Drawing Attention to Your Cause

Why would anyone in his right mind suggest using humor in a fundraising campaign to help fight a terrible disease or address an important social cause?

Ask any conventional direct-mail expert, and he’ll tell you humor is one of the quickest ways to kill your campaign. But in the 27 years I’ve been creating mailings, I’ve found humor to be an extremely effective tool for breaking through — and creating an instantly warm connection with people. In my experience, humor is perhaps the most effective way to humanize any organization. And when you do that, people begin to care. And respond.