What to Be Obsessive About

One of the great things about direct-response fundraising is that a lot of what we do — while important — comes with a second chance. Most of our loyal donors are very forgiving (kind of like that power cord).

If our offer is a bit weak, they will still open the next e-mail or newsletter we send — and our most loyal donors may respond anyway because they trust us to do the work they love. We may limit our income for that project, but we can redeem ourselves with the next effort. (In other words, let's not close up shop over the project that fails; let's just not make it a recurring event.)