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.

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!

Acquisition Week -- Urgency and Passion…and an Involvement Device Doesn’t Hurt

Thanks for coming back for the final installment in the Acquisition Series. So far, I've covered how to approach potential donors, how to craft your package, choosing your lead, and establishing your credibility.

Today, I want to talk about a few of the other techniques you can use to get people to give to your cause for the first time. As with special appeals to your donors, urgency and passion are key. It’s hard enough to get people to support a new cause. Throw in the multitude of distractions between your potential donor and his wallet, and you’ve got to provide strong motivation to get him to sit down right this second and make that initial gift.

Besides killer prose, there are a couple of ways you can provide that extra bit of motivation. Lots of organizations love freebies. Magnets, address labels, stickers you can use to guilt a donor into giving. Or you can entice them with promises of a free gift – a DVD produced by your organization, for example – after they join. They’re both great ways to raise your response.

One caveat: the gift you’re offering should relate to your mission. I hate it when environmental organizations offer calendars or notecards – even with beautiful pictures of nature on them – because of the wasted paper. Make it matter to your mission.

For activist organization, almost nothing beats a petition or a survey. People who are passionate about your cause – and if you’ve picked your lists right, they should be – love to make their voices heard. So give them that chance. Sure, you might get back a bunch of signed petitions or completed surveys with no money…but guess who your best prospects are next time around?

And maybe the single most important way to craft a winning Acquisition Package: TESTING.

Don't toss all of these techniques into one package and hope they work. Create different versions and mail them against each other. See what brings you the best results. Test, test, and test again.

I hope you'v found the Acquisition series helpful. Please post any questions in the comments, and I'll be sure to answer them!

Acquisition Week -- The facts to back up your claims

Yesterday, I wrote about what it takes to write a blockbuster lead for your Acquisition letter. But that’s just the first step in creating a winning package. You’ve got your potential donor on the hook…now you have to reel him in.

Unlike your loyal donors, a potential donor isn’t going to take your word for it that you have the solution. He’s not going to let you get away with just getting him riled up. He wants facts.

Consider an acquisition letter like a job interview. You need to prove that you have the experience, the know-how and the demonstrated track record to get the job done.

• Tell him about your past victories, including who you were up against and how you managed to win the day.
• Got partners? Offices abroad or friends in high places? List them. Knowing you have allies gives a potential donor the reassurance that you really can do what you say you’re going to do.
• If you have testimonials, use them. Quotes from people you’ve helped count for more than your own claims.

A potential donor also wants to see that you have a thorough and well-rounded understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve. Can you quantify your work? Do you have hard statistics to back up your claims? If you’re an organization worth your salt, you have this information at your fingertips – make sure you share it with potential donors.

The best Prospecting letter will excite and inform.

Tomorrow, I’ll give you a few other essential tools…so don’t forget to check back!

Acquisition Week -- A Blockbuster Lead

When you’re mailing a Prospecting (or Acquisition) letter, you’re going after people who aren’t your donors, who may or may not know the first thing about your organization, the work you do, your track record and your value.

Your Prospecting Package needs to tell them all of those things and convince them you are a safe bet for their donation dollars. Which means your Prospecting letter needs to grab the reader by the shirtfront right away. Drop them into the middle of the action – explain the problem in the most immediate way you can…and then tell them you have the solution.

You can do this with a big, bold headline that sums up the purpose of your current campaign, like a recent package I received from NRDC that had this screamer across the top of the letter: POLAR BEAR SOS!

I like a Johnson Box (that copy above “Dear Friend,”) that paints a picture of the problem the organization is trying to address and what they’re doing to solve it – all in vivid, let’s-storm-the-castle-NOW language.

Personal, emotional moving stories about people or animals who’ve been helped by your organization are great motivational leads – nothing beats a testimonial for moving a potential donor to take that leap into actual donor.

Activist organizations can give people a chance to get involved. Ask your potential donor to share his or her opinions on your issue, or ask them for help petitioning political leaders. Let them know – right up front – that the action they take today will make a difference.

As you’re planning your mailing, sit down and think about which of these techniques might work best for your organization…then try to write it up in a way that grabs the donor and doesn’t let go.

