Creative

Messaging is one of the first and most important tools nonprofit communicators need in their tool kits. Whether you're out to drive donations, inspire actions, attract volunteers or recruit participants, it all starts with a clear understanding of what story you need to tell and how to tell it.

But it can be almost impossible to boil all of your nonprofit's information down to get your message across. Here’s a little trick that might help you see the forest in spite of all those trees: Focus on the "musts."

I get it. Sometimes it’s really, really hard to come up with an attention-grabbing e-mail subject line or headline. That’s why we came up with a list of 50 fill-in-the-blanks to get you started, most of which are inspired by sensational headlines on consumer magazines. You can make that selling power work for your cause too!

As much as we writers love and depend on our own rituals, we love reading about those of other writers even more.

You aren't offering anything tangible, so your case has to be pretty powerful.

Sharing success is important, but make sure it is a shared success because of you and the donor. Otherwise you may only be talking to yourself as your donors move on to where they feel part of the solution.

Stories are fundamental to how we communicate as human beings. Tell the right story and you can capture attention, entertain, enlighten and persuade … all in the course of just a few minutes.So we can all agree that stories matter … but how do you tell them? What, specifically, makes for a good marketing story? Here are five critical components and talk about how they fit into your marketing: 1. You need a hero. 2. You need a goal. 3. You need an obstacle. 4. You need a mentor. 5. You need a moral.

Getting personal in your fundraising communications is key to strong relationships with prospects and supporters. Here are five techniques that are doable for you no matter what’s on your to-do list.

Communications and development can, and should be, the soup and sandwich of fundraising.

Is your nonprofit outreach falling flat? It may not be your message, but rather who is delivering it that is the problem. Think about who might be a more relatable, believable messenger for your nonprofit's outreach. It might not be who you think. So who are messengers that wield more influence than you when it comes to your organization? Whom should you tap to talk about you?

If your donors are leaving because of something they are not hearing, feeling or reading … the good news is we can do something about it. So I ask you: Does your communication cause the people who give you their time, talent, “stuff” or money to feel totally awesome about giving? Or do they receive “ho hum” thank-you letters, occasional mentions in an annual report listing and are continually invited to give more? What to do to cause people to feel like a superhero? It’s simple. Communicate with passion. Talk to them, not at them.