Tag Archives: advertising
How NOT to begin a fundraising appeal – and one way that almost always works
A fundraising appeal from a social services nonprofit opens with this: “What would we do without you? How would we help local families like Michelle’s?” That’s the opening paragraph, the first thing that donors will see, and for some, the … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, fundraising, Uncategorized
Tagged advertising, behavior, charity, copywriting, fundraising, letter, marketing, nonprofit, Online fundraising
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Coronavirus fundraising and what not to do
Fundraising for the coronavirus emergency is, well, unusual so far. A soup kitchen sends an email with the subject line “A message from the president.” If you’re a donor scanning your email inbox, that could be just about anything. Then … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising
Tagged advertising, charity, copywriting, donors, email, fundraising, nonprofit, Online fundraising
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Are your fundraising appeals repetitive? Good
Effective copywriting for fundraising is weird. It has a lot of characteristics that seem to be the opposite of what’s right. One of these is repetition. Good copy for an appeal tends to repeat some things over and over. To … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising, nonprofit
Tagged advertising, behavior, copywriting, donor psychology, donors, fundraising, marketing
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Are you shouting at your donors without realizing it?
Yes, most donors are Baby Boomers. They’re in their 60s or later. And they don’t like to be shouted at. Are you doing that in your mail appeals? You might be if you’ve bought into the idea that the bigger … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising
Tagged advertising, behavior, charity, copywriting, donation, fundraising
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Get fundraising emails opened
With all the articles and blog posts on email fundraising, it’s easy to get the impression that the subject line reigns supreme in the ongoing battle to get fundraising emails opened. It’s not that the subject line doesn’t matter – … Continue reading
Posted in copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising
Tagged advertising, copywriting, donor psychology, fundraising, nonprofit
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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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Another cross-channel strategy to (maybe) add to the list
A lot of donor activity these days is cross-channel. A typical cross-channel matchup is direct mail and website. Another is direct mail and email. Now we can add one more to the list — TV and twitter. Well, maybe. This is … Continue reading
