Future Fundraising Now

Keep donors paying attention by raising raising questions, not spouting answers

Ads written by journalists are why most people hate advertising.

They're also why so many ads are ineffective and a waste of money.

This is what we learn from The Monday Morning Memo at That Hovering Question Mark

It applies equally to fundraising.

Ads written by journalists are those that begin by revealing everything that is to come. Like, “Guidomeyer’s Furniture is having a sale!”

That's what you get when you follow the 5 Ws of journalism: Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

Fundraising written to those rules lead like this: "You can feed hungry children with your year-end donation today!"

It's a fact. Not a story.

To make it a story that the donor will be interested in paying attention to and possibly become part of by giving, open with a statement that triggers more questions than it answers.

This applies to email subject lines, outer envelope teasers, beginnings of letters ... wherever you're hoping to get the attention of would-be donors.

Pull people into the world of the problem you want them to help solve.

Don't whack them over the head with your pre-programmed solution to a problem they may not understand or know about.

2 things donors NEVER complain about

Donors can complain about quite a few things you might do, from spelling their name wrong to sending them mail while they were on vacation.

But there are a few things donors never complain about, including: “It’s Too Easy to Read!” The One Complaint I’ve Never Heard from a Donor (on The Better Fundraising Blog).

Some fundraisers "bulk up" the readability of the communications because they believe their donors are "more educated" and/or will bristle if "talked down" to. So they use long, complex sentences and technical terminology.

Which is a big mistake, no matter how highly educated and intelligent the donors are.

Because even the most towering intellectuals among donors don't notice that you're aiming up at them to recognize their achievements.

They just become less likely to respond when your message is harder to read.

Thing is, you'll also never hear a donor complain that your fundraising message is too difficult to read.

They don't notice that either.

Paying attention to readability is a responsibility of writers. Readers don't note the ease or difficulty of any text.

But if it's easy, they are more likely to read. If they read, they are more likely to respond.

And if it's difficult, they are less likely to read. Thus less likely to respond.

The correlation is clear.

But no complaints come in, either way.

If you want maximum response, make your message easy to read. That means two things:

1. Keep reading ease good, typically a Flesch–Kincaid grade level of 6 or lower or a score of 80 or higher.

(Yes, it's a bit confusing. There are two Flesch–Kincaid ways of measuring readability. Grade level, where lower numbers mean easier, and score, where higher numbers mean easier.)

2. Design for readability. That means large fonts (12 point should be the minimum), readable fonts (usually serif fonts in print), plenty of white space, short paragraphs, and no design tricks like reverse type or colored type.

Either way, complaints aren't going to clue you in that you've made an error of readability.

Response will show you. Hard to read = less response.

6 common errors that kill your fundraising story

Stories make fundraising come to life.

Most people know that.

But not every story does it. Here are some common ways otherwise strong stories can become weak and useless, failing to connect with donors:

1. Your story is not emotional. A "story" that isn't emotional isn't a story. It's a list. The entire purpose of telling a story in fundraising is to connect your cause with your donors' hearts. Because 95% of your donors will not donate until you've won over their hearts. Make your story about suffering, struggle, loss ... then show the donor how they can enter the story and help create a happy ending.
   
2. Your story has the wrong hero. The hero of an effective fundraising story is not your organization. Or your amazing staff. Or visionary founder. Any or all of them may be heroic, no question. But the hero of the story you tell to win over donors must be the donor. And they are more potential heroes. You are placing before them an opportunity to do something great. It's up to them to do it.
   
3. Your story is about programs, not people. Your programs are important. They must be well-designed and brilliantly implemented. But donors don't give because you have great programs. They give because they want to make a difference for fellow human beings. Make sure that's the story you tell!
   
4. Your story is not detailed enough. The way to make a story come to life is to focus on details. Especially those telling sensory details that put the reader into the scene. Think about the five senses, and include as many as you can. That turns a story from an account into a living reality for your donors.
   
5. Your story is too detailed. While you're thinking about adding details, also think about the details that don't make the story more vivid. You aren't practicing journalism, working to include all The who-what-where-when-why. If a detail doesn't make the story more human, interesting, and emotional -- leave it out.
   
6. Your story has a happy ending. Most of the stories we gather for fundraising have happy endings. We know about them because something went right! But a happy ending lets the reader off the hook. They see that things are good, and they are not needed! Leave the happy ending off the story. Save it for your newsletter and thank you letters -- so you can show donors their giving made a difference.
   

11 non-writing ways to write better

Writing is hard work that doesn't look much like work from the outside.

To do your best writing, here are some non-writing things you can do that really improve your creativity, productivity, and quality, from the Publication Coach blog, at How to get the ‘write’ mindset:

Here are 11 counterintuitive ways to get in the ‘write’ mindset by improving your own engagement, creativity and productivity:

1. Disconnect. All those wonderful ways you connect with the world are likely making you a worse writer by distracting you and keeping you off target. Limit your visits to your email to a few times a day. Make your writing time "sacred," not to be interrupted by IMs and other alarms. It will really make a difference for you!
   
2. Have plants on your desk. Really. Plants do something special for us.
   
3. Move more frequently. Get up and walk around from time to time. It might be helpful to set a timer to make sure you don't immobilize your body for too long.
   
4. Volunteer. It pays