Electrifying Your Fundraising Copy

I've got a crazy couple of weeks ahead of me, so I thought I'd revisit some old posts. This first appeared last June as part of my Week of Tips for Writing Successful Fundraising Letters. I hope you find it helpful.

IDoes your copy jump out, begging -- screaming -- to be read? Especially at year-end, it's challenging to make your letter stand out from the hundreds of other appeals for giving that your donors are receiving. If you want to compete with the deluge of mail people are receiving, you need to electrify your copy. One of the easiest ways to create electric fundraising copy: 

Make your strongest copy stand out.

When you're writing a fundraising letter or other fundraising or marketing copy, there are some ideas you want to really it people over the head with. So you shine a spotlight on them.

You can see I used bold up above. I wanted you to know what I was talking about, even if you're just skimming the copy. Caught your eye, didn't I?

If you're writing on the Web, try highlighting words in color. But be careful! If you go too light, you'll make your copy harder to read and risk having people skip over the thing you thought was so important.

Pick up any fundraising letter, and you're bound to see a lot of underlined copy. This, too, draws your eye and forces it to pay attention. I always like to underline the Ask, and any particularly outrageous statistics or compelling arguments get that treatment, as well.

Some copywriters use italics for additional emphasis. I like to use them to highlight any quotes. Since quotes lend authority to my arguments, I want to make sure readers see them.

Really want people to sit up and take notice? Try handwritten notes and underlines. Not too many, or your copy will become cluttered and look like a scrap of paper you pulled off the Executive Director's desk. But judicious use of handwriting (or a handwriting font) can draw the eye.

Once you've finished your copy, go back and look over your emphasis. Sometimes, those ideas that you want to highlight change as you refine your copy. So double-check them. Are you using enough underlines? Too much bold? And most important: are the phrases that jump out at you really the ones you want people to see?

Do you have a favorite way to electrify your fundraising letters? Post it in the comments section below.

A Direct Mailer's Dream

This may be the most perfect piece of furniture I've ever seen for a direct mailer (and a lover of turquoise). I could finally organize my samples!

Case Study #1: The Importance of Urgency

It’s easy to get so caught up in doing the work of getting your direct mail out the door, that you forget to sit down – with your entire team, creative people, numbers people, even program people – and examine the results of your efforts.

 

As a creative consultant, I’ll take writing over numbers-crunching any day of the week. But I don’t let myself off the hook because I know that taking a close look at those numbers can give me critical feedback about the direct mail I write.

Welcome to Case Study #1: The Importance of Urgency

One of my smaller clients is a regional educational institution. They mail 5 appeals a year to an average audience of 17,000. Response is fair, with appeals netting an average of $7,000.

Some of the mailings, of course, are blockbusters, netting twice that amount, while others fall far short of the average. And generally, the whole team can anticipate how any given appeal will do by looking at how a theme historically performs, how the time of year affects giving, and a host of other smaller factors.

(This is where having a good numbers person on your team can be such an advantage. I can only ballpark, but a numbers guru can spin magical calculations that can provide you with invaluable information!)

A few weeks ago, we sat down and looked at the previous year’s appeal results. We were surprised to discover that while overall, the appeals had performed better than in previous years, one mailing in particular had performed 84% less than average.

I was shocked. The theme was a touching one, the letter was packed with vivid imagery, and the package included the donor directly (i.e./it had plenty of “you” and “your” statements). But upon re-reading the copy, and comparing it to the other packages we’d mailed last year, I realized there was one critical element missing: the urgency.

We were asking for an ongoing program, one that was scheduled six months out. Yes, it was a fantastic and moving initiative. And yes, it desperately needed funding. But there wasn’t an urgency to the need.

I took that lesson and applied it to the next appeal – which ended up being the best appeal of the year.

Actually, I guess there are two lessons here: the one about urgency, of course. And another about failure. Look closely at those mailings that fail. They could tell you something crucial about your audience and lead you, ultimately, to greater success.

How often do you look at numbers? What have you discovered? I'd love to hear below!

Making Your Mail Work for You -- The Letter

I’ve already written quite a bit on the blog about how to write various direct mail letters, including Acquisition/Prospecting, Renewal, Appeal and Acknowledgement letters. But today, I want to take a moment to remind you to always consider the ultimate purposes of each letter you send out.

What’s that? There’s more than one purpose?

Depending on the type of letter, you may want to:

• Ask for money. Not all letters that you send to your donors will – or should – have an overt ask for money, but many will. So make sure you call attention to that ask. Highlight it by indenting the paragraph, underlining the ask, or bolding the type.
• Thank your donor! Every letter should include a show of gratitude – for their loyalty, their generosity, and their steadfast support.
• Educate and inform your donor about your issues, your organization or the people that you help. Your donors want to know where their money is going, so put that in your letters. Tell them what you’re accomplishing with their help, let them know about new issues that have arisen since you wrote them last, tell them how they can do more.
• Reaffirm your story. Each time you write to your donor, you want to tell them your story. Remind them why they gave to you in the first place. (And if you don’t have a story yet, get one!)
• Introduce key players. Are you getting a new executive director? Has a prominent celebrity thrown his or her weight behind your cause? Mention that in your letter.
• Hail your victories and cite the battles still to come. Letting your donors know about the victories you’ve won is another way to let them see what they help you accomplish. And telling them about the fights ahead reminds them why it’s so important to keep giving.

