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How to heal an unappealing fundraising appeal

How to heal an unappealing fundraising appeal I don’t know why, but I continue to be surprised at major nonprofits – that have the means to do it right – mailing out solicitations that miss. We got one the other day, from a large hospital in our state. I’ll admit, I opened it with some […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: donor acquisition, donor appeals, writing for donors 5 Comments

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, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications, Fundraising Tagged With: copywriting, donor appeals, emotional triggers 2 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

The value of trust

Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about the value of trust. This was spurred in part by a couple of pieces of mail I received. One looked like business mail from our garbage collectors. I opened it because you can never tell anymore what might be a bill and what might be another […]

Filed Under: Annual Giving, Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: appeal writing, donor appeals, donor retention, Nonprofit organization, trust 6 Comments

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