Easier Said Than Done: Elements of a Great Fundraising Offer

This part of the fundraising offer is not for the faint of heart. It takes guts and an unflinching, eyes-open approach to vividly portray a problem that will motivate donors to act. People on your team who are timid, paranoid or bureaucratic-minded will not like it!

2. A solution
Once you've made a compelling case that there's a problem, you face a second, similar challenge: selling the solution. That's tough because it has to be the donor's solution to the problem — not necessarily the organization's. That means maintaining a clear and obvious connection to the problem — not necessarily the complex, root-cause connection you worked hard to articulate as you trained your staff, or in the brand guidelines that you should recycle as soon as possible. Simplicity is everything.