How to make your newsletter thrill your donors

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21 March 2016

How to make your newsletter thrill your donors

It's possible your newsletter is good bedtime reading for your donors. That may be an appreciated service by some of them, I doubt a sleep-inducing newsletter is accomplishing what you need it to do.

Ann Green's Nonprofit Blog asks Is Your Newsletter Putting Your Donors to Sleep? If it is, here are some things to do:

Think about what your donors want (they want to know that their giving makes a difference)
Share stories
Write to your donors (directly address them in stories, making it clear: You made this great stuff possible!)
Say thank you
Make it easy to read (and scan)
Short and sweet
Send it to the right audience (donors)

If your newsletter isn't raising money, that's probably because it's not engaging donors.

When you create your newsletter, keep three things in mind: drama, joy, & ease...

Make every story throb with drama.

Make sure everything is a source of joy for your donors.

Make it easy to read.

Posted by Jeff Brooks on 21 March 2016 at 07:35 | 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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