Consumers Are Rethinking Donations. Is Your Nonprofit Rethinking the Ask?
A revealing experiment from LAist suggests people may be more willing to support a mission when organizations give them more than one way to say yes.
What if the problem isn’t that people no longer care?
What if they simply don’t want to be asked to care in the same old way?
For decades, nonprofits have relied on a familiar formula: explain the need, make the case for the mission and ask for a donation.
That formula isn’t disappearing. People still give generously to organizations and causes they believe in. But the line between donor, member, customer and participant is becoming less distinct, and nonprofits that continue to offer only one way to engage may be leaving relationships, revenue and long-term support on the table.
A recent Nieman Lab case study from LAist offers a fascinating glimpse into this changing behavior.
LAist, a nonprofit newsroom supported through a public-media membership model, asked a question that most nonprofits rarely say out loud:
What would happen if we asked our audience to buy something instead of asking them to donate?
The answer should get the attention of every nonprofit leader.
They didn’t put the mission behind a paywall
LAist’s Voter Game Plan is a free, nonpartisan election guide that attracts more than a million users during an election cycle.
The organization’s research revealed something important about those digital readers: many already paid for news from publications such as The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, but they did not have a history of donating to LAist.
They understood a transaction. They did not necessarily see themselves as donors.
Instead of trying to persuade those readers to adopt the traditional public-radio giving model, LAist tested a different kind of relationship.
The essential voter guides remained free. But LAist added a $7 premium layer called Voter Game Plan+, which included convenience tools that allowed readers to save their choices and compare their views with candidates.
LAist wasn’t asking people to save journalism. It was offering them something useful. And people bought it. The organization set a stretch goal of 1,000 purchases. It received 1,675. Of the people who visited the Voter Game Plan+ marketing page, 8.4% completed a purchase.
More revealing was who purchased it. Two-thirds of the buyers were not current LAist members. Nearly 900 had never previously given LAist a dollar—or even an email address. After making their purchase, 34 went on to become full members.
These people weren’t necessarily opposed to supporting a nonprofit. They simply entered the relationship through a different door.
The “Donate” button may be asking for too much, too soon
Nonprofits often divide the world into two groups: donors and non-donors. But there is an enormous, largely unexplored space between those two categories.
Someone may not be ready to make a charitable contribution, but they may be willing to register for an event, subscribe to a useful newsletter, buy a mission-related product, attend a workshop, download a guide or pay for a valuable experience.
That action may not look like philanthropy. But it can be the beginning of a relationship that eventually becomes philanthropic. The mistake is asking for the deepest commitment before earning the smallest one.
An anonymous website visitor rarely becomes a sustaining donor in a single click. More often, that person moves through a series of smaller decisions:
They discover you, find something useful,share their email, return,attend, subscribe or buy. They begin to understand your organization and eventually see its value. Then they support the larger mission.
LAist describes this as a ladder. An anonymous reader becomes a known email address. That person becomes a logged-in reader, a newsletter subscriber or a one-time buyer. Over time, with the right communication, that relationship can develop into recurring membership.
By creating that ladder, LAist turned what had once been temporary website traffic into an audience it could recognize, understand and continue to engage.
Sometimes the relationship matters more than the transaction
Another example cited in the Nieman Lab article approached the same question from the opposite direction.
The nonprofit Salt Lake Tribune removed its paywall and made its journalism free. In doing so, it risked approximately $2.6 million in subscription revenue.
Before making the change, the Tribune tested what would happen if subscribers were told they could receive the news for free. Remarkably, 87% chose to continue paying, this time as donors.
They weren’t paying only to gain access to an article. Many were paying because they believed in the civic value of the organization and wanted it to continue.
LAist discovered that non-donors would pay for something useful. The Salt Lake Tribune discovered that subscribers would continue paying even when the transaction was no longer necessary. Different models. Same underlying lesson.
People will pay for value they can feel and relationships they believe in.
The problem is not always the amount being requested. Sometimes it is the confusion created when an organization mixes a commercial transaction and a philanthropic appeal without clearly explaining either one.
A purchase says, “You will receive something of value.” A donation says, “You are helping create value for someone else.” Both are legitimate. Both can exist within the same organization. But they are different promises—and each deserves its own message.
Your audience may be ready to support you in ways you haven’t considered
This doesn’t mean every nonprofit should start selling merchandise or put its most important resources behind a paywall. The goal is not to commercialize compassion. It is not to turn every interaction into a transaction. Essential information and services should remain accessible, particularly when access is central to the mission. The opportunity is to identify additional value that can be placed around the mission.
A museum might offer curator-led virtual tours, artist workshops or special previews. An environmental organization might provide a practical home-action plan, professional training or a certification program. A community nonprofit might create a neighborhood resource guide, research report, seminar or local event.
An association might offer benchmarking data, specialized education or premium tools. A nonprofit newsroom can keep the essential reporting free while charging for personalization, convenience, deeper analysis or live experiences.
The offering does not have to be elaborate. It has to be useful, distinctive and closely connected to the reason people already turn to your organization.
Your first goal may not be a donation
One of the most important results from LAist’s experiment had nothing to do with the $7 purchase. By requiring free registration to access its voter guides, LAist collected more than 58,000 new email addresses in less than a month. More than 48,000 people subscribed to its election newsletter. After a comparable election period in 2024, the organization had added only about 4,000 newsletter subscribers.
Those new contacts became people LAist could communicate with again—rather than anonymous visitors who arrived, consumed the information and disappeared.
Earlier in the experiment, LAist had collected more than 12,000 email addresses in its first month, 80% of which belonged to people who had no record as an existing donor or subscriber. As the program expanded, registered readers spent more time on the site and viewed more pages than the overall audience.
For many nonprofits, an email address connected to a genuine interest may be more valuable than an isolated, one-time gift. That email creates the opportunity to build familiarity, demonstrate impact and earn trust. It gives the organization time to deepen the relationship rather than forcing an immediate donation decision.
This is becoming even more important as search engines, AI summaries and social platforms increasingly stand between organizations and their audiences. Nonprofits can no longer assume that someone who discovers them once will find their way back.
They need direct relationships.
A better question for nonprofit leaders
Instead of asking only, “How do we get more donations?”, consider asking:
What does our audience already come to us for?
Where are people showing the greatest interest or intent?
What knowledge, access, experience, convenience or utility could we offer them?
What is the easiest meaningful first step someone can take with us?
How could that first step lead naturally to a deeper relationship?
Your answers may reveal that some future donors will begin as buyers. Others will begin as newsletter readers, volunteers, event attendees or members. Some people will gladly donate without receiving anything in return—but only after they have experienced enough of your work to understand why it matters.
Your job is not to force everyone through the same door.
Your job is to create more meaningful doors.
Consumers are not necessarily turning away from generosity. They are becoming more thoughtful about what they support, how they participate and what kind of relationship they want with an organization.
The nonprofits that grow will not simply be the ones that ask more often. They will be the ones that give people more meaningful ways to say yes.
If you’d like to learn more about new ways to engage your audience, let’s talk: https://calendly.com/renee-9pc/30min?month=2026-08 We can explore where people are already showing interest and how your organization can turn that interest into participation, connection and lasting support.
