The importance of a consistent emotional tone in fundraising

Consistency across branding is vital to building recognition, trust, and loyalty, especially when using a variety of platforms.

This ensures marketing and other communication has one voice and the brand is easily recognisable. 

Getting the right consistency of the images and words used is especially important for charities, whose campaigns can be highly emotive.

Here we look at latest research at the importance of consistency of emotional tone and the psychology behind donors’ decisions when engaging with charity campaigning.

How a consistent emotional tone improves fundraising

Research has found that charitable donations from supporters can be increased by ensuring the emotional tone of images, videos, language, and narration matches.

To assess this a sample of potential donors were give a real budget, of just under £8, to donate or keep for themselves, before exposing them to a variety of charity appeals.

A different combination of emotional tones and levels of consistency were used. Some appeals focused on positivity and hope, some on the challenges communities face and the urgent need for funding. Others used had a combination of the two, across words and imagery.

The results revealed that when the emotional images and tone of language matches, for example images showing hope with positive narration, then donors are likely to donate a greater amount. The same happened when consistency was used among more urgent appeals across imagery and words.

When the emotional tone of words and images in the same campaign was different, donors gave less, researchers found.

“We really wanted to include experiments with real donations, not only hypothetical ones,” says lead researcher Dr Alex Genevskyfrom Erasmus University Rotterdam.

“When people know their choice will actually give money to charity, their behaviour carries more weight, and the results are more reliable. We saw that, whether positive or negative, charitable appeals are most effective when their emotional elements matched in tone.”

The psychology of consistent emotional tone in fundraising

To find out why consistent emotional tone is so important for donors, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to look at their brain activity when viewing appeals and making their charitable decisions.

This found that consistent use of images and language activated donors’ nucleus accumbens, which is the reward centre of the brain, to create a positive emotional experience. This in turn prompted those taking part in the experiment to increase the amount they gave.

Lessons for charity fundraising teams

The research concludes that “by taking simple steps to keep messaging consistent across language and visuals, organisations stand to gain a far better response from their audience, raising more money for their causes”.

Researchers add that “such adjustments do not require big budgets to be actioned”. This is “crucial for the charity sector in particular which often works under tight finances”.

Much of the conversation prior to this research was focused on which emotional tone or imagery to use, whether positive or highlighting challenges communities face. But this research shows that either stance can be effective, as long as there is consistent emotional tone across the content.

The psychology of giving

This is among a raft of research showing how charity fundraisers can increase donations by better understanding behaviour and the psychology of giving.

For example, research published by Reflect Digital in 2025 urges charities to use psychology to “create emotional connections” with donors and potential supporters.

This includes using personal narratives in charity storytelling and focusing on campaigns that are enjoyable for supporters, including greater use of gaming for good.

Meanwhile, academics Patricia Lockwood and Jo Cutler told Psychology Today about the key motivations for giving. This includes caring about others, wanting to have a positive impact and not wanting others to feel bad or have negative experiences.

Research by the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy found that understanding personal links to good causes is key to retaining donors.

This can include the donor also being a volunteer, whereby they see the value of charity work first hand. Or it could be through a family connection, perhaps with a charity playing a valuable role in helping a relative.

Though charities already gather information about donors’ interests and motives, the Institute advises they should take this one step further by looking closely at donors’ connection to a good cause and how this motivates their giving.

Attention to the use of colour in branding across platforms can also trigger emotional responses, according to research published by marketing agency Reboot.

Among the more than 2,600 consumers surveyed, a consistent use of colour increased brand recognition by 80%, it found.

Use of colour also increases donors’ emotional response, for example red can convey power, energy, and strength, while blue can convey trust, loyalty, and logic. Meanwhile, orange can be seen as an adventurous and warm colour, while pink conveys imagination.