Fundraising Copywriter George Crankovic

Category: Uncategorized

  • 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.

     

  • 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.

     

  • 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.

     

  • Book review: “Everyone at a Nonprofit Is a Fundraiser”

    “Your nonprofit is siloed.” That’s something you never want to hear. If you do, then your organization’s departments all have their own agendas, lack a common vision, and fail to communicate with each other. Everyone is working at cross-purposes, trying to go in different directions at once, instead of one clear direction.

    That’s why the new e-book — Everyone at a Nonprofit Is a Fundraiser  — from Nonprofit Funderland is particularly relevant. It combines the experience and insight from the three principals of the organization — all veteran fundraisers — who’ve seen when nonprofits work well and when they don’t. That is, when nonprofits are centered around the donor and when they’re not.

    One anecdote in the book sums it up. A donor visits a nonprofit for a meeting with the executive director only to be met by a rude receptionist who ignores him, continuing instead to talk on the phone with her friend. The donor, thoroughly insulted, has his meeting with the executive director. A short meeting, to announce that he’s ending his support. Generous, long-term support. Ouch. Lesson learned.

    That’s the underlying spirit of the book — that a nonprofit centered around the donor, and therefore free of silos, is a better nonprofit. Better at fundraising and better at achieving its mission. In exploring this theme, the book delves into concepts of interest to fundraisers in organizations large and small. For example:

    • Creating a nimble nonprofit where good fundraising can thrive.
    • How and where to find new audiences for fundraising.
    • Why a nonprofit can and should be entrepreneurial.
    • Applying the 80/20 rule to donor engagement versus cultivation in your online fundraising.
    • Ways your digital strategy can improve donor acknowledgement.
    • Addressing the fear nonprofits have about asking too often.
    • What to do when your board isn’t fundraising-friendly.
    • The strongest tactic for fundraising in a recession (yes, the next one is coming).
    • Using communications to engage donors.
    • How to connect with major donors and win greater support.
    • Pitfalls to avoid if you’re considering an event.
    • Why fundraising, despite its challenges, is still a noble and personally satisfying profession.

    Everyone at a Nonprofit Is a Fundraiser covers a lot of ground. The only problem is that the content is so good you’ll find yourself asking drill-down questions about details that are outside the scope of the text. But that’s a minor concern. Because the lessons in the book are large and insightful. After reading it, you’ll come away with clear, specific ideas not only about how to do fundraising but also how to think like a fundraiser.

  • How to keep your branding from killing your fundraising

    A big idea in for-profit marketing for years, branding is just as prominent in the nonprofit world. More and more charities are looking to define and differentiate themselves by consciously crafting their brands. But the question is, will your fundraising strengthen your brand, or will your brand overwhelm your fundraising?

    What branding isn’t. Brand isn’t a new logo. It isn’t a redesigned website, sans-serif typefaces, or trendy color palettes. It isn’t pretentious, haiku-like copywriting. It isn’t artsy ads that defy human understanding. It isn’t social media or other shiny new technologies. When these things are misconstrued as branding, they overwhelm fundraising and lessen its impact — or worse, render it ineffective. Brand is something different. It goes much deeper.

    What branding is. Your brand is what you do and how what you do aligns with your donors’ deepest aspirations, beliefs, and values.

    Donors will naturally associate certain thoughts and feelings with your organization and your work. If they “get” your mission and have an affinity for it, and if they see accomplishments and outcomes, your brand is strong in their eyes. Your charity will be top of mind when they think about the cause you’re engaged in. As a result, your fundraising can cultivate donors and develop their ongoing support. When branding conveys accomplishment and trust, it confirms to donors that they’re making a difference. That’s essential. It’s why donors give.

    Ultimately, donors don’t give to your brand or your logo. In reality, they don’t even give to your nonprofit — they give through your nonprofit to effect change. When that realization drives branding and fundraising, both thrive.

  • Will this marketing tactic work for your next promotion?

    Two different promotions. Two different products. One marketing tactic. Maybe these marketers are onto something. They are, and it’s something we can use.

