Future Fundraising Now

Why "clever" fundraising doesn't work

Let's take a look at two headlines: One "clever," the other intelligent.

Clever headline

This headline is for an ad that ran in publications in India after a deadly cyclone. It's from an Indian relief organization raising funds within India.

Like so many clever headlines, it takes an indirect approach to its subject. It doesn't address the reader with the tragedy at hand and give her a good reason to respond. It addresses a side issue -- the low response to the cyclone.

It also exhibits another common approach of clever headlines: the old "nobody cares about our cause" trope, which has to be one of the most involvement-killing ideas in all fundraising. When your message is "nobody cares about this," you're just giving readers permission not to care about it. It's very effective at that.

The clever headline writer never gets outside his own head. To him the lack of donor response is the real problem. To everyone else, the destruction caused by the cyclone is the real problem.

---

Intelligent headline

This is a classic headline over an old ad for a piano correspondence course.

It tells a small slice of a story -- but that slice gives us the whole picture -- including the benefit of the product.

This writer isn't whining about how nobody's buying his product or taking his issues seriously. He's not trying to take a roundabout misdirection and trick the reader into doing something.

Think about it: To tell this story -- and to create the attention-grabbing headline -- the writer had to immerse himself in the mind of an adult who'd wishes he could play the piano. The nagging sense of inferiority. The need for validation. The determination to work hard and make good. Unlike the clever writer above, this writer got way inside his prospects, and speaks to their felt needs.

That's how you do fundraising. Understand your donor and speak directly to her. Don't try to show off your cleverness. And please don't subject readers to your whining.

Expanding definition of "poverty porn" means more ineffective fundraising

Now I've heard everything. An article in Nonprofit Quarterly has expanded the definition of the P-words -- Poverty Porn.

According to Truth or Charity? The Lure of Poverty Porn for Nonprofits, poverty porn is "using false or exaggerated images in donor appeals as a fundraising tactic."

The article cites the same study about images of homelessness that I posted about last week. That study found that most people think the typical homeless person is an older man who sleeps outside. That's the image that typically works best in fundraising, which is no surprise, as it goes straight to the issue of the donor's giving, rather than first needing to persuade donors that typical homeless people may not look the way you think.

Do you see what's happening here? "Poverty porn" used to mean images that starkly show the impact of poverty on people in a way that really troubles some people. Now poverty porn includes two more things:

1. Images that are real, but not the most typical.
2. Lies.

By sweeping lies (which no fundraiser should ever do) and donor-aware selection of imagery (which every fundraiser should at least consider doing), they've made every argument against "poverty porn" into a slam-dunk.

Truth is, poverty porn is a pretty contemptible concept. It allows fundraisers (or, often, armchair fundraisers who aren't actually responsible for raising funds) to blame ineffective fundraising results on donors' character flaws.

Serious fundraisers don't play games like that. They tell the truths that reach donors. When they fail, they take the blame themselves and adjust.

Fundraising is a real-world activity. We can't impose our tastes or politically correct theories on donors. They control the conversation, not us. Success comes from playing by their rules. Insisting that they must play by our rules always fails.

See also "Poverty porn" vs. fundraising: Let's get serious.

Th most common fundraising error, and how to avoid it

This is probably the most common fundraising mistake of all, the main reason many nonprofits struggle to get the support they need: telling donors the wrong story -- a story that's extremely unlikely to connect with or motivate them to give.

It's a reasonable error that comes from communicating what seems to make sense to us:

• Our cause is ultra-important.
• Our approach to it is effective and awesome.
• If people just knew those things, they'd be throwing donations at us!

All fine, except that approach is out of step with reality.

Sasha Dichter's Blog captures the problem precisely at Getting Fundraising Right:

As good and as important as our work is, we are not the protagonists in this story. We are the enablers of the change.

In fundraising, the donor is the protagonist. You raise the most money when you show donors how they can change the world in the way they want it changed. You are their vehicle, not the other way around.

That means:

• Don't brag
• Don't dwell on your processes, no matter how excellent they are.
• Don't try to educate them -- motivate them.

Sometimes fundraising that does all these things works nevertheless. I think that's because the donors re-write the story in their heads (or hearts) to become the correct story about how they make a difference.

But don't count on donors doing that for you. Instead:

• Focus on action -- the action they will make possible through their giving.
• Appeal to their values.
• Talk more about them than about yourself.

That may not be as easy as it sounds. But it's how you raise funds.