You may be wondering just how many people read every magic word of prose you put in these letters. Well, probably not many. Certainly not everyone. So focus on the things you know they’ll look at.

The Johnson Box and the PS nearly always get read, so make sure those two parts of your letter really shine. No Johnson Box? That first paragraph better be a grabber. If you can afford it, personalize your letter. Everyone likes to see their name, and if you get them to read the salutation, they just might keep on reading.

If there are critical points within the body copy of your letter that you want your donors to read, make sure to catch their eyes. Print a paragraph in color, if you can. Try a handwritten note, gripping headlines, bolding, underlines or italics…anything to make those important parts stand out. But do make sure they are important. You’ll lose credibility with your donors if you call their attention to boring copy!

Most importantly, your letter is there to bond your donor to your organization…and to point them to the next component, the Reply Form.

Making Your Mail Work for You -- The OE

Most nonprofit direct mail packages are fairly simple: an outer envelope, a letter, a reply form and a reply envelope. Four components.

Sure, you may include an insert of some kind, maybe a decal or other front-end premium. Or perhaps you print your letter and a detachable reply on one sheet of paper. But the essentials are the same. And each of those components must work for you.

For the next few posts, I’m going to talk about what each of these components does for your mailing. Yes, each one has a purpose beyond the obvious. Curious?

First up: Outer Envelopes.

The Outer Envelope – or OE – is, arguably, your most important element, at least to start with. Nothing’s going to happen unless you get the outer envelope open. So the words, type, pictures and other design elements you put on your outer envelope need to aim for one thing: getting the recipient to open their mail.

Here are a few things you might find on a typical non-profit mailing’s Outer Envelope:

Name

This can be the organization name, the name of the letter signer or both. But you should make sure some name appears on the OE. People don’t want to open mail if they don’t know who sent it. Besides, these are supposed to be personal letters from the signer to the donor.

Address

I always advise clients to put their actual, physical address on the back flap. Again, since it’s a personal letter, your donors want to see where it’s coming from. And while you may get your mail at a PO box, a street address gives them something more concrete.

Teasers

As I mentioned last week, a lot of direct mail and fundraising professionals will tell you that teasers are old-fashioned and scream “direct mail”. Maybe it’s because I work primarily with activist organizations, but my experience has been that a strong, intriguing teaser will still beat out a blank outer envelope much of the time.

But if you can’t come up with a strong, intriguing teaser, go blank. A blank envelope will almost always beat a bad teaser. (And try mailing a blank closed-face envelope for an even better open-rate. Nothing says personal mail like a closed OE.)

Photos and Other Graphic Elements

We all know that a picture’s worth a thousand words…so why not include one on your OE? Photos and sophisticated graphics have become increasingly common on OEs in the last few years, as design software has become more accessible and printing costs have come down enough to make graphics affordable.

But remember, you want people to OPEN the envelope, so make sure your photo (or graphics) are intriguing, compelling and emotionally resonant. Don’t scare your donors by using something too graphic or unpleasant.

Above all, tailor your outer envelope to your mailing…and test, test, test. The OE’s sole job is to get opened -- so make sure you test different techniques to see which approach gets the best response from your select group of enthusiastic supporters. While one organization or mailing theme can use photos and splashy teasers, another will need to go subtle and sedate. The only thing that matters is that you get your donor moving on to the components on the inside of the package.

Next up: The Letter.

What Makes a Good Teaser...and Do They Really Work?

I see many people saying teasers are old-school and scream “direct mail”. Often, that's true. But that doesn't mean you can breathe a sigh of relief and ignore the teaser-writing portion of your mailing campaign. Direct mail, like most things, is cyclical, and while the current wisdom is that a blank envelope beats a teasered one, that may change.

And in my experience, a strong, intriguing teaser can beat out a blank outer envelope.

That said, it’s not easy to write a strong, intriguing teaser. Like writing good headlines, or coming up with a killer title for your book, writing teasers is an art.

What’s in a Teaser?

Your teaser should sum up the essence of your package without “giving away the store.” Imagine receiving an envelope in the mail that said, “Here is a letter with a really sad story that will also ask you for money.” Would you open it? Or would you toss it in the recycling without a second thought?

A teaser that tells the donor too much about what’s inside won’t get the envelope opened – and if your donor doesn’t open the envelope, they’re probably not going to respond to that piece of mail. Likewise, a teaser that is too up front about the ask inside the package probably won’t be effective, either.

Donors want to hear your story before you ask them for money. If you make your case compellingly – in your teaser, in the letter, and on the reply form – they will be excited to give.

So, ideally, your teaser will generate an emotional response, and make your donor ask some key questions – questions that you’ve answered in the letter inside the envelope.

How Can I Write a Good Teaser?

Spend some time with this task. Don’t just relegate it to the last five minutes before you send your instructions to the designer. Sit down with your letter copy, a notepad and a pen. Pull out a few key phrases from your letter – a call to action, a particularly outrageous or heart-warming quote, a moving story. See if you can re-work them slightly to make an energetic and impassioned teaser.

Run it by other people – those who have read your letter, and those who haven’t. Ask them if it makes them want to know more. For those that have read the letter, ask them if you’ve answered the questions raised by the teaser in your letter.