    In the space of one week, two promotions arrived in my mailbox. One was for a collection of uncirculated coins. It came in a snap-pack envelope (the kind with the perforated edge that you pull off to open) with all the markings of a special delivery business mailing. It talked about the coins and included a reservation certificate, which was of course an order form. What really stood out, though, was the heading “Notice of item on hold.” The letter went on to explain, “This is a 10-day hold. After this 10-day period, we will be forced to regard the item as unclaimed.”

    The second promotion was for a collection of leather-bound books. It came in an envelope with special-delivery markings and the label, “photo mailer.” Inside were photos of the books. The letter explained that “Our records show 1 (one) unclaimed genuine leather-bound Collector’s Edition of Huckleberry Finn being held in your name.” Here we had the “unclaimed item” approach again. This promotion went a bit further, though. It included an official-looking claim tag with instructions on how to claim the item (“simply affix your Claim Tag sticker to your Reservation Card and return it before January 31.”).

    You might be thinking that this “item on hold” approach isn’t new, and you’d be right. It isn’t. But, then again, offers like “buy one get one free” aren’t new, and, be honest, how many times have they worked on you?

    Fact is, these tried-and-true approaches work, and you can’t deny that the psychology of “item on hold” is interesting. These promotions both presented me with an item that’s virtually in my hands now. It’s really already mine. The little matter of actually paying for it is positioned as nothing more than a technicality. What’s more, in a clever bit of reframing, I don’t even have to go through the trouble of ordering the item. I simply have to claim it.

    But before you dismiss “item on hold” as just another schlocky direct mail trick, take a moment to consider how you could use this approach in marketing your product or service. It’s worth thinking about, because this tactic could be adapted to a variety of B2B or consumer products or services – for example …

    · Novell updates – our records show unclaimed software updates available for you now.
    · Acme Industries’ new white paper – Social Media Strategies for Lead Generation – is on hold for you now, pending your acceptance.
    · There’s a new Dell Inspiron laptop on hold for you – claim it now and receive a free keyboard!
    · Our service team is holding a maintenance certificate for the 5,000-mile oil change for your BMW 3-Series. To claim it simply respond now.
    · Notice of Unclaimed iphone Ap! The new Starbucks-finder ap is on hold now for you – just text “I want coffee” to claim it.
    · The July introductory issue of Investor’s Monthly is ready to deliver to you, pending your approval – claim this valuable investing intelligence now.

    Borrowing this tactic just might erode some sales resistance and create an opening for your product or service. Or, as a jumping-off point for brainstorming, it might lead to another solution that creates sales or lead generation opportunities. At the very least, it’s worth testing with your product and your audience. You never know – it just might work.

  • East is east and west is west?

    There’s fundraising. Then there’s marketing. In most people’s minds, they’re two separate worlds. One is about blatant materialism, and the other’s about selfless altruism.

    While that may be true on one level, the fact is that both marketing and fundraising are strikingly similar from the point of view of persuasion.

    Take one example, a very successful mailing done for Peale Partners, a division of the Guideposts empire. The reason it did so well is that it uses many of the techniques of direct marketing. The envelope features a bold headline delivering a specific promise to the customer – er, donor. This big promise is then followed up with additional benefits to make the sale – in this case, to persuade the donor to open up the envelope – including, of course, the offer of something free. It’s consumer marketing from top to bottom, aimed at a donor instead of a buyer.

    Other examples abound. In the fundraising world, creative directors talk about making a promise to the donor. They talk about presenting the donor with a specific, believable offer that will motivate her to give. They talk about persuasion strategies, about using guilt and fear and other motivators, about donors’ motivations for giving and how to tap into them.

    Replace “donor” with “customer,” and you can see how interchangeable the two disciplines are becoming. In fact, a lot of fundraisers refer to their craft alternatively as fundraising and donor marketing.

    Not surprisingly, one of the best direct response copywriters of all time, Clayton Makepeace, found his inspiration in fundraising. He recalls a time when he was a copy cub noticing how the fundraising writers were able to persuade people to send in money just by the sheer power of their letters.

    From this revelation, he developed his theory of the dominate emotion and how to evoke it. He used his theory to sell – literally – millions of dollars of products and services to customers all over the world.

    Fundraising and marketing – two separate worlds? Don’t you believe it.