The Fresh Start Effect

You’ve probably set some New Year’s resolutions. And you might even have broken some already. Why do we start the new year with resolutions? Not only are we biased to do it, but the effect may help you attract new donors.

Researchers call it the “fresh start” effect.?They found that ?landmarks that signal the passage of time, whether calendar-based (e.g., beginning of a new week, month, year) or personal (e.g., birthday, holiday), are significant. They are the starts of our mental accounting periods (financial and otherwise), so they are the time money is most flexible. Most significantly, we distance ourselves from the person we were before the landmark.

Let’s stipulate for the record that this only works inside our minds. It doesn’t really work to tell the judge that the person who rode the horse naked (you are naked in this scenario, although I doubt the horse is abundantly clothed) down the Las Vegas Strip was the past you; she’s still going to make the present you pay for those crimes. But there’s more of a clean mental slate to work with.

This has implications for your ask. It may be the time of the year when people are most pliable in changing how they give. Specific asks—membership, recurring donations, planned giving—will work better when someone looks at their year, month, week, or life with a blank slate. You can even reference this in your asking, priming the donor to be more accepting of something, summoning up the new year, new you logic.

As importantly, you can use this logic to help create the change you want in your organization. You couldn’t invest in acquisition in 2022 as you wanted, but it’s a new year: maybe your bosses will be more amenable as they look to make changes with a newly pliable mindset.

So here’s hoping that 2023 is excellent for you and your organization’s fundraising efforts.