Lead With Hope: What Inside Out Teaches Fundraisers

Combines two earlier LinkedIn posts: “Fear and Happiness in fundraising” (February 23, 2015) and “What your charity can learn from ‘Inside Out'” (July 20, 2015)

Updated September 2026

My daughter was almost four when the first Inside Out came out. She saw it twice in theatres. I think I got more out of it than she did.

The film follows Riley, a young girl, and the emotions at the control panel in her head – Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. Early on, one emotion takes the controls at a time. As Riley grows up, her emotions learn to work together, and her feelings become richer and more complex.

In Inside Out 2, Riley is a teenager and new emotions arrive. The loudest is Anxiety, who tries so hard to prepare Riley for everything that could go wrong that she nearly loses herself.

Your donors know that feeling well.

Your donors are already anxious

Think about what reaches your donors in a typical week: rising costs, worrying headlines, job uncertainty, bills that keep climbing. Then your letter arrives. If it adds one more reason to be afraid, you’re asking Anxiety to write the cheque.

Sometimes that works, once. Research by Deborah Small and Nicole Verrochi found that sad faces in charity ads raised sympathy and giving. Fear and sadness are real, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.

But a gift given out of fear is fragile. If every donation is all that stands between a family and disaster, what happens when a donor’s neighbour doesn’t give? The picture starts to feel hopeless, and people drift toward causes that show them progress.

Giving also makes people happier. Elizabeth Dunn, Lara Aknin and Michael Norton found that spending money on others raised people’s happiness more than spending on themselves – and later work showed the effect can build on itself: giving makes people happier, and happier people are more likely to give again. That’s a relationship worth building.

Give donors the whole arc

People take in stories through a dramatic arc. You can use every emotion along the way:

1. The opening shows the need clearly. Some fear, anger or sadness belongs here – the situation is real.
2. The middle connects the reader to the people and the work. Emotions mix, the way they do for Riley.
3. The ending lands on Joy: what’s already changed and what their gift makes possible next.

Joy puts the hard parts in context. “With your help, we can do this” is a message anchored in the reduction of fear.

Five ways to lead with hope

1. Always thank your donor. They’re part of a community already doing remarkable things. Tell them so.
2. Tell the story of someone you’ve already helped. “The Millers needed us, and with your help we were there. Thank you. Families like the Millers are counting on us this winter. Please give today.”
3. Ask politely. You can share hard truths and striking numbers and still say please.
4. Choose your words carefully. “With your help, 62% of patients now survive” and “thousands will die” describe the same reality. Donors feel them very differently.
5. Tell stories with dignity. The people in your stories are whole people. Share their stories with consent, in their own words where possible, and show their strength along with their struggle.

Tell dark stories when they’re relevant. Just don’t let the darkness be the whole story. Your charity earns support because of the good work it does.

Try this

Pull your last appeal letter. Highlight every sentence that creates fear in one colour and every sentence that creates hope in another. If the last colour on the page isn’t hope, rewrite the ending.

Be well.

Sources

1. Deborah A. Small and Nicole M. Verrochi, “The Face of Need: Facial Emotion Expression on Charity Advertisements,” Journal of Marketing Research 46 (2009)
2. Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin and Michael I. Norton, “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness,” Science 319 (2008)
3. Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Michael I. Norton, “Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion: Evidence for a Positive Feedback Loop between Prosocial Spending and Happiness,” Journal of Happiness Studies 13 (2012)