How charities can build emotional connections

The skill of building an emotional connection isn’t always tangible or quantifiable. Communication is key to calling up sentiment and action, but how to do so is mysterious. 

 

Below we uncover what works for charities and share how digital communicators create a sense of closeness.

 

 

Put a face to your brand

 

Audiences like to see and hear from charity staff and beneficiaries. For most charities, that means putting a face, a name, and more importantly an identity to the cause.

 

Contentuity 360 offers some advice: don’t be modest: “Don’t be shy about flaunting photos of your volunteers in action. As you share your non-profit stories, be sure to include video testimonials of real people whose lives have been changed by your outstanding work.”

 

 

Create a marketing persona

 

Gather intelligence about who you want to get close to. Customer relationship management systems are a reservoir of knowledge. Add to demographic information by honing in on:

• How often a particular group donates
• What methods do they use to donate
• What motivates them about the charity in particular
• What motivates them to volunteer

Put together an imaginary person of someone in your target group. Consider their donation habits, personality, and how they speak.

 

 

Make it personal

 

Building a one-to-one spark with audiences means making it personal. What works best is curating your ask.

 

Personalisation tips come in handy here. Use audience names when emailing them. Tailor your communications and events to the demographic.

 

For younger audiences, that might mean using Instagram stories or TikTok to highlight volunteering events and offering mobile payment options. Connecting with Gen Z and younger will involve different platforms and language when compared with Millennials, who will respond better to more traditional tactics.

 

 

Be your authentic self

 

The crux of this maxim is to be consistent, transparent, and ultimately, do what you say. Committing to authenticity gains trust.

 

Small things matter. As a start, use the same logo, motto, and icons on all social media profiles, email signatures, and hallmarks. Every form of communication needs to have the same look and feel. This builds a sense of professionalism.

 

Transparency and being true to charity purpose matters when building an emotional connection. Audiences need to understand how money is being spent and what the impact is. Reporting is essential. Annual, impact, and management reports should be produced regularly and shared.

 

Release transparent figures at the same time as formal reports. Our top tip here is to use infographics so that audiences can easily discern what’s happening.

 

 

Focus on the storytelling

 

A large part of building an emotional connection is storytelling. Not only is it at the heart of fundraising, but it’s also a way of evoking empathy.

 

While putting a human face to charity stories builds emotional closeness, it doesn’t have to be a real person.  Charity:water uses a bot to highlight the journey that beneficiaries walk to clean water.

 

Success stories serve to inspire. Animal charities are adept in that regard. Four Paws features their achievements by posting stories of how animals are freed from inhumane conditions. Each animal’s story starts with the how they might feel – in the cold, in a cage, and suffering.

 

Next, the charity’s rescue happens, followed by a vast improvement in happiness and health. This storytelling formula works because audiences connect first with the animal’s misery and then with heroic action. 

 

 

Icons can tell a story

 

It’s hard to understand how images generate sentiment. Looking at the #NoMakeupSelfie campaign, photos of women wearing no make-up conveyed a sense of courage against cancer. Featured by the BBC, the viral campaign raised £2 million for Cancer Research UK.

 

Without knowing anything about the campaign it’s implicitly understood that the images raised funds. The origin of the fundraiser was solidarity. Hollywood stars aligned with Kim Novak, who was ridiculed online for not wearing her ‘face’. Taking a stand, A-listers like Gwyneth Paltrow posted their bare faces.

 

Slowly the campaign morphed into a fundraiser for cancer.

 

 

Focus on impact and action

 

Capture the hearts of your audiences by showing what is happening without action. Charities in poverty and disaster are successful in garnering sympathy in this area.

 

Of no surprise, Shelter is one of the foremost charities in pressing uncomfortable facts to build an emotional connection. Their Christmas campaigns lament the high levels of child homelessness. In 2022, they said that 119,500 young people were homeless during the holidays. The corollary being that their purpose breaks those figures.

 

 

Get on social media

 

To build rapport, be available on social media. Engage with audiences by responding to individual comments. Drive action by shouting out to supporters. Use interactive media to see how people are feeling and respond to sentiment.