Here’s a blog post from the Better Fundraising Blog that will help you raise more money on your next project: Top 5 Appeal Tips:
- The only good news in an appeal should be that the donor’s gift today will help. Future good news, not past. Yes, you have done and are doing great work. But when you go to donors to say that, you elicit congratulations, not donations. Asking should be about solving problems. Not about previously solved problems.
- Avoid “we” and “our” language. Write like you’re one person connecting with another person. You’ll raise more money.
- Include no more than 1 or 2 numbers in an appeal. Stats and numbers are great when you’re seeking grants. Not when you’re hoping to move donors to give. Numbers make them pay less attention. And that means fewer gifts.
- Ask donors to help one beneficiary, not to help all the beneficiaries. The human mind has a hard time engaging with masses of people. We tend to block those thoughts. But we love to engage with individuals. That’s why winning fundraising focuses on one person at a time.
- Avoid using pronouns in underlined or bolded copy. Because most donors scan your message, underlining is a way to guide their scanning. Underline things you want people to read if they aren’t reading the parts around it. That’s why underlined sentences need to make sense by themselves. He needs it today is a perfectly grammatical sentence, but because it uses two pronouns, it doesn’t stand alone.
