Category Archives: donor psychology
Should you do a year-end fundraising appeal?
Yes, and here’s why. It’s one of the easiest appeals to create. And it can be one of the biggest revenue producers of the year. About 30 percent of most nonprofits’ revenue comes in between Giving Tuesday and December 31. … Continue reading
The offer in fundraising
In direct response fundraising, what’s an offer? Is it like the offer in commercial direct marketing, or is it completely different? Why does the offer matter? Is it really the most important thing in a letter appeal or email appeal, … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising
Tagged behavior, charity, copywriting, direct mail, donor psychology, donors, fundraising, Fundraising copywriting, marketing, nonprofit
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When fundraising is too cautious for its own good
You can just see the fundraising team around a conference table trying to create an appeal that doesn’t draw any complaints, doesn’t raise even one hackle, doesn’t offend in any way, real or imagined. And the result is this: For … Continue reading
One sure way to make your fundraising better
The single best thing you can do to improve your fundraising? Come to terms with a hard truth: You are not your donors. They’re probably older than you, for one thing, which means they have a completely different frame of … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising
Tagged advertising, charity, copywriting, donor psychology, donors, fundraising, Fundraising copywriting, marketing, nonprofit
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Want more of your regular donors to become monthly donors?
Nonprofits love monthly donors for obvious reasons. Monthly donors give consistently, require less frequent fundraising, and tend to be more loyal. But to get regular donors to opt into monthly donor status, you have to make this seem like something … Continue reading
When disaster fundraising works and when it doesn’t
If you haven’t already, you’ll probably soon receive a barrage of emails appealing to you for donations to help the victims of the horrible earthquake in Turkey and Syria. This is of course a worthy cause. The need is overwhelming. … Continue reading
How to keep your donors interested in your fundraising appeal
It’s the age-old problem: how to engage the readers of your direct-response fundraising appeal to, first, start reading and then to continue reading. Luckily, we have some tips from Clarification blog: These are all good tips. But there’s one additional … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising
Tagged behavior, charity, copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising, Fundraising copywriting, marketing, nonprofit
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Two ways to begin a fundraising appeal – from Jerry Huntsinger
In Jerry Huntsinger’s “86 Tutorials in Creating Fundraising Letters and Packages,” he makes a point about how to begin a fundraising appeal. He makes his point with an example. It’s an appeal for a cancer charity. It begins: “Children shouldn’t … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising
Tagged advertising, charity, copywriting, donor psychology, donors, fundraising, Fundraising copywriting, nonprofit
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What makes a good offer for a fundraising appeal and what makes a bad one
Why does the offer matter so much in direct mail fundraising? Let’s take a look at an appeal to find out. This is a fundraising appeal from a military nonprofit, and in the body of the letter, the first ask … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology
Tagged charity, copywriting, donor psychology, donors, fundraising, Fundraising copywriting, marketing, nonprofit
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What’s AI got to do with copywriting? Not much …
All the talk about AI for copywriting serves to highlight a basic misunderstanding of what copywriting is and what it isn’t. What AI bots do is produce content. That’s not copywriting. Copywriting – whether for commercial marketing or fundraising – … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology
Tagged behavior, copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising, Fundraising copywriting, marketing, nonprofit
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Fundraising Copywriter George Crankovic 