Copywriting

For an organization that was founded 35 years ago — specifically to build one memorial — the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) certainly has become a master of reinvention.

“Oh, people won’t …” Just the smug sound of it should set off alarm bells. “Oh, people won’t” is never about the “people.” It’s about the speaker.

Most readers are willing to grant you a certain amount of verisimilitude, but you’ve got to meet them halfway. Here are six ways to give your readers a helpful hand.

You can use verbal images to make just about every part of your offer and your fundraising appeal more compelling for donors, keeping in mind that the images should be based in fact and not just made-up. A verbal image is an effective way to …

One effective way to get noticed, especially in the digital age, is old-fashioned stories in the form of testimonials because they stand out. A good testimonial campaign can increase donor involvement and subsequent giving if done the right way. Here are 10 tips for success: Use headline quotes that stand out, use audio tracks with pictures, forget about scripts, remember "tune out" happens in seconds, emotions matter most, offer donors anonymity, use the pros, remember involvement takes time, offer final approval and post testimonials everywhere.

Perhaps the single biggest waste of time and money in fundraising is the general brochure. That's because of what it usually sets out to do: It explains "what we do." It shows how superior our processes are. It brags about how long we've been around, what awards we've won and how famous our CEO/founder is.

I've noticed that many general brochures focus in on what we don't do — as if that could possibly be of any interest to donors.

A great way to connect new donors with your nonprofit is through content marketing. By sharing the knowledge of what you do, you can give people an “in” to your organization and cause. Here are seven easy and actionable tips for increasing the effectiveness of your nonprofit organization’s content-marketing efforts: Do keyword research, monitor audience response, SEO-optimize your posts, put your audience in the headline, post with regularity, always include an image and encourage social sharing.

Campaigns and actions are won by a mixture of ingredients: a creative team, an awesome strategy, an effective online presence, a strong group of supporters and a winning story. The last point is highly subjective because there are many ways and forms we can tell a story.

Besides the obvious, how else do we tell great stories? In the first installment of Mob Lab’s peer learning sessions for this year, Sarah Hipsley, Greenpeace Australia-Pacific’s graphic designer, shared how maps can be as powerful as photos and videos in telling stories.

Excerpted from his new book, "The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors to Give, Give Happily, and Keep on Giving," Jeff Brooks shares four ways to improve your fundraising ask: 1. Have credentials to show donors. 2. Let donors speak for you. 3. Be open about your fundraising and governance. 4. Ignore your lawyers.

Successful donor newsletters include offers in every issue for three reasons: Offers help strengthen your bond with that fraction of donors (10 percent to 30 percent, maybe more?) who are "truly true believers" and might want to become more involved. Offers create a feedback channel so donors can tell you how much they like you. Offers can seriously boost philanthropic revenue. Not every donor supports you just once annually. Some will make multiple gifts a year, but you have to ask, in your newsletter.