Tomorrow: You’ve got your blockbuster lead…what’s next?

The Acquisition Series Continues!

I had too much to say about Acquisition to confine myself to just one week, so here we go on Week #2 of my Acquisition Series. Last week, I talked about how Prospecting is different from your other mailings and how to choose between an issue-based theme and a more institutional-based package.

This week, I want to talk about the things that go into your Prospecting Letter, the tricks you can use to make people jump out of their chairs and reach for their wallets.

• A Blockbuster Lead (Or, Grab a Potential Donor's Attention and Not Let Go)
• Making Sure to Back Up Your Claims with Facts
• Selling Your Organization (Remember Your Passion and Urgency)
• Other Tricks of the Trade

I'll address a new topic each day, so keep checking back.

Acquisition Series - Issue vs. Institutional

There’s no question that the BP Oil Spill is one of the biggest environmental disasters in history, and it seems like every day, the news gets worse. And bad news for the world can be great news for nonprofit organizations.

When people see a disaster unfolding, they want to help. The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti this past year spawned hundreds of millions of dollars of charitable giving from all over the world.

So, should you go with a package that talks about your organization as a whole (the Institutional approach), or send out a package specifically addressing the bad news du jour?

The short answer is: It Depends.

First, you need to know what your goal is with your acquisition mailing. Are you looking to get a lot of new supporters fast? Or do you want to go for quality long-term supporters?

A hot issue might bring in a lot of new donors, but you run the risk that it's a one-time gift. You'll need to plan to mail a lot so you can continually replenish those people who drop out once the Bad News they came in on has been resolved or fades out of public consciousness.

But if a donor buys into your mission as a whole, she's going to stick around for the long haul, rewarding you with annual income and even special appeal gifts.

After you look at your goals, you should also take a few moments to consider these questions:

• Is your organization taking specific action in relation to the Bad News?
• What is your organization’s role in the post-Bad News landscape?
• Does solving the problem created by the Bad News fit into your organizational mission long-term?
• Is the situation generated by the Bad News a long-term problem that will require your expertise for years to come?

If you can’t shout a big ol’ “YES” to all of those questions, then it’s probably a waste of your precious resources to mail an acquisition letter devoted entirely to the Bad News. Your resources are better spent sending an Institutional package.

Does that mean you can’t address the Bad News? Absolutely not! Especially if an issue is as large-scale as the Oil Spill, you have to talk about it, if only to mention that your hearts are with those suffering.

But when you're trying to acquire new donors, you want to sell them on who you are and what you do. Stay true to your passion, and your identity, and you'll have donors who stay true to you.

The Acquisition Series – These Aren’t Your Donors, Folks

I had intended for this week to be Acquisition Week, chock full of handy tips, dos and don'ts, and answers to common questions all about the art of acquiring new donors in direct mail. But somehow I woke up and it was Wednesday already! (How does this happen?) The upshot: Acquisition Week is going to straddle a couple of weeks...and I might even toss in a couple of extra tidbits along the way.

First things first: Prospecting is hard. And expensive. And scary. You're tossing a huge amount of money out the door, knowing you won't recoup that investment for around 18 months. You may have to scramble to convince your board that it's worth it. And then you have to figure out how to craft your message and develop a winning package. Whew!

So let's break it down.

Why's it so hard?

The toughest thing about creating a strong Prospecting package? You’re mailing to people who aren’t your donors.

The people who support you are already vested in your mission. They got your mail, stumbled across your website, heard about you from a friend or a news report, and said, “Yes! That’s an organization I can get behind!”

When you’re talking to people who already think you're great, you don’t have to work so hard to convince them that you’re worthy of their support. Sure, you want to remind them of all the reasons they chose to give to you in the first place (in their Renewal letters) or convince them to give a little extra to a Special Appeal, but you don’t have to sell them on your organization. You’re free to riff on your work.

But when you’re trying to capture the attention of someone new, you have to convince them – from the get-go – that you’re worthy of their time and their money.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how you can write a blockbuster lead for an acquisition package. And if you have questions, post them in the comments below.

BONUS: Check out this new resource for Prospect researchers for more information about how to choose your prospects, engage with other professionals and learn new trends.