Concept
Unit Asking
fundraising framing budgets
When requesting a large sum of money — a budget, a bulk donation — asking the decision-maker to first consider the cost of a single unit within that total (one flight, one hotel stay, one beneficiary's need), before revealing or working up to the full request, produces a higher final estimate or donation than presenting the total figure directly.
Example: a transport manager requesting an annual travel budget could ask directly for £2.5 million, or instead ask the finance officer to estimate the cost of a single flight or hotel stay and build up from there — the latter approach tends to produce a higher final budget estimate than simply stating the total up front.
Founding research: behavioral economist Christopher See found that charitable appeals asking for a large sum for a group (e.g. "$5 million for the people of Ukraine") raised less than appeals that first asked donors to estimate how much a single individual within that group might need (e.g. "how much do you think a single Ukrainian student might need?"). Donors prompted to consider one individual's needs gave nearly twice as much as donors simply asked to contribute to the overall campaign (see See Unit-Asking Ukraine Donation Study).
Discussed in
- Episode 214 — 214-17-persuasion-tactics-in-28-minutes