot Analytics offers custom surveys, behavior-triggered surveys, and advanced analytics to help brands make informed decisions swiftly. Find out more at squareknotanalytics.com.