Future Fundraising Now

The first and biggest mistake of fundraising copywriters

Very important point from Pro Copy Tips, at Why good copy goes bad: are you stupid or just ignorant? Here it is:

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a copywriter is to assume your job is about writing.

It's true, I'm sad to say.

In fundraising, you'll do better if you're a fundraiser who writes well than if you're a writer who's stuck doing fundraising.

Because real-world professional fundraising writing is not about finding your voice or baring your innermost soul. It's about knowing a lot of things about donors, how to motivate them, what a good offer is, and a dozen other details -- and being able to write all that in clean, clear, vivid prose.

If you want to be a "pure" writer -- a Sylvia Plath or a James Joyce whose writing is a form of art -- you're most likely going to live in poverty and obscurity.

If you want to make a difference -- and a paycheck -- your writing talent is merely one of many tools in a well-stocked toolbox.

This is often the first and hardest hurdle for young aspiring professional writers, in fundraising or any other writing profession. The quicker you get past it, the more happy and successful you'll be.

On the web, don't chase donors away with too much copy

For a writer, there's hardly anything more depressing than the way people consume our work. Or don't consume it, to be more accurate.

Especially on the web, people just don't pay attention to most of what we write, and the more that's there, the less they read.

The Global Currents blog asks this important question: If you knew that only 20% of what you said would be heard, what would you say? at Content Overload:

The adverse effects of too much text are not limited to a donor only skimming your page -- it's more dangerous than this. It starts with missing key calls to action and moves into indifference and ultimately disengagement. Don't treat your site like the only time or the only means you'll have to interact with your donor. It's a starting point, a cocktail, keep it interesting, lure them back for more.

That's right, much of that well-crafted prose is being ignored! In fact, it's hiding what you want donors to do!

On the web, keep your copy short, simple, repetitive and easy to read (short paragraphs, short sentences, small words). Zoom ahead to the action you want readers to take. Skip the philosophical foundations -- you can get to that later if you manage to stir them to action now.

Fundraising is not about "us" -- it's about "you"

Writing fundraising copy poorly is pretty easy. Writing it well is hard. Getting it from bad to good is devilishly difficult.

But here's one way, from Karen Zapp, to make not-so-good copy into pretty decent copy. And it's easy: What SINGLE change can improve any fundraising appeal?

Here's Karen's one change: Change the word "we" to "you." And here's how it plays out:

We sent 220 volunteers to Joplin to help them rebuild. Ten families are now living in their homes again. This is just one example of what Acme Charity has done in this past year.

Yawn. But change we to you, and you get:

You helped send 220 volunteers to Joplin. Ten homes were rebuilt and families are living in their homes again. This is just one example of what Acme Charity has done in this past year.

There's still a lot more that could make that paragraph stronger -- but that simple change transformed it from organizational navel-gazing into genuine donor-connecting fundraising.

Lousy copywriter David Ogilvy with some hints you can use

At Letters of Note, a blog that reproduces interesting letters written by interesting people, a letter on writing from advertising legend David Ogilvy: I am a lousy copywriter. Here are some excerpts:

• I spend a long time studying the precedents. I look at every advertisement which has appeared for competing products during the past 20 years.
• I am helpless without research material—and the more "motivational" the better.
• I write out a definition of the problem and a statement of the purpose which I wish the campaign to achieve. Then I go no further until the statement and its principles have been accepted by the client.
• Before actually writing the copy, I write down every conceivable fact and selling idea. Then I get them organized and relate them to research and the copy platform.
• Then I write the headline. As a matter of fact I try to write 20 alternative headlines for every advertisement. And I never select the final headline without asking the opinion of other people in the agency. In some cases I seek the help of the research department and get them to do a split-run on a battery of headlines.

Tips for fundraising writers

Here's a great set of principles from the Googledigook blog: 17 things I have learnt about charity email copy.