Podcast: Fundraising From Yourself: Beware

We're taking a look at one of the most destructive forces in all of fundraising: The need we all have to make ourselves the audience for our messages: Fundraising From Yourself -- or FFY.

It's the quick and sure path to failure.

We'll show you the three signs that FFY is happening in your organization and give you the tools for avoiding this common problem that costs nonprofit organizations millions of dollars every year. To listen, click here to download the audio file or visit the Fundraising Is Beautiful page here, where you'll find several listening and subscription options.

Or subscribe with iTunes:

Are your program people helping your fundraising?

Program people, those who lead and execute the mission at your organization, can be hard on fundraising. Because their perspective of what your organization does is radically unlike your donors'. I'm talking modes of perception that can barely conceive of one another. If men are from Mars and women from Venus, then program people are from Alpha Centauri and donors are from the tip of a unicorn's ear.

The elements that make fundraising work -- especially emotion and simplicity -- seem foolishly off-point to some program people. One program leader once told me, "If we ran the program the way you make it sound, we'd fly off the rails in three weeks!" Fair enough. But fundraising isn't the handbook for program operations. It's the connection point with donors who aren't experts.

Program people may feel your simple messages fail to capture the fullness of their programs. They're probably right; anyway, I hope they are, because the "fullness" is almost certainly bad for fundraising.

In some cases, your fundraising may even make program people feel bad, with its emphasis on what's not been done in their work. How would you feel if someone was sending out letters about the funds you've failed to raise this year?

These are all issues of perspective. The most difficult, or the easiest, issues to solve.

Here's what to do: Become their friends. I mean actual friends. At least friendly colleagues who don't mind hanging out and talking about tough topics, like what works and doesn't work in fundraising.

As a friend, you can earn the right to speak frankly with them about fundraising. About the deep difference between program personnel and your donors. About the gap between messages that move donors to action and those that just bore or confuse them.

Program people's opinions may be useless to your fundraising, but their knowledge can fuel great fundraising. They know how things work, how much they cost, and what's happening at a detailed level. Your best work will come from talking to them about their programs.

Your worst will come from following their fundraising advice.

Fundraiser: Your job is hope

Almost everyone is prone to a sense that everything is getting worse all the time. Politics keep getting more stupid. The environment keeps sliding toward some kind of doomsday. Crime, injustice, ignorance, war ... they all seem to be surging. We all need a sense that there's hope after all.

The Veritus Group blog notes that donors need it too: Your Donors Need Hope. And your job is to help deliver it to them by showing their giving makes the world better.

Here are some ways to give your donors hope:

• Get out of your office and see what your programs are doing. Gather a good number of stories that illustrate the hope your organization offers.
• Once you have a story, go tell your donors.
• Take a photo of the work your organization does, showing progress on something. Then send it or hand-deliver the photo and tell the donor.
• Get your CEO or Executive Director to write a handwritten note to your "A" level donors, saying how much their support is making a difference.
• In your newsletters, always, always show how donors' gifts are making a difference and giving hope.
• In your annual appeal create a whole section entitled, "You're Making Hope Happen."
• Schedule face-to-face visits with donors, with the sole purpose of telling them how they are giving hope to the hopeless.

Every time your donors donate, they build the case for hope. Are you making sure they know that?

How to feel bad about the photos you use in fundraising

Is your fundraising 100% "accurate"?

What exactly would complete accuracy look like?

A recent study in the UK (published at Sociological Research Online) pokes a stick into an issue some fundraisers spend a lot of energy worrying about.

The study, as reported by Third Sector magazine -- Homelessness charities should stick with stereotypical images of beneficiaries, report says -- asked subjects what homeless people look like.

Subjects overwhelmingly identified bearded older men who sleep on the streets.

If you've ever done fundraising related to homelessness, this won't surprise you. That's the imagery that works.

The "problem" is that older men who sleep outside aren't "typical" among the homeless. They're something like 10% of the homeless population. Young people and moms with kids are far more common. Sleeping rough isn't typical.

But when people think of the homeless, they think of the bearded old men. And when your fundraising features photos of young people or families, donors stay away.

This doesn't have to be a problem. You could just be realistic and use images that work. But a lot of fundraisers aren't comfortable with that solution. They'd rather use images of typical homeless people, for one or both of these reasons:

• They want to "educate" donors to be more deeply informed about the issue.
• They think it's more honest. In fact, a commenter on the article said, "Using 'stereotypical' images is being deceptive, and essentially lying...."

And that's where the problem starts.

