Category Archives: nonprofit
Year-end fundraising – what you should be doing now
To raise more money with your year-end appeal, one of the first things to do is to make sure you have a solid offer. The fundraising offer is a statement of what the donor receives in return for giving. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, fundraising, nonprofit, Year end fundraising
Tagged copywriting, donor pyschology, fundraising, Year end fundraising
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This can torpedo a fundraising appeal
There’s a structure that’s often used for fundraising appeals even though it’s not really all that good for getting donors to give. This post at the Better Fundraising Company blog shows us what this structure is, and it goes something … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising, nonprofit
Tagged behavior, charity, copywriting, donation, donor psychology, fundraising
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Another reason to send thank you letters to your donors
When it comes to thanking donors, this is a horror story: A donor writes a check for $50,000, sends it in to the charity, and waits and waits for days and then finally calls the charity to make sure it … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising, nonprofit
Tagged charity, copywriting, donors, fundraising
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When to use a plain envelope in fundraising
In Gulliver’s Travels, our intrepid explorer finds himself in Lilliput, where two factions of Lilliputians are in dispute. On one side are the Big-Endians, who break their boiled eggs at the big end, while on the other side are the … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising, nonprofit
Tagged advertising, copywriting, fundraising, marketing, nonprofit
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The best reason to ask your donors more often to give
Lots of charities are shy about asking for donations. They don’t want to mail or email too often out of fear of seeming too pushy. And even in their appeals themselves, it seems like they’re trying to work up the … Continue reading
Posted in donor psychology, fundraising, nonprofit
Tagged behavior, fundraising, nonprofit
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What’s your fundraising war story?
When things go wrong with a fundraising appeal, it can seem like the end when it’s happening to you. But really, sometimes the lessons you learn in the school of hard knocks are the best ones – the ones you … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, fundraising, nonprofit
Tagged copywriting, donors, fundraising
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Fundraising: the 2 key “abilities”
Donor retention keeps falling, while donor skepticism keeps rising. So, it’s more important now than ever to connect with donors in a personal way if you expect to engage and keep them. But how? There are two key “abilities” that … Continue reading
How too much collaboration ruins fundraising appeals
There’s this idea that people seem to accept without even thinking about it. It’s the idea that all work is teamwork … that nothing can happen without the involvement of anyone and everyone … that any kind of collaboration is … Continue reading
When donor centrism is at odds with your donors
Donor centrism means putting the donor at the center of the organization’s fundraising and, in fact, everything the organization does. It means, as fundraising expert Simone Joyaux says, building trust — trust that donors play a critical role in the … Continue reading
Fundraising Copywriter George Crankovic 