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The Power of PersuasionPutting the science of influence to work in fundraising

In 1981, Garrison Keillor, the popular host of Minnesota Public Radio’s satirical “A Prairie Home Companion,” offered listeners a free poster of his mythical sponsor’s “Powdermilk Biscuits.” To everyone’s surprise, more than 50,000 requests poured in; the station faced a $60,000 printing bill. To avert “financial disaster,” as MPR president William Kling later recalled, the station used the back of the poster to advertise products for sale, such as a Powdermilk Biscuits T-shirt. The idea worked. “I think we netted off that poster, which was really our first catalog, $15,000 or $20,000,” Kling said. “It instantly became clear that there were things like that you could do.”1

“Growing up was not so easy,” Alicia Erika Genisca told attendants of the Steppingstone Foundation’s 2004 fundraising gala. “My mother is a single parent, and at the time, she often worked two jobs just to put spaghetti and hot dogs on the table. She did all this while also attending college part time. But my mom saw the potential in me to excel beyond my surroundings.”

the Steppingstone Academy has shepherded underserved children in the Boston area from playground to capand- gown at top college preparatory schools, and then on to quality fouryear colleges. After completing Steppingstone’s 14-month-long academic program for elementary school students in 1993, Genisca went on to earn diplomas from Thayer Academy (Braintree, Mass.) in 1999 and from Johns Hopkins University in 2003. If her academic history is any indication, Genisca will march to “Pomp and Circumstance” once more in 2008, when she is slated to receive her M.D. from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

A United Way affiliate has boosted its fundraising by breaking the rules

A Bold Idea Takes ShapeCorporate Cornerstones resulted from a fact-finding project that UWCNM launched in 1997. The project’s mission was to find out why people object to donating to charities in general, and to the United Way in particular. The agency found that two concerns top donors’ lists: nonprofits might use part of the gift to cover administrative costs, and donors might have no say in who benefits from the remainder of their pledge