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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, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: annual appeals, appeal writing, fundraising writing, writing for donors 2 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Annual Giving, Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: appeal writing, nonprofit fundraising, solicitations 9 Comments

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, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: appeal writing, copy-writing, donor appeals, donor-focused 6 Comments

Check your we

Are your donor communications focused on your organization or your donors? I opened a piece of mail the other day. It was from an organization we’ve supported – one that does good work, important work. But here’s what jumped out at me right away about this short piece. It was ALL about them. I couldn’t help […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: appeal writing, direct mail, donor appeals, donor-focused 8 Comments

Rewrite!

I received a letter I itched to fix. It needed a rewrite – badly. It was sent on behalf of my elementary school by an organization that seems to be doing the same appeal for Catholic elementary schools all over NJ. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy start, right? It opens with a lot of talk about how […]

Filed Under: Annual Giving, Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: appeal writing, direct mail appeals, emotional writing, fundraising asks, rewrites 11 Comments

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