Also consider a small over-window teaser that calls attention to the donor’s name. Donors love to see their name, so anything you can do to highlight it – in a positive way! – will help your fundraising. Try “Special Report Prepared for:” or “Time-Sensitive Material enclosed for:” or another appropriate variation.

What If It’s Just Not Working?

With some letters, coming up with a fantastic teaser is going to be a near-impossible task. If that happens, it might be time to re-think your approach.

Perhaps this hard-to-tease mailing deserves a more personalized approach, with the name of the letter-signer in the cornercard (where you write your return address when you’re sending someone a letter) and no teaser at all. Use a closed envelope, if you can afford it, for a personal touch…and often an even better open-rate.

If you can afford it, TEST a Teaser vs. No Teaser envelope. Test it more than once. If you're getting consistent results, you can probably choose a direction and go with it. But you'll want to test it again next year because you never know when the trends will change!

How do you feel about teasers? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Tell me below!

Five Ways to Use Your Celebrity Supporters

Yesterday, the always interesting Michael Chatman raised this question on Twitter: Does celebrity participation in a non-profit charity influence you to donate money? Or, is their participation overrated?



I answered Michael's question briefly on Twitter, saying that I think their participation is mostly overrated, but can be very useful in targeted efforts, like in a high-dollar giving club.


But I wanted to take some time to expand my thoughts. Because a lot of organizations I've worked with have celebrity supporters and allies, and how best to leverage their support has come up in nearly every strategy meeting I've ever attended. 


First, a "celebrity" isn't just a famous actor or musician. It can be anyone related to your specific community who has name recognition and credibility. For a health-related nonprofit, that might be a super-star physician, for a science advocacy group, a former astronaut or Nobel Prize-winner. For fundraising purposes, a "celebrity" is anyone your supporters will recognize and relate to.


Five Ways to Use Your Celebrity Supporters

1. Ask them to be the Chair (or Honorary Chair) of a specific Membership group, probably a high-dollar giving group. This can involve anything from simply signing fundraising materials directed at the group, to taking a more active role, depending on their interests, time and level of commitment.
2. Ask them to sign a Prospecting Letter or a Lift Letter in your Acquisition package. NRDC and Friends of the Earth both use celebrity signers -- actors known for their environmental passions -- in their acquisition packages to great success. 
3. Ask them to make a video expressing why they support your organization and asking others to do the same. You can post this on the Web or send it in your e-mail newsletter as an extra endorsement for what you do.
4. Ask them to host (even in an honorary capacity) a major special event. A good name will draw more people to your event, and their participation can lend a "stamp of approval" that inspires others to give.
5. Present them with an award at a major special event. An alternative to asking them to host, this technique can also up attendance at your event. And it could be a first step to a more fruitful relationship with that celebrity, ensuring they help you more in the future.

There are, of course, some sticky issues with using celebrity supporters to assist in your fundraising. If your celebrity becomes embroiled in a scandal, for example, your association with them could hurt your organization more than help. And obviously, you should always treat these supporters with respect and gratitude. Don't push them to do more than they're comfortable doing, and don't take them for granted.

But if you have a loyal celebrity supporter or two who is willing to use their acclaim to call attention to your cause, and you target that attention in one of the ways listed above, you can give your fundraising a boost.

How does your organization harness the wattage of its celebrity supporters? Tell me below!

Writing for Activist Causes: A Call to Action

So for in this series Tips for Writing for Activist Organizations, I’ve talked about choosing a compelling issue and crafting a comprehensive strategy for addressing that issue. Today, I want to talk about the third component of successful activist copy: the Call to Action.

Unless you’ve been (understandably) shying away from the news lately, you’ve probably noticed there’s an election coming up. Last week, President Obama went on a base-rallying tour, hoping to galvanize Democrats into voting in the mid-term elections.

Amidst all of his talking points about the economy, health care and criticism of the Republicans, the President delivered a strong, to-the-point call to action: If you want to continue building the movement we started in 2008, vote for Democrats in November.

Obviously, I don’t know how well this call to action worked yet. But it does seem to be energizing at least a core group of Democrats and Obama supporters.

And that’s what activist organizations want to do when they're communicating with their donors. If you’re presenting your issue in a compelling manner, with a comprehensive strategy, your donors are going to be so excited about what you’re doing that they will be compelled to act immediately. And if you’re smart, you’ll drive that action.

• I love a good Petition or Postcard to the President, Congress, head of a corporation or other recognizable official-type person. They're easy for the donor -- simply sign and return -- and a great way for you to show those leaders how much support there is for your issue.
• A boycott, while harder to organize and follow through on, can also be extremely effective. Donors love knowing they're a part of a larger movement fighting for positive change. 
• Put your call to action in pledge form, so the donor has something to sign and return – hopefully, along with a check.
• Add a deadline -- nothing gets people moving faster than a time-limited offer.
• Offer a little something extra for their support. An issue-specific decal saying that the donor took action could provide that extra motivation to act -- and act now.

Even better, these are all actions you can hearken back to when you write your acknowledgements, telling the donors how many petitions you collected, the initial impact of their boycott, or a story about seeing your decal out in the world making a difference.

More questions about writing for an activist organization? Post them below, and I’ll answer next week!

