Fundraising Copywriter George Crankovic

Author: George Crankovic

  • When stories in appeals kill your fundraising results

    With all the articles, blog posts, and white papers about storytelling in fundraising, it’s easy to think that all you have to do is drop a story into an appeal and there you go — success.

    Not necessarily so. See my guest post at Future Fundraising Now for more.

    It may be the stories themselves causing the problem. Here are five things to look out for that could be making your stories less effective:

    1. Avoid “purple prose.” Let the story tell itself.
    2. Keep it simple. Convoluted stories make donors give up.
    3. Make it about the donor. She’s the most important part.
    4. Hold back the solution. Let the donor provide it.
    5. Give the story space to breathe. Pacing is vital.

    See more on each of these points here.

    Stories can and do work. But it’s not like flipping a switch. Connecting with donors takes stories that are believable.

  • When too much emphasis ruins your fundraising appeal

    To add emphasis to fundraising copy, you can use boldface, italics, underling, all caps, and even asterisks and other symbols.

    But if you overuse them, as legendary adman Herschell Gordon Lewis says, “When you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.”

    Sometimes this happens when fundraisers get desperate in their attempt to motivate donors. Sometimes it happens when the graphic designer gets carried away with adding visual baubles to the page.

    But as this guest post on Future Fundraising Now points out, there are two reasons to use emphasis:

    • To alert readers to a specific part of the message.
    • To add inflection to the copy voice.

    And one big reason never to overuse it: you’ll ruin your response rate. See more here.

  • What to test to raise your email-fundraising open rates

    Talk about email fundraising, and before long, you’re talking about testing subject lines. They’re important for your open rate, of course.

    But the From line can make a big difference too. See my guest post at Future Fundraising now for more.

    When you get an email, probably the first thing you do is to see who it’s from. If it’s somebody important to you, then you’ll open it regardless of what the subject line is.

    The From line that many charities use is the organization name, but you can test:

    • The president’s name.
    • Variations on the president’s name.
    • The name of a celebrity endorser.|
    • The name of an expert on staff.
    • Linking the From line with the appeal topic.

    See more in my guest post at Future Fundraising Now.

  • Subject-line lessons for fundraising from the Presidential campaign

    Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign in 2012 set the standard for the use of email for fundraising with the famous one-word subject line: “Hey.”

    Now Hillary Clinton’s campaign is testing and using a variety of subject lines, based on six major themes:

    1. Reaction to events
    2. Invitations
    3. Merchandise
    4. General campaign messages
    5. Calls to action
    6. Event announcements

    Check out this post from Future Fundraising Now to see how the Clinton campaign is using these themes and how you can adapt them to your fundraising when you need a good subject line.

     

  • What political speeches can teach us about fundraising

    When they’re speechifying, politicians want their audiences to respond, and they love it when a line in a speech sets off thunderous applause. But they don’t leave this to chance. They use specific techniques to get a response, and getting people to respond is exactly what we want to do as fundraisers. See my guest post over at Future Fundraising Now for more on using these seven techniques in your fundraising:

    1. The contrast: contrast positive vs. negative.
    2. The list: Place (usually) three items in a series.
    3. The puzzle: Describe the problem, then the solution.
    4. The headline – punchline: Say you’re going to say something, then say it.
    5. The combination: Combine the previous techniques.
    6. The position: Establish a position, then take or refute it.
    7. The pursuit: Encourage response by reiterating.

     

  • How to use social proof in fundraising appeals

    Social proof is a powerful motivator in fundraising appeals. My article in Nonprofit Pro describes how to use it, and shares some ideas on making it work even harder for you.

    To leverage social proof, you can:

    1. Highlight a dollar amount in the gift string. This is often effective. But there’s an even better way to make this work.
    2. Use localization: add the name of the donor’s city to your appeal. But there’s a way to make this even more compelling for donors.
    3. Use testimonials from donors. But you can take this a step further, so that it works even better.
    4. Change the way you present donor benefits. Here’s how to slightly recast the impression that your fundraising copy is giving to bring more donors in.
    5. And whatever you do, be careful to avoid using negative social proof. See what it is and why it’s an easy trap to fall into.

    Check out the whole article here.

  • One big reason to ramp up your major donor marketing

    Now’s the time to do more than ever to engage major donors, and here’s why.

    The U.S. economy is minting new millionaires at a stunning pace. According to one study, the number of millionaire households shot up from 13.7 million to 16.3 million in just one year, from 2012 to 2013.

    And yet, according to other research, the rich and super-rich have cut back on their giving. From 2006 to 2012 — encompassing the Great Recession and recovery — wealthy donors reduced their share of income going to charity.

    So, right now, the rich are a vastly under-tapped source of funding.

    But here’s the interesting part.

    During that same period, the poor increased their giving. They gave a larger share of their income.

