If you’re in charge of soliciting donations for a charity, you may want to consider this:
The researchers sent letters to more than 12,000 alumni asking them to donate to [Harvard University].
The letters started with one of two sets of words to appeal for their support: “Sometimes, one person needs to come forward and take individual action” or “Sometimes, one community needs to come forward and support a common goal”.
Among the 4 per cent who donated, those who received the message that focused on individual action gave an average of $432. In contrast, those who got the more community-minded appeal contributed $270 on average (PLoS One, doi.org/cx4m).
Thus demonstrating the power of individual marketing. It’d be even more interesting to characterize a collection of schools based on the strength of the various academic departments, and then repeat the above study on each school. How the results vary across schools might be instructive.
