Here's an error a lot of us make: Making large numbers the heart of a fundraising ask.
In this case the Who Cares Campaign (raising funds to increase the number of medical professionals in Tanzania) builds the entire case on the facts that Tanzania is badly undersupplied with medical professionals:
When you throw a bunch of numbers out, you require you audience to build the connection between the numbers and their human impact. That seldom works, because:
- Most people don't have the personal experience to make the connection between the abstraction of large numbers and the human impact.
- Even when they can make the connection, they don't go to the trouble.
But it's even worse than that. The larger the number, the less compassion it stirs. That's not logical. It's not even fair. It's just the way the human mind works. Ignoring that is like constructing a building while ignoring gravity. Doesn't work.
I'm no expert on the subject, but I'll make some guesses about the situation in Tanzania that the Who Cares Campaign aims to change:
- People are dying needlessly, pointlessly, of things like treatable infections.
- Mothers are dying in childbirth, and/or their babies are dying.
- Young children and the elderly are the ones who suffer most.
- Outbreaks of easily treatable diseases can spread uncontrollably in underserved areas, causing preventable suffering and death.
Those are the stories they need to tell if they want a lot of people to join the cause.