Writing for Activist Causes: Strategy

Earlier this week, I started my Writing for Activist Organizations Series with instructions to choose a compelling issue and craft a strong message. Today, it’s time for Tip #2:

Present a Comprehensive Strategy 

Donors to activist organizations are passionate about making a difference. And they want to hear exactly how you’re going to use their contribution to make that difference.

One very effective technique I use is to pick 4-5 action items and highlight them in the letter, using bold headlines or bullet points to call attention to the fact that these paragraphs are important. They are telling the reader something he or she needs to know.

Do these have to be different for each and every issue? The short answer is “Nope.”

The truth is, you’re going to have a few tools you reach for again and again. For some activists it’s the OpEd – hard-hitting, informational pieces that get read widely. Other groups are great at throwing splashy demonstrations to call attention to their issues. Still others are, at heart, policy wonks, making changes from the inside that impact each and every one of us.

Whatever your tools are, tell your donors about them. Remind them over and over again…because chances are, your unique set of tools are a big part of what inspired those donors to give to you in the first place.

And be as specific as you can. Don’t just say you’ll have meetings with high-level officials. Tell them you’re meeting with the head of the EPA, or the Defense Minister of France. Publishing an OpEd in The New York Times? Tell them what it was about and, if possible, the impact it had.

One great bonus: thinking strategically for your donors can lead you to think more strategically for your own in-house efforts, too.

What strategies to you use in your activism? And how can you communicate those to your donors? Tell me about ‘em below.

Three Keys to Writing for Activist Causes

You’re a rabble-rouser. A go-getter, you don’t sit around and wait for the world to change…you’re out there making it happen. You’ve got a problem, a plan to solve it, and the skills to pull it off. You’re an activist organization.

I’ve spent the majority of my career writing for activist organizations, and there are distinct differences from a typical nonprofit. With activist organizations, it’s not enough to tell your story, acknowledge the donor’s importance, and make your ask. You’ve got to engage your donor in the cause you represent.

Choose a Compelling Issue and Craft a Strong Message.

First and foremost, activist organizations must have a compelling issue to mail on. Time and again, I’ve worked with activist organizations who try to bring in other, non-activist asks to their program, or who embrace an issue that is slightly out of their normal wheelhouse…only to have those mailings fall flat.

Stick to your core issues, the issues you know fire up your donors. If you’re an environmental organization dedicated to preserving wildlands in the Pacific Northwest, for example, stick to that topic.

Does that mean you can’t ever mail on Global Warming or dam removal? Absolutely not! Simply use your core issues as a framework for discussing broader topics and how they effect the things your donors care about.

Remember, they give to you because they believe in what you’re doing. When you send them a communication about something outside of your core mission, they a) probably won’t give and b) could even lose interest in your organization altogether.

So choose your theme well. And then craft that theme in the strongest language you can muster. State the problem you’re going to solve up front, use decisive, action-oriented verbs, avoid passive sentences…

…and check back later in the week for Tip #2!

Obstacles and Opportunities: Time and Effort

This week, I’m talking about knocking down those barriers we often put up that keep us from doing our best fundraising. Cost is usually the first reason I hear cited for not moving forward with a bold idea. But time and effort are right up there.

I just attended Wordstock, the Northwest's largest book and literary festival. Which is mounted by a paid staff of three.

Obviously, they didn't pull the whole thing off all on their own. But those three people coordinated board members, consultants, volunteers and committees, engaged teachers, drew writers, assembled literary panels and attended to the tremendous amount of detail required to create a weekend celebrating literary arts.

I’ve often watched people sit across from me in a meeting, rolling their eyes and crying, “That’s too much work!”

And quite often, they’re not wrong. I know the folks at Wordstock would certainly vouch for how much effort they had to expend over the last few months. When you’re working on a shoestring, with limited staff and old equipment, it can take a tremendous amount of work to accomplish almost anything.

One of my favorite quotes – something that sits on my desk as a reminder – is Nelson Mandela’s “It always seems impossible until it is done.”

So instead of moaning about the impossibility of the task, think instead about how you can break your project down into smaller, more doable tasks. Is there a way to ferret out new resources or forge new relationships to help make the project happen?

A big project is not an insurmountable task. It’s an opportunity to find new efficiencies, engage volunteers, uncover hidden talents, and build teamwork.

Got examples of people coming together to create something great, despite the hard work? I’d love to hear about it below!

Obstacles or Opportunities: Cost

Earlier this week, I talked about Hildy Gottlieb’s assertion that we can – and must – turn our obstacles into opportunities. And the number one obstacle for most nonprofits is cost.

 Yep, direct mail is expensive – and it gets more so every year. But according to the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving, most organizations “found that, on average, online revenue accounted for 5.7% of their overall fundraising revenue.” 

While that’s actually pretty good news – online giving continues to rise – your web efforts still have a ways to go before they become your go-to revenue source. You still need your direct mail programs, which in part drive donors to your online presence.  So instead of moaning about the cost, start looking at what you can do with that investment. You will, of course, raise money. You’ll also inform and engage your donors about your issues.

 

One of my favorite things to do is take a set of strict cost parameters and try to come up with the most effective package possible. How can we make a 2-page letter just as compelling and informative as the normal 4-pager? What envelope treatment is going to get more people to open it? Is there an action-item we can include to help motivate more people to give?

Look at cost constraints – or any constraints – as a framework from which to build your program. Like writing a haiku, the options, even when you’re limited by a lack of funds, are still almost endless.