First, direct mail, email, and all other direct-response fundraising channels are insanely ineffective educational media. They simply don't work to teach. So if you use images that are less effective for fundraising in the belief that you're trading some of your income for a more educated public, you'll end up with neither.

As for the "lying" charge, anyone can set their own standards, but let's get real: Showing a photo of something that's real, but not most common is far from a lie. If there were no bearded older homeless men at all, then it would be something like a lie to show them. But they're really there. Real humans who are really homeless.

If you're a fundraiser, your job is to raise funds. It's not to change the way people think -- though the ones who donate are going to be far more willing and able to change their thinking than those you fail to reach because your fundraising doesn't make sense to them. It's also not your job to bolster your own sense of reality.

If the imagery that does the job makes you queasy or unhappy for whatever reason, I don't think fundraising is where you should be.

Effective fundraisers meet donors where they are. Not where they want them to be.

Thanks to alert reader @adriansalmon for the tip.

How to write emotionally

Anyone can write.

But it takes something more to write with emotion.

Here's some help from the M&R Blog, at Emotional Copywriting Tips for Robots (and Humans):

• Numbers and statistics lead to people feeling emotional between 1.5%-10% of the time. (That is, numbers are numbing. Using them in fundraising is worse than ineffective; it turns away donors.)
• Concrete things are better than intangible concepts. (Donors give to make specific things happen.)
• Find your best time to write. (Writers are not robots; we need the right set of triggers to enable our best work.)
• Get emotional before you write. (You need to really care about your cause!)

Most people who "can write" actually can only type. They're no more real writers than would be typing robots. Writing is tough and takes a lot of focus, knowledge, and experience.

Nine attitudes that can hold writers back

Here's a good checklist that can help any writer think just a bit more clearly about the job of writing. It's from the Word Count blog: Nine Ideas Writers Need to Give Up:

Here they are (with my comments added):

1. Give up the sentiment that writing depends on talent. (Talent is nice. Hard work gets the job done.)
2. Give up on the whim of inspiration. (Be a professional and bring you're a-game to work every day, even when you aren't inspired.)
3. Give up the opinion that you don't need an editor.
4. Give up the idea that spending more time at your desk is always effective. (A lot of your best writing happens when you aren't writing.)
5. Give up the hope that you'll ever find writing "easy."
6. Give up the belief that anyone writes a perfect first draft. (The best writers are the ones who are willing to work harder.)
7. Give up the thought that simple, straightforward writing appears "uneducated." (Or that people will not respect you if you aren't formal enough.)
8. Give up the notion that all writers are good at spelling and grammar. (Some are good at it, and some aren't; there's no correlation between those skills and the ability to write with power.)
9. Give up the desire to feel you've ever "arrived." (Anyone at any level of experience can screw up!)

Generation Wah: the next game-changer of fundraising

There's a new generation of powerhouse donors coming onto the scene, and they are going to change everything about fundraising.

It's Generation Wah -- the incredible generation of super-donors, defined as those born since 2013.

Let me be frank with you: If you do not jump aboard the Generation Wah train right now, you are up a terrible creek in a concrete canoe, without a paddle and no life jacket!

Your rescue line: My hot-off-the-press white paper, Generation Wah Here are just a few of the jaw-dropping facts you'll learn when you order the white paper:

Generation Wah is primed and ready to give!

• They are highly emotional -- they spend more time per day weeping and crying than any other demographic group!
• They don't even know the concept of greed! (Though in one disturbing microtrend, some of the older members of the generation are showing signs of self-centeredness and uncooperativeness.)
• They literally swallow anything that's given to them!

Generation Wah has time for you and your cause!

• All their time is free time!
• They have 100% unemployment!
• They don't have any hobbies or interests to distract them!
• Only a small percentage of them are even on Facebook!

Nothing else is competing for Generation Wah dollars!

• They have zero living expenses!
• All their food and other needs supplied to them for free!
• They don't pay taxes!

Generation Wah is growing at an amazing rate: More than 350,000 people join Generation Wah worldwide every day.

And in the future, members of Generation Wah will be leading politicians, top-earning CEOs, entertainment superstars, record-breaking athletes, and many other desirable types that you'll wish you could hobnob with!

Catch the urgency! Feel the panic! Jump on the bandwagon! Stop wasting your fundraising dollars on older, less interesting fuddy-duddy generations! It's all Generation Wah for the cool fundraisers! Change everything now!

Download my white paper now, or get left in the fundraising dust!