Discover the deepest reasons people give to nonprofitsâand how fundraisers can tap into donorsâ most potent motivations.
In The Quest for Belonging: How the Most Effective Nonprofit Leaders Understand the Psychology of Giving, Jeremy Beer draws from the latest social science to explain the primacy of identityâthe need to know and affirm who we areâand belongingâthe need to belong to something bigger than ourselvesâas motivations for giving.
Beer argues that the better a nonprofit organization can speak to donorsâ needs to construct and maintain an identity and to belong to something larger than themselves, the more successful the nonprofit will be in attracting supporters to its mission. He explains how nonprofit executives and fundraisers can effectively engage a donorâs identity and provide a sense of belonging in three powerful ways: by telling stories, by building genuine relationships, and by giving donors positive experiences with the organization and with one another.
The Quest for Belonging is packed with trenchant, useful, and sometimes surprising observations gleaned from Beerâs interviews with highly successful fundraisers, scholars, writers, and nonprofit leaders. This book is a trove of practical advice as well as a paradigm-shifting work on the psychology of giving and the art and craft of fundraising.