When one picture is worth the wrong 1,000 words

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19 November 2010

When one picture is worth the wrong 1,000 words

by guest blogger Steven Screen

Yesterday these two letters arrived in my mailbox on the same day.

The other from American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA):

Which one do you think donors are most likely to give to? The one with the photo of smiling kids drinking from juice-boxes?

Or the one with a hungry baby?

What gets me is the ANERA package is an acquisition package. I've never heard of them before. And they send me a photo of smiling kids with juice boxes? And ask me not to "write them off"?

If you want people to join you in solving a problem, you need to make it clear there is a problem.

Posted by Jeff Brooks on 19 November 2010 at 08:42 in Fundraising | Permalink

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The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It's not about any technology, medium, or technique. It's about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It's already here. More.

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Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. More.

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19 November 2010