For a lot of organizations, the next few weeks are critical. Your strongest fundraising efforts happen at the end of the year. Doing well now means you have a good year. Being off, even just a bit off, can put you in trouble for the entire year.
Clairification has some hints for maximizing your year-end direct mail, at 6 Ways to Raise More Money with Your Annual Fundraising Appeal:
- Mailing list. (Having the right audience for your message matters a lot more than how you express that message.)
- Get it opened. (The one creative thing you can do that has the most impact on response if a great envelope that gets people to open it.)
- Begin with the P.S. (The most-read part of your letter needs to be good.)
- Make it readable.
- Make it reader-centric.
- Write like you -- and your readers -- talk.
Go read the post -- there are a lot of useful details for each of these points.
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. 
