Creative

Creative is great. I see lots of beautiful newsletters, Web pages and email appeals. They have great design, colors, photos and even videos. But they have a problem. They tend not to be original. They tend to be the same old thing you always talk about. Yourself. They aren’t donor-centric.

Just dressing yourself up in pretty clothes and talking about your organization from your perspective won’t do it. No matter how pretty you make it. What are donors buying with their gifts after all? Donors purchase an impact they want to achieve. Through you.

In order for any fundraiser's words to resonate with donors and compel them to take action, those words must feel genuine — which is to say they must feel and sound like the type of passionate speak people use when they converse with one another. In March 2008, Willis Turner, senior copywriter at Huntsinger & Jeffer, shared "The Watergate Guide to Straight Talk," in which he wrote: "The Watergate Transcripts became a template for the kind of 'real' writing I wanted to do."

As a nonprofit communications trainer and coach, I’ve had this conversation more times than I can count …

Nonprofit Communications Director: I don’t think our newsletter is working, but my board members say they love it.

Me: I don’t care what your board members think about your newsletter, and neither should you.

Communications Director: (awkward silence)

Me: Your board members are not the target audience for your newsletter, so their opinions about it aren’t that important.

At the DMA Nonprofit Federation's 2011 New York Nonprofit Conference, veteran fundraising consultant Tom Gaffny provided 10 timeless keys to fundraising success that he's crafted over the past two decades during his session, "The 10 Commandments: 10 Ageless, Irrefutable, Non-Negotiable Keys to Optimizing Your Fundraising Success."

Writing, and sending, your nonprofit’s email newsletter takes creativity, precision strategy and even a little finesse. Not only that, but once it's been sent, your newsletter is out of your control. There’s no redo. Proofreading, avoiding spam triggers, ensuring it’s mobile-optimized and creating alluring subject lines are all imperative to the success of the newsletter and what the content inside is promoting.

Moses can teach us a number of important things about fundraising. Yes, that Moses, the prophet revered by Jews, Christians, Muslims and other religious faiths throughout the world. Consider just one story from the Bible that usually receives little attention.

Over 3,000 years ago, after fleeing slavery in Egypt, the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. During this time, God instructed Moses to have the people build a tabernacle, a movable tent-like structure where the Hebrews could worship and experience the presence of God.

Fundraising copywriting is a craft. And like other craftspersons, we copywriters begin our training by learning some fundamental prewriting techniques designed to help us organize our thoughts so we can transcribe what's in our heads onto our documents. But, also like other craftspersons, as time goes by and we become more proficient and confident, we tend to skip those basic practices and jump straight into the job.

Over the years, many nonprofits have shared their fundraising secrets with us and we’d like to pass those on to you. Keep the following in mind as you begin to plan out your fundraising initiatives for the year: 1. Make your case with your donors. 2. Appeal to your donor's personal side. 3. Manage your funds responsibly. 4. Thank your donors. 5. Create a culture of fundraising. 6. Develop a well-thought-out fundraising strategy. 7. Utilize fundraising software.

In a webinar, "How to Write Moving Personal Profiles About Clients, Donors and Other Supporters," Kivi Leroux Miller, president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide, offered five steps on "The Ins and Outs of Writing Profiles":

Here are nine ways that your nonprofit can continually create magical content that will have your supporters clamoring for more on social media and all your other content marketing channels: 1. Figure out the why. 2. Tell stories. 3. Use video. 4. Create infographics. 5. Showcase impact. 6. Be transparent. 7. Improve and upgrade boring print content. 8. Less is more. 9. Respect the channel.