    Yes, the poor gave more, and the rich gave less. And it’s is even more surprising since most poor and middle class folks were hammered by the recession.

    The rich, on the other hand, actually did better during that time. What’s more, the number of people entering the privileged classes continues to increase as the income gap widens.

    Which means, of course, that your major-donor prospects keep getting wealthier and the pool of these donors keeps getting bigger. It’s not hard to see that you probably need to pay a lot more attention to high-dollar donors.

    One stumbling block is that the rich and poor give to difference causes. The poor give to churches and soup kitchens, but millionaires tend to give to the arts and universities.

    But even if your nonprofit isn’t in one of those sectors, you can and should engage wealthy donors. And why not? Why shouldn’t your cause get some of this funding? At first, try something simple like versioning a mail appeal for bigger donors, and then move on to campaigns, including mail, email, events, and personal-contact touch points. Have your nonprofit put on its best suit, shine its shoes, comb its hair, and get in front of these donors. Make your case. The upside potential is huge.

     

  • Are you a good fundraiser? Try this simple self-check.

    Your appeals get your donors involved and engaged in your nonprofit and mission, right?

    If you’re ready to find out, try this self-check.

    Call one of your donors out of the blue. You’ll be shocked. Because, odds are, your donor:

    • Doesn’t know what your nonprofit does beyond something hazy like helping people or fighting poverty. And doesn’t really care to know much more.
    • Doesn’t care what your mission statement says. Hasn’t read it, doesn’t plan to.
    • Doesn’t know what your programs are or any successes that you’ve had.
    • Doesn’t know she’s in your sustainer program and doesn’t know you have a sustainer program or even what that is. She only knows that she gives $10 a month when the reminder comes.
    • Doesn’t really want your appeals and newsletters. She usually just glances at that stuff and tosses it.
    • Doesn’t know that the appeal she just responded to featured a matching grant. Didn’t look at it that closely.

    Sure, we all realize that what donors say is usually different from how they respond. So just because one donor doesn’t know or care much about your nonprofit but still gives, that’s okay, right?

    Maybe. But what if large blocks of your donors feel this way? What if they’re giving out of habit or some philanthropic reflex and not because they love your nonprofit and value what you do? That’s scary. Because if they’re not loving you, they’re leaving you. Attrition will steamroller you.

    So what do you do? You do more. More donor engagement, more donor focus, more donor communication.

    Don’t release an appeal until it sings. Don’t send a newsletter until you can’t believe how good the stories are — with a protagonist, conflict, a plot, and a point. Don’t fear ‘bothering’ your donors. The more they hear from you, the more they’ll like it. Don’t just go through the motions with social media. Provide content that’s good enough to share. Don’t just have a website. Give donors videos, images, stories, infographics, and more.

    But mainly, don’t just communicate with donors. Hit the hot buttons of their values, motivations, and aspirations. Animate those feelings, and you’ll get right to the core of what drives your donors’ giving as well as their loyalty.

     

  • Is this the easiest, most direct way to motivate donors to give?

    It’s no secret that giving confers all kinds of benefits to donors. People who give are generally happier and even healthier than non-givers.

    But if that’s true, then how would donors react if we pointed out those benefits in an appeal? Will speaking directly to donors’ self-interest about the benefits of giving persuade them to give or maybe to give more?

    There’s not a lot of research to go on. But one study suggests that laying out the benefits of giving just might work.

    As a first step, researches explored whether a virtuous cycle exists between happiness and giving — that is, does giving cause the happiness that encourages donors to give?

    The subjects were asked to recall a time when they spent money on themselves or others, and report their happiness. Then each subject was offered the choice in future spending that would make them the happiest. Turns out, the people who felt happy by recalling a previous expenditure for someone else were more likely to donate in the future. So, the virtuous cycle does seem to exist.

    Next, researchers explored whether laying out the benefits of giving would motivate people to give. Researchers surveyed 1,000 readers of the New York Times who had read an article about the link between giving and happiness. Compared to other studies, the people in this group reported devoting as much as 40% of their spending on others — a higher than average rate — suggesting that these people gave more because they were aware of the benefits of giving.

    Yet, other research suggests that adding in motivators like happiness from giving will divert donors’ attention from the need and lessen their impulse to give.

    Still, promoting the benefits of giving is worth testing to see how your donors will react. If you’re bold, come right out and link greater happiness with a gift to your nonprofit. If you’re cautious, use subtle suggestions. And see whether or how much this added dimension moves your donors.

     

  • How this out-of-the-box copywriting technique draws donors into fundraising appeals

    Whatever you might think of TV infomercials, they’re brilliant examples of direct response. And one part of the infomercial in particular – the product demo – can be adapted to fundraising appeals in order to engage donors and move them to give. See how here.

    You’ll discover that creating a kind of demo in fundraising copy can evoke an emotional response in donors, and you can check out three specific examples of how it works. Take a look.