Listen on iTunes, Spotify, or stream in your browser.

In today’s episode, the tables turn. Our host and Co-Founder Trevor Bragdon is interviewed by fellow Co-Founder and brother, Tarren Bragdon. Trevor shares how he discovered the power of Behavioral Science and how he has taught nonprofit CEOs to implement it in their strategy for powerful fundraising results. 

Show Notes:

What is Behavioral Science?

Trevor explains behavioral science is the study of how people make decisions and take action. It’s informed by different disciplines including psychology, sociology, economics, and neuroscience.

A campaign loss in a special election sparked his curiosity about behavioral science. By searching to understand why they failed, he found a YouTube video about researched, studied, and tested ways to improve voter turnout. He decided to do a deep dive into the science behind it all and created an e-book for his consulting clients. Within a year, he was working on a multi-million, multi-state project focused on how to get voters to turn out for elections.

7:31 “What was fascinating was that we learned how people are more afraid to make the wrong decision than they are to make a decision when it comes to voting.”

This experience pushed him to enroll in the London School of Economics for an Executive Masters in Behavioral Science.

Applying Behavioral Science to Nonprofits

From his experience consulting with nonprofits, Trevor realized behavioral science could benefit nonprofit leaders by helping them:

1. Be overconfident. This is an important part of being a leader and CEO of a nonprofit when it comes to the areas you can affect. 

2. Reject imposter syndrome. It’s not as rare as you may think. Most leaders struggle with it.

3. Place yourself in your donors’ shoes by becoming a donor yourself. This will allow you to understand what it’s like to have skin in the game and be a better CEO.

4. Alter the environment in which decisions are made. This may be the difference between the success and failure of your team.

5. Practice your pitch and presentations with people outside your industry. This will help to identify gaps in understanding and to simplify the complex.

6. Don’t be dismissive - be curious. 

28:33 “If you help people understand something so they feel smarter… you’re both doing them a service, because they are learning something that they can go re-explain, but you’re also showing them that you understand something that is complex but can explain it in an easy to understand way.”

How Behavioral Science Can Set Your Fundraising Approach Apart

Science shows you only retain about 15% of what you learn in one setting. This means you forget 85%! Trevor saw this play out in the early 7-Figure Fundraising workshops and set out to fix it.

34:30 “It’s like a coat hook on a wall. If it’s a bunch of new information, you have to give people places to go hang that information in an order that makes sense. Analogies work really well for that and we found one that worked really well and then when we tested it afterwards, people retained that information so much better.”

This happens to your donors too. 

Make sure you are communicating and repeating messages that matter to your donors. During meetings, presentations, or pitches, try framing your content with a focus question. This primes your audience to listen and be open to the content you’re sharing. 

Trevor recommends reading “Alchemy” by Rory Sutherland for a deeper understanding.

39:45 “It’s not like this is magic, it’s just a different set of tools you’re bringing to the problem. So, if everyone is bringing the same tools to the problem, you’re going to have similar solutions, but if you have a different tool box, you can make a lot of change.”