My plea for emotional copywriting Successful fundraising is about reaching people where they make decisions… and that’s their hearts, not their heads. Emotional copywriting is effective copywriting. Writing to donors means using emotional copywriting. Yes, there are some “tricks” you can use to improve your appeal. Simple things, like better formatting. I’ve mentioned some ways you […]
Building a better appeal, part two
Last week, I wrote about your fundraising appeal and offered some steps to improve it. This week, with part two, we’ll pick up where we left off. Here’s what I want to share in both posts: Often missed ingredients for success You have to actually ask. Yes, your story is not, by itself, enough. Use […]
How to build a better appeal
Let’s be blunt: most fundraising appeals are well-meaning, but crap. Stuffy. Officious. Impersonal. Focused on the organization’s needs, not the donor’s dreams. The good news is you can start fixing that today, and I’ll show you how. This week and next, we’ll cover: Where to start? Before you even think about writing, think about preparing. […]
Do you like me? You like me!
Let me ask you something: do you really like your donors? I don’t mean as a group or as an idea. I mean as people. Do you like them? I recently read an article by Roger Dooley at Neuromarketing. He was writing, as he often does, about Robert Cialdini and his findings about sales. Your instinct […]
Is our donor focus hurting or helping our nonprofits?
Or, why donor focus might not mean what you think it means. Vu Le of Nonprofit AF recently wrote a long, very thoughtful piece about donor-centrism. He hoped it would generate conversation. And I hope so, too. Vu is an amazing dynamo who is making change happen, not just in his organization, but across the […]