7 Ways to Use Verbal Images to Pull Donors Into Your Appeal
3. Show donor involvement
Naturally you want your donors to feel that they’re part of your nonprofit’s work, not just bystanders with checkbooks. A verbal image can do that, showing donors how they’re involved in a like-you’re-right-there-with-us kind of way: “Picture this. You take your seat on the cargo plane, cinching the seat belt tight. On your left are the boxes of medical supplies you’re delivering. After hours of flight, the plane touches down with a screech on a blacktop airstrip in the Congo rain forest. As dusk falls, you load the supplies into the waiting jeep and bump down a rutted dirt road, headlights searching the way.”
An agency-trained, award-winning, freelance fundraising copywriter and consultant with years of on-the-ground experience, George specializes in crafting direct mail appeals, online appeals and other communications that move donors to give. He serves major nonprofits with projects ranging from specialized appeals for mid-level and high-dollar donors, to integrated, multichannel campaigns, to appeals for acquisition, reactivation and cultivation.