I’d love to hear how your organization has overcome cost constraints to create a winning direct mail campaign. Comment below!

Obstacles or Opportunities?

When you sit down to make your fundraising plan, are you looking at the obstacles in front of you? The money you’ll need to spend, the limits of the medium, the staff and consultants you’ll need to corral into doing the work, the difficulty of coordinating it all?

 

Or are you looking at the task at hand and getting it done?

This post over at Wild Apricot has a video of Hildy Gottlieb, nonprofit consultant and author of The Pollyanna Principles: Reinventing "Nonprofit Organizations" to Create the Future of Our World,  talking about obstacles and challenges we bring into the room when we’re looking at the tasks before us. She urges people to take away those “negative stopping words” and look at barriers as “empty conditions” we must meet.

Your fundraising program is a complicated set of tasks full of conditions that must be met. Are you relying primarily on direct mail, personal solicitation, or online giving? Are you coordinating those efforts, or is each team working independently? How are your resources allocated – staffing and financial?  

All of these questions and your organization's specific conditions can be overwhelming to the point of paralysis, but it’s far more valuable to consider how you’re going to meet the requirements in front of you than to worry about all the reasons you can’t.

This week, I’m going to talk about three of the most common “barriers” clients throw at me when talking about their direct mail: cost, time and effort.

What are your barriers? What conditions are you working with? And how can you meet those conditions and be successful?

Five Great Fundraising Posts

In my ongoing effort to stay sharp, I spend a lot of time reading what other people have to say about direct mail fundraising. I love hearing others’ perspectives and discovering new ways to think about what I do. I wanted to share a few articles with you -- articles I wish I'd thought to write! -- that can help inspire and inform your fundraising.

Ever wondered why nonprofit direct mail packages look like they do? Here’s a helpful comparison of fundraising mail vs. other types of direct mail from Adams & Hussey. 

I’ve written about using emotion and passion in your fundraising before. But here’s a great article from Contributions Magazine that lays it all out for you. 

I wrote a whole series on appeal letters, but if you want another excellent summary of the things you need to address in your fundraising appeal, check out this article by Katya Andresen and Julie Stofer. 

I just blogged on why you should always remember to thank your donors, but here's another simple – but very effective – reminder of the importance of acknowledgements. 

I also really loved these tips from Karen Zapp on reviving a flagging direct mail program. 

What books, articles or sites inspire you? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section!

Mind Your Manners: Acknowledgements

Everybody talks about how important acknowledgements are. It seems to be generally understood that if someone is generous enough to give you a donation, the least you can do is thank them.

So why are so many organizations so bad at it?

I can’t tell you how many times a client has said to me, “But it’s so expensive to send a thank you letter for every gift!” Or even better, “But it’s so much work!”

I’m sorry, but I don’t accept that excuse from my 7-year-old, so I’m certainly not going to accept it from an organization I give money to.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you can’t afford NOT to send acknowledgements.

My old boss used to preach to all of her clients about the importance of including a reply envelope in acknowledgements, saying, “There’s no better time to get another gift from a donor than when they’re in the ‘rosy glow’ of having just given.”

But even if they don’t give again right away, your acknowledgement is a critical tool for future giving.

Done correctly, an acknowledgement does three things:

1. It thanks the donor for their support.
2. It tells the donor what that support has accomplished so far.
3. It tells the donor what their continued support can accomplish in the future.

Many of my current clients also put information about planned giving and sustainer programs into their acknowledgement letters, too. They’re great vehicles for getting the word out about other ways to give to the organization.

But however you thank them, make sure you do thank your donors. As Mal Warwick says, “If you run a responsive donor-acknowledgement program, you’ll gain a competitive advantage that will pay off in higher renewal rates and greater loyalty.”

And who doesn’t want higher renewal rates and greater loyalty?

Using Visuals in Your Mail

In honor of today's post, I'm going to try my hand at adding visuals to my blog. The results will probably be rough, as I'm still trying to figure out how best to use all this exciting new technology.

Which shows my age, I suppose. Here's another age-related confession: When I started out writing fundraising copy, the Internet was a fairly new phenomenon. My first copyediting job provided me with maybe (oh, fuzzy memory!) my second e-mail address.

When we put together direct mail packages, the proofs came to us via FedEx on stinky bluelines. The designs were by necessity simple, two-color and stuck as closely as possible to the old type-written letter model. We did occasionally try to add photos and other visual elements, only to have those mailings bomb.

My, how things have changed. More and more organizations are exploring the use of photos, sophisticated design and interesting package formats. It’s exciting and frees up a lot of creative restraints that have been in place for decades.

But are all those packages working?

There are a few simple rules you should follow if you want to use visuals effectively in your direct mail:

1. Choose your photos with care. Got a photo of your Executive Director shaking hands with the Pope? Save it for the Web. If you want to use photos in direct mail, they need to be evocative, emotional and representative of your mission.
2. Be mindful of what component you’re putting them on. Each component in your direct mail package serves its own purpose. Your outer envelope needs to get opened, so you want to use a picture that intrigues, that makes your donor ask, “What does this mean?” On your reply, though, you want to use a picture that pushes your ask.
3. Be mindful of what you’re mailing. A great photo for a special appeal might not be the best choice for an acknowledgement.
4. Don’t go crazy with your package design. Stick to more economical papers and traditional package formats. If it looks too slick, your donors are going to start wondering just where their money is going.