Here are some of them -- the ones that apply to fundraising writing in general, not just email:

• READ IT OUT LOUD -- if it doesn't sound like a real person speaking, start again.
• Cut, cut and cut again. If the meaning remains the same, you've almost certainly made it more elegant by cutting.
• You are allowed to begin sentences with 'And' or 'But.'
• There should always be some version of the Call-to-Action above the fold.
• Avoid sentences with multiple clauses and sub-clauses -- it's what we learned to do at university, but it's awful copywriting.
• Steer clear of adverbs. They're unnecessary.
• The message must be about the recipient, not the sender. Always talk about 'you,' never 'we.'
• Email content is a less-than-zero sum game. Talk about three different things, and you won't get three times as much engagement. You won't even get the same amount of engagement, split three ways. You'll get less in total.

Good stuff. More at the original post.

How to write headlines

Headlines are difficult. There are a lot of formulas that can help you write good ones, or at least avoid writing bad ones.

Here's a new formula for writing headlines, from the KISSmetrics blog: Can You Write a Better Headline Than This? Not Using Old Headline Formulas You Can't. Here's the formula:

Specificity
Helpfulness
Immediacy
Newsworthiness
Entertainment value

(Read the whole post; it has a lot of helpful detail on each of these elements.)

The first (and second, and third) lesson in fundraising

At SOFII, a new fundraising writer describes a moment of discovery: The first big lesson in fundraising copy. It's kind of like watching one of those fast-motion films of a flower blossoming:

I had felt like I had to write something that had never been said before to bring a fresh new voice to the company. I was terrified of not being original. In fact, I had refused to even look at the material my co-workers had written because I was scared I’d inadvertently copy their style.

That's an important lesson. And it's part of a larger lesson that all fundraisers (not just writers) need to learn: It's not about you.

Just as a new writer can get all tangled up in attempts to write something totally amazing that really displays their unique voice, fundraisers make similar mistakes:

• They try to make their fundraising messaging all about how amazing their organization is. What they should be doing is make it all about how their organization is a perfect partner for the amazing donor.
• They try to use their fundraising as an educational medium to make their donors into better people who think more like they do.
• They try to make their fundraising esthetically pleasing (to themselves).
• They try to create fundraising that they believe they would respond to. This is the biggest and most common killer of all. If you aim your messaging at yourself, you will miss your donors.

Fundraising: It's not about you. This is a lesson that comes early in the career of successful fundraisers. Early and often.

Four ways you chase away donors with your writing

Here's some basic help from the Happy Donors blog: Why donors don't read your fundraising letters.

The sad reality is, most of our fundraising letters go unread. And most often, you lose the battle for readership before they even open the envelope.

But once a donor has opened your envelope and is holding the letter in her hand, she still might not read it. And here are some reasons why:

1. You open the letter talking about yourself.
2. Your letter doesn't look and "feel" personal.
3. The letter reads like it's written.
4. I can't easily scan your letter and/or when I scan, nothing grabs my attention and buys my readership.

Let me especially comment on #3, because it's an important point that a lot of fundraisers miss. Too many fundraisers use a writerly tone. It may be the way your writing teachers taught you to write, but it doesn't sound like a friend connecting with a friend -- and that's why it's not good fundraising.

It takes a true professional writer to not sound like a writer.

How to tell stories for fundraising

You know you must tell stories to motivate donors to action. But how? Here's a great post at Copyblogger to help: How to Write Weapons-Grade Copy. The tips for telling stories:

• Use characters and problems already familiar to the reader.
• Be specific.
• Use vivid language.
• Set up the conflict, crisis, or threat.
• Make your customer the hero.

That last one is probably the most important, and most often neglected in fundraising. We really love to tell the amazing, impressive stories that show how needed and/or effective our work is. The real story, though, is how needed and effective the donor is.

How adjectives and adverbs suppress fundraising

Most good writers understand that adjectives and adverbs usually aren't worth the space that take up. Now there's a study, reported at the Neuromarketing blog -- The Dark Side of Adjectives -- that supports that belief.

Researcher looked at a variety of online content and compared what was spread around on social media sites:

... the least shared content had the highest use of adverbs and adjectives. This isn’t totally surprising. Experts have told us for decades that nouns and verbs move the reader forward, but modifiers slow the reader down.

(The research is published on the book Hierarchy of Contagiousness by Dan Zarrella, available at Amazon or at Powell's.)

If you want your writing to be spread around the web, go easy on the modifiers. In fact, if you want people read, understand and be motivated by your writing -- online or off -- start trimming out adjectives and adverbs. It's an easy way to improved response.