It’s important to get your envelope opened, but spending too much money on it can be self-defeating. Finding a balance requires testing ideas, new and old.

By Abny Santicola

To tease or not to tease
That’s the question, and one with no hard-and-fast answer.

“If you’ve got something inside that’s worth promoting, promote it,” Kinch says, but do it in a simple way that doesn’t shout at donors. “Pithy … sky-is-falling teasers” characterized by over-the-top language that “screams fundraising at you,” she adds, are on the decline.