Donor Communications

Writing, simply

I was helping a client with an appeal the other day. I found myself explaining some of the choices I made in the letter. At this point, they were almost automatic for me. I realized not everyone knows there are some simple changes you can make that will improve your appeal. When I get a rough draft, […]

Use these powerful triggers to raise more money. (Though your colleagues might worry.)

These powerful triggers can raise more money. I hadn’t joined a cult. I just wanted to remember these important triggers. Last week, I wrote about the importance of emotion in your fundraising. It reminded me of the emotional triggers that raise more money. And that more than once have led to raised eyebrows. You see, […]

Are you making these fundraising mistakes?

Are you making these mistakes? As a consultant, I work with some smaller nonprofits. To begin, I try to get a sense of how they’re fundraising now. I see similar problems across different organizations. But here’s the surprising thing − I see these same problems in my mailbox every day, from national and international charities. So these aren’t […]

Money, time and attention poverty

What’s your attention worth? I read an interesting article a while ago in the New York Times. Titled No Money, No Time, it was about different kinds of poverty. You probably think about financial poverty, but maybe like me, you hadn’t thought as much about time and mental bandwidth poverty. If you suffer from one type of poverty, […]

Serve it like a pizza

Pizza and fundraising… what in the world do they have in common? There’s a small pizza place in our town. It began life as a smaller off-shoot of a chain. The pizza was ok. Mostly we went because it was conveniently close. A few weeks ago, it became obvious that the place was under new […]

Donor Communications

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