Some of the best types of advertising draws on fear. For example, take magician Curt Anderson. Here’s a guy that gets tied up in a strait jacket, raised 70 feet in the air while upside down, and has to escape. See video here.  Or entertainer Dan Meyer who swallows red hot swords on The History Channel (see this video here).  These two entertainers defy death, defy heights, and so on.  They use these stunts and the fears we all have to draw the viewer in.  It actually makes people want to come and see their shows!

Clever non-profit marketing  can do the same thing.  Instead of celebrating the benefits of giving to your organization, you can highlight the fears.  Take for example, the Nissan Leaf commercial showing what life might be like if everything ran on gas.  It’s dirty, grungy, and nasty.  You can see the pollution in the air.  It’s really disgusting as they highlight things like the water cooler being used to hold gasoline or the dentist tool which would go in your mouth. It’s disgusting and truly exaggerates every possible item we could make run on gas.  But it hits you right where you need to be hit. Its a great motivator and my bet is it’s going to work to convince people to pay the extra $10,000 for an electric vehicle.

So what is the fear involved with your cause?  What if you didn’t do what you do?  What if no one did?  Are you feeding children in the third world?  Are you providing legal protection for those that can’t afford it?  Are you trying to support the Arts?  What is the fear you can target that would impact current and new donors that would motivate them to give?  Can you capture this idea on video?  Can you capture it in pictures?  In your graphic design?  Can you make it motivating?  Convincing?