In Fundraising, Your English Teacher Gets an ‘F’

Should you forget everything your English teachers taught you? Not at all. If your teachers were any good, they taught you to write with vigor and precision. They showed you how using language can help you marshal your thoughts. They made you believe in revising your work until it’s better.

But if your job is fundraising, your goal isn’t just to please a teacher. It’s to get regular people to join you in changing the world. That’s a tall order — much trickier than pulling down an A in your English class. And it needs a different set of rules.