Creative

It's a fact of fundraising that some donors only give once and never again. Others give multiple times but then stop giving. But just because that's reality, fundraisers should never calmly accept it. Instead, we need to fight to the death to keep our donors, using the weapons of creative strategies that are designed to retain or re-acquire our donors.

In October 2009, it looked like things were finally starting to look up as far as the ecomony was concerned, and nonprofits were shaking off their recession malaise and looking for ways to reinvigorate their donors. In this article, "Copywriting for the Post-Recession," Willis Turner, senior copywriter at Huntsinger & Jeffer, offered seven rules for "learning to write like a winner again."

First, FundRaising Success columnist Jeff Brooks, creative director at TrueSense Marketing, warned fundraisers of the seven deadly sins of fundraising. Now he looks at the antidotes, the seven heavenly virtues of of fundraising.

Ted Hart speaks with nonprofit communications expert Tom Ahern about donor communications in this archived episode of his Nonprofit Coach radio show.

Here's an October 2006 column from Tim Burgess, who was  one of the founders of The Domain Group (and is now a city councilman in his hometown of Seattle). In "Newsletters Done Right," he shares five practical tips to creating revenue-raising newsletters.

The thank you is so important and it’s the one written communication, done well, most donors will read word for word. A thank you lines up your next gift. Weren’t you taught to write and say thank you to Aunt Edna if you wanted another present next year? You should invest time on crafting your thank you(s).

I recently recalled this great Easier Said Than Done column by Jeff Brooks from April 2009 and the equally great response from a reader that appeared in July of that year. First, the column, "When PC Equals BS" ... then the response, "We Are Not Afraid to Say 'Leprosy'"

This little element on the outer envelope just struck me as clever, and seems somehow more immediate and real than merely including a note saying basically that someone, somewhere will match your gift.

In the December 2007 issue, columnist Jeff Brooks, then creative director at Merkle and now creative director at TrueSense Marketing, provided four steps to give your newsletter maximum positive impact with donors in his column, "The Better Newsletter."

This April 2008 column by Jeff Brooks, "Six Bad Habits of Ineffective Fundraisers," addresses issues that are as true today as they were then.