Build a better appeal (or newsletter, or thank you letter, or…)
Here are some useful links for you if you want to learn more.
Feel free to contact me with questions at mary@mcahalane.com!
- Fundraising appeal checklist
- Subscribe to my blog!
- SOFII thank you clinic and thank you letter swipe file from Lisa Sargent. Lisa is a donor communications goddess.
- Pamela Grow’s website is full of great information and affordable courses, especially for small shops
- Fundraising Writing is another terrific website, brought to you by Julie and Brett Cooper
- Clairification, from Claire Axelrad, also offers courses as well as solid tactical information in her blog
- Jerry Huntsinger’s tutorials on SOFII: There are more than 50 articles available. Taken in total, they provide a thorough education in direct mail fundraising.
- Better Fundraising’s emails are packed with great information as well
- Bloomerang has good advice for online giving. Read this piece about online confirmations and this checklist for email thanks.
- Jeff Brooks and Tom Ahern are great resources for direct mail. Jeff’s books, The Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications and How to Turn Your Words into Money, are brief and packed with information. Tom wrote the book on donor newsletters: Making Money with Donor Newsletters.
- Learn more about optimizing your online donation form here: Ten easy fixes for the design of your donation form
- Moceanic – with a group of smart people like Jeff Brooks, Sean Triner and more – also has consistently good stuff.
- And my friend Ephraim Gopin has just created a new offering… specifically for smaller shops. Check it out!