Above all, make sure you’re testing your image-heavy packages. Because, after all, what good is a pretty package if it’s not performing up to snuff?

And for a comparison of the different kinds of direct mail packages and why they look they way they do, check out this article from direct marketing firm Adams Hussey & Associates.

More questions or comments? Ask away in the comments section!

Integrating Diverse Missions

Education and advocacy. A special event and ongoing programs. Activism and conservation.

I work with several organizations that have two or more central missions that attract diverse audiences. Sometimes that's just how an organization is set up from the beginning. But often it's part of a group's natural growth.

• Perhaps a museum hums along for a few years, then starts developing arts education outreach programs that lead to a big arts festival.
• Or a conservation-focused group that decides to more actively combat environmental degradation.
• Or a hard-hitting advocacy group decides that part of their mission should be education and outreach about their issue.

Diversification can be great for an organization, injecting life and verve into the atmosphere and giving people a new excitement about your mission. But it can be hard on your fundraising.

How do you sell an organization that does several different things?

It's not an easy question to answer. Sometimes, if the two missions of your organization are sufficiently different -- and have sufficiently large audiences for each one -- you may want to set up two separate fundraising entities.

For example, I work with an advocacy group that set up an education wing. Their advocacy is hard-hitting, often controversial. But their education arm, while set up to further their overall mission, deals with fewer hot-button issues. Their audiences do have some overlap, but many of the advocacy supporters are uninterested in the education mission and vice versa. So they set up two separate fundraising organizations and are now raising money for each mission.

But other times, the missions are too closely intertwined, or the audiences simply too small for each one, for them to stand on their own. So you've got to integrate your asks.

Say you're an arts organization that holds a high-profile, once-a-year event, but spends the rest of the year on arts advocacy and education. Most of your supporters have come in through your event. That's how they discovered you, what they know about you, and why they support you.

Your job, as an organization is to get them excited about all of the other things they're helping you accomplish. Sure, they help put on your One Exciting Event, and you should thank them (and remind them of the magic they help create). But they also make possible X program for struggling artists in the community and Y program to bring arts education into public schools.

Tell them what these programs mean for the people they benefit. Do kids' faces light up when they've created their own piece of art? Did an artist complete an important work thanks to your support? Tell these stories to your donors and to those people you want to have as donors.

Then, use your appeal program to separate out your asks. You'll find out which of your programs are the biggest draws, and which you need to sell harder. You'll find out which of your donors are passionate about education, and which want to support starving artists.

All of which will help your bottom-line fundraising.

Does your organization have a diverse set of missions? How do you incorporate everything into your fundraising? Is it successful, or are there areas you could improve? Post away in the comments section...

Make it Personal

Direct mailer writers always talk about making our mail "personal". For us that means lots of "I, you, we", using a conversational tone, and, quite often, fudging the rules of grammar a bit.

But the other day, a couple of things happened that reminded me that there is another way to keep things personal -- something it's all too easy to forget in this day and age of social media connections and conducting business by e-mail.

First, I ran into an acquaintance who runs an arts organization. She was thrilled because her group had just been notified that they were the recipients of a big grant. I congratulated her, and she told me this story:

"You know, we thought for sure we were out of the running this year. The group giving the grant just announced they were eliminating arts funding! So when I got word, I immediately called them up to say 'thank you'. The man in charge of granting the awards told me that he had gone against the new policy specifically for us because he remembered meeting our Executive Director and having a great conversation with her at an unrelated event. Personal connections really do count!"

Do they ever.

A similar thing happened to me a couple of months ago. A client I'd been working with for a couple of years went through some restructuring. They completely reevaluated all of their old contracts with an eye on reinventing their program from the ground up. I fully expected to lose the business.

But the Development Director called me up and asked that I stay on, one of the few contractors asked to do so. Now, I'm sure my strong work ethic and quality product played a part in that decision. But the tipping point?

I took the time while on a vacation in their city to stop by and meet the gang at their office.

This wasn't actually a calculated move on my part. At the time, I had no idea that they were planning on restructuring. I just wanted to be able to put faces to the e-mail addresses and conference call voices. But those couple of hours out of my vacation paid off.

Those face-to-face connections are important -- maybe even more so now that so many of us do business with people across the country...or across the globe. It might take a little extra time and effort, but the payoff could make it all worth it.

Momentum, shmomentum

It must be fall again. Because in our family, we've started passing around a cold. It's my turn, and sadly, I'm late enough in the game that absolutely no one has any sympathy!

Hopefully, you will have a tiny bit as I take yet another unanticipated break from blogging to clear my sinuses and rest.

In the meantime, take a look back through the archives, and if you have any questions...post 'em in the comment section, and I'll answer when I can breathe through my nose again.

Renewal Series: The Art

So far, I've talked a lot about Renewal copy in my series of posts about these critical mailings. But today, I want to take a moment to talk about the art.

Because now that you've gone to all that trouble to make your Renewal letters shine, are you going to shove them into the same old envelope and hope they get opened?

Of course not! You want to give those fabulous letters the best chance to shine that you can.

So here are a few tips on making your Renewal art effective:

The Envelopes. As with your letters, you want your Renewal series art to reflect the increasing urgency of the ask. Match your teasers to the letter copy. Change up stock colors -- nothing says "Open me right away!" like a yellow envelope in the mail.

