Are you making it hard for your donors to take action?
You might be by making your fundraising less accessible.
The Community Centric Fundraising proposes some ways to improve accessibility at 7 tips to write content that is more accessible:
- Write plainly, not like you’re sooo fancy. It's easy to slip into "look at me" language the demonstrates your knowledge and professionalism. It's Betty to keep things plain and simple.
- Stack high-value information at the top. Whatever it is you want to say, say it early and say it often!
- Subheadings and paragraph breaks are your friends, so use them. Write for skimmers! Give then plenty of entry points.
- Try to baby-bear bullet points — not too much, not too little — go for just right. Bullet points are good entry points. But if they're boring points -- or too many -- they can do more harm than good.
- When it comes to words, avoid relying on visual emphasis. Some emphasis is good. Too much is like having none at all.
- Be structurally consistent to help people continually find their footing in your writing. People process consistent information more easily.
- Put yourself in your very smart but under-informed reader’s shoes constantly. The hard part. It's tough to "un-know" what you know, but the more you can think like a non-expert, the better your results will be.
Never, never, never think simplifying your writing is a form of "dumbing it down." Your donors are smart. But they're not experts, they're paying a lot less attention, and they have many other things to do.
Make it easy, and they'll reward you for it.
