A Week of Tips for Writing Successful Fundraising Letters!

I love a good refresher course. I can pat myself on the back for all the things I'm doing right, and I usually pick up one or more things that can help me improve my writing.

So every day this week, I'm going to post one of my favorite back-to-basics tips for writing the best fundraising copy you can. First up:

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 call them out.

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.

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?

Check back tomorrow for the next Tip for Writing Successful Fundraising Letters!