Copywriting

HubSpot featured how charity: water puts its donors at the center of its success stories in its marketing and fundraising. Here are three important takeaways for you to apply to your work: Show where the money goes, share your progress and illustrate your impact in human terms.

Educate-the-donors fundraisers have a different approach: They use fundraising offers whether they work or not, because the goal is to give donors a "rounded" picture of the work. That means they trot out calls to action that most donors don't understand and don't respond to. Donor-educators believe it's worth the price. Some claim it will pay off over the long term as non-responding donors have aha moments. Others just seem to want to be understood, despite the cost.

In the December 2007 issue, fundraising consultant and all-around smarty-pants Jeff Brooks offered four ways to keep your newsletter out of the birdcage — for a while, at least — in his Easier Said than Done column, "The Better Newsletter."

Over the years, I have done a number of posts related to trading content for contact. This technique is called a content marketing strategy where free samples of your membership content are made available — typically online — and those interested in using it connect with your organization. But what if you have tried this approach after reading some of these posts and it is not working for you? What might be the problem? Joe Pulizzi shared some good insights on why content marketing may not work in the May issue of COO: Chief Content Officer.  

Here are five pitfalls to avoid if you want to raise more, not less, direct-mail revenue for your organization this year: 1. Mail less. 2. Don't ask. 3. Go for the brain, not the heart. 4. Talk a lot about yourself. 5. Sound real smart.

Jeff Brooks, creative director at TrueSense Marketing, explained why the old rules you learned in school are probably leading you astray in your fundraising copy in his June 2008 column, "In Fundraising, Your English Teacher Gets an 'F.'"

There’s no better way to build interest, increase engagement and get gifts than letting your supporters, beneficiaries and partners do the talking via testimonials.

If donors and prospects don’t read your nonprofit e-mails and direct-mail letters, then you certainly won’t raise money. Although that’s stating the obvious … sometimes it’s worth repeating. So what’s a big reason they aren’t reading your appeals? Answer: Because the content doesn’t trigger the brain to read. Therefore you have to pull the correct trigger. What’s that? It doesn’t “trigger the brain” to read? What is this trigger? One of the most effective triggers is to begin by sharing a problem.

One challenge that nonprofit organizations face is that people aren't responding to their messages. When creating content, remember the four C's — clear, concise, conversational and compelling. Besides being well-written, your messages need to be easy to read and navigate. Use short paragraphs with lots of white space and at least a 12-point font. If your e-mail message or Web page is a cluttered mess with tiny type, your supporters are less likely to read it. Here is more on creating good content.

In his October 2009 Easier Said Than Done column, Jeff Brooks taught us "The Magic Words of Fundraising" and provided what could be the single most effective fundraising letter template ever written.