Easier Said Than Done: 25 Tips for Better Fundraising Copy

12. Use fewer adjectives and adverbs. If your nouns and verbs aren't doing the job, adjectives and adverbs are not going to pick up the slack. Well-placed ?modifiers can add zing. But most of the time, they just make the copy harder to read — and make you sound like a huckster.

13. Omit huge numbers. Donors don't want to solve a problem because it's big. They want to solve it because it's solvable. Yes, 24,000 children die from hunger-?related causes every day. That's a mind-boggling fact. The fact that it's mind-boggling is exactly why it's a poor fundraising platform. Give donors the opportunity to save one life, and then another and another.