Dear Kim:
My organization is in the middle of our spring campaign and each staff and board member has committed to reaching individual goals.  I was close to reaching my goal last week and entered some “offline” donations to my fundraising page. Then I remembered that I had just sent out a couple of email asks, and didn’t want to dissuade people from giving if they saw that I was at or over my goal. So I upped my goal by $500. Does any of this matter? What’s the psychology behind this? Are people more or less likely to give if you’re way behind, almost at or over your goal?

May be over thinking this,

~Close to goal

Dear Thinking:

The psychology of this is very similar to a ball game:  When are you most excited?  Most of us would say when our team is either a little ahead or a little behind, but there is time to catch up.
The difference between your fundraising campaign and a ball game is that people probably aren’t paying nearly as much attention to the goal as they would be if they were watching a game. They are mostly thinking about whether they have the money, and, if yes, whether they want to give to you.  I think it is OK that you upped your goal, but I probably would have just sent a follow up e-mail to these people saying, “Great news—I reached my goal, and now you can help me go over it.” You could also explain that everyone has an individual goal, which added together equals the organization’s goal and you all haven’t quite reached that yet.

Good luck!

~Kim Klein