Package Size. Many organizations send their Renewals in monarch-sized envelopes, mimicking the old-style monthly bills that people used to receive. Of course, now that more and more bills are being sent in #10s and other odd-sized envelopes, you might want to try changing up sizes.

Reply Forms. Make your reply form as easy to fill out as possible. Clump together all of the payment information and lead the donor through the choices you need them to make. And try to keep the options to a minimum -- the more decisions your donor has to make, the more likely you are to lose them.

Your Donor's Name. Your donor's name is probably the single most important thing that appears in any Direct Mail package, so make sure it's printed legibly and appears near the payment information. Our eyes are naturally drawn to our names, so if you keep the payment section near the name, your donor is more likely to see it...and act on it!

Thanks so much for checking out my Renewal Series. Please let me know if you have any questions. And come back next week for more thoughts on Direct Mail, fundraising and Communicating Your Conscience!

Renewal Series: The Architecture of the Series

In my earlier Renewal posts, I've talked a lot about how to write an individual Renewal letter -- how to make it compelling, what goes in and what stays out, and why it's so darn important to do them right. But the individual Renewal letter is just one part of an entire series.

It might be tempting to either send the same letter two or three times to your donors, hoping that one time the ask will sink in, or to take one basic letter and switch out examples of your work.

But while that might seem like an easy out, it's a mistake. You should look at your Renewal Series as a single entity -- one really long, drawn-out conversation with your donors about the importance of their donations. And it's critical that that conversation should be consciously directed by you.

Rules for your Renewal Series:

• Got stories? Now's the time to use them. If you can put a face to your mission -- a person you have helped, an animal you've saved, a family that benefitted from what you do -- your donors will flock back to you.
• Each letter should highlight the organization's needs for the coming year -- the things that your donors will be supporting with their Renewal donation -- but try to shake it up as you go. Don't rely on the same old boilerplate for each letter. Use your personal touches to describe your programs in a new way each time.
• Repetition is good to a point, but by the time you're sending the 6th effort, saying the same old thing is a waste of time, money and effort. Shake it up. Try a new approach. These people need to hear your message in a new way if you want them to renew.
• Don't forget the victories. If you've you've won a fight in the past year (with the help of your donors), don't forget to tell them. And thank them.
• Urgency is key, and should increase as the series goes on. In Direct Mail, one of the biggest challenges is getting people from the point of reading their mail, to the point of acting on what they've read. Making a case that their gift is needed NOW is a central part of motivating donors to take that extra step to reach for their checkbook.
• Acknowledge, acknowledge, acknowledge! Gratitude should be the central message of your entire series. Acknowledge their previous giving history. Acknowledge their generosity in supporting your organization when there are so many other organizations. Acknowledge that they're busy. Acknowledge that their gift may have crossed with your letter in the mail.
• BUT...a little guilt is good! Especially late in the series, it is OK to turn up the heat on your donors. Tell them how much you'd hate to lose them, how valued their support is. Remind them of all their donation makes them a part of -- what they'll be missing out on if they don't renew.

To think of it another way, as you craft your series, imagine each letter as the next step in a staircase. If the first effort is your baseline, each subsequent effort should step up the personal touches, the urgency, and the gratitude.

Tomorrow: Renewal Art tips.

And if you have questions, or feel like you want something covered more completely, please post it in the comments section!

Renewal Series: Compelling Renewals

Well...so much for Renewal Week. Instead, we'll just call this the "Renewal Series" and pretend that 3-week, house guest/back-to-school/tsunami of work-induced blogging break didn't happen. OK? Excellent!

So I left off with a short post about what goes into a Renewal letter and what stays out. Now, let's talk about how you can make your Renewal letters compelling.

Most organizations send a series of letters (generally 6-8 passes) over the course of several months that gradually amp up the urgency and aggressiveness of the ask. So how do you make the same ask 6-8 times without sounding dull, repetitive or (horrors!) rude?

Keep it Personal

This is true of ALL your Direct Mail communication -- heck, all of your communication with your donors, period -- but don't forget that your Renewal letter is a personal letter from ONE person in your organization to ONE donor. Yes, most of your donors will get the same letter, but when you're writing it, don't think of your donors as a mass group of anonymous sacks of donation money. You're writing to Velma, the one person who stands in for your entire audience of donors.

In these days of e-mail and Facebook, the art of letter-writing is waning, but try to think about how you would ask an old friend to support your cause. Would you give them your official mission statement and a bulleted list of accomplishments and leave it at that? Or would you ask them questions, remind them of shared experiences and explain how important it is to you, personally, that they support this cause? (Hint: it's the latter!)

One simple trick for making a letter personal is to write the first draft starting every paragraph with I, You, or We statements:

• "I know you are someone who cares about the future of our planet."
• "You are no doubt aware of the growing gap between the rich and poor in this country. But did you know..."
• "We never back down from a fight we believe in!"

Of course, on editing, you'll likely change it up a bit, but it's a good exercise when you know you want your letter to be personal and aren't sure how to make that happen. And it will help remind you to think more about what your donor gets out of supporting your organization, not what you get from their support.

(And just so we're clear here: I'm not talking about tangible benefits or gifts...I'm talking about the sense of partnership and inclusion in solving the ills of the world, which is the driving force behind most philanthropy.)

Above all, keeping your Renewal letter personal means that each paragraph you write is designed to engage your reader in your organization's mission, accomplishments and needs for the future. Your donors play a huge role in your success -- so don't be afraid to remind them. (And thank them.)

Remind Them Why They Gave in the First Place

When I'm writing Renewals for an organization that actively prospects for new supporters (and, unfortunately, many don't in today's shaky economic climate), the first thing I often do is re-read the Acquisition letter.

Why? If you have a robust Direct Mail program, your Acquisition/Prospecting letter is very often the thing that compelled your supporters to donate to your organization in the first place. And as such, it's often got your most vivid and persuasive language. Using it in your Renewal

• Ensures that you're bringing your A-game to your most important mailing
• Subtly reminds your donors of the very thing that excited them about becoming your donors.

Again, while it may be tempting to approach Renewals thinking about what your donor owes you (an annual gift), you'll write a better letter when you remember what it is your donor gets when they support your organization.

Later this week...I'll talk more about your series as a whole, including how to ramp up tension and urgency as you go along without alienating those deadbeats -- oops! I mean, those very busy donors -- who ignore your first few letters. (And as always, post questions below!)

Renewal Week: What Goes In and What Stays Out

When you’re setting out to renew your donors, you’ve got a big, but simple task: convince people who’ve supported you in the past that you’re worthy of continued support for the coming year. Which means your Renewal letter needs to:

• Let them know that it’s time to renew.
• Tell them what their past support has accomplished.
• Thank them for their loyalty and generosity.
• Remind them of who you are, what you do and why they joined in the first place.
• Explain why it’s so important and urgent that they renew their support TODAY.

You can do all of this quickly – ideally in two pages – and efficiently, without the supporting details that you include in an acquisition or appeal letter.

That’s what’s in. So what’s out?

As I mentioned, you don’t want to go into too much detail in a Renewal. Save the nitty gritty details for other donor communications. Your Renewal is a broad brush portrait of what your donor helps you accomplish each year.

Leave out the demands. Yes, the Renewal gift is important. But it’s not going to come if you take your donors’ support for granted.

Next up: how to make your Renewal letters as compelling as possible.

Renewal Week: The Most Important Ask You Make

In the next few weeks, I’m beginning to sit down and start working on the annual renewal letters for a few of my clients, so it seemed like a good time to talk about Renewals.

A donor’s annual gift renewing their support of your organization is the single most important gift you get.

• It gives your organization reliable annual support
• Each year of giving firms the donor's bond with your organization
• Each Renewal gift means you have one more year of opportunities to ask for special donations, planned giving, and other additional contributions
• Many of your high-dollar donors (as well as your bequests, etc.) come from your pool of loyal donors who renew year after year

For all of these reasons, it’s critical that you do not give short shrift to your Renewal program. And a key part of that program are the Renewal letters.

This week, I’m going to talk about the various things that should be in your Renewal letters…and what shouldn’t, how to make your Renewal letters as compelling as possible, and other various tips for a robust Renewal series.

In the meantime, check out this oldie but goodie on Renewal series length. And don't forget to leave any questions in the comments below.

Preview -- Renewals!

Next week is Renewal Week here at Communicating Your Conscience.

I'll be devoting a series of posts to how to write a Renewal and how it's different than your other donor communications. Check in for tips on making your donors feel valued, upgrading them and, most important of all, bonding them to your organization so they give year after year.

Questions? Post 'em below!

Ask Richelle -- Letter Signers

Last week, Catherine asked a question that I've heard from many of my clients over the years:

"How important is it that the letter (or email) come from the President of the organization? Should different people be used as signers depending on the audience? For example-we mail to architects and also to building owners (I work for a green building non-profit). Would I use the same signer for each letter?"

Sometimes, who signs a fundraising letter (or e-mail) can be one of the most contentious points in planning a direct mail campaign. Which is funny because my answer is very, very simple.

The signer -- and there should only be one! -- should always be the person with the most name recognition on the particular issue you're addressing in the mailing.

So why is this very simple thing so complicated to put into practice?

The reasons are endless. A nonprofit might have two figureheads (a President and an Executive Director, say) who both feel they should be the ones signing letters to donors. Or it could have one leader who is very well-known for one specific issue -- even though the organization is working on several issues -- who insists on signing everything. A nonprofit might have oodles of celebrity support, but be afraid to ask for celebrity signers. And on and on.

Which is why Catherine's question is such a good one. Organizations should consider each letter they send out as a new opportunity to bond with their donors. Which means they should think carefully about what issue will do that and who the best person in the organization is to address that issue.

In an organization with a particularly strong or charismatic leader, it might be that leader every time. In Catherine's case, in an organization that has two distinct audiences, there may be one leader who is perfect for addressing the architects, and one for the building owners. Or, if she wants to engage her membership, she could ask one prominent industry leader who is also a donor to sign a letter to his or her peers.

One environmental group I work for has a celebrity -- in this case, an actor well-known for his environmental advocacy -- sign a letter for them a few times a year, while the executive director signs everything else.

Above all, your letter should always have only one signer. Remember, fundraising letters are personal letters from your organization to your donor. They should speak directly to that donor, person-to-person. And they can't do that if they're signed by two people.

More questions? Ask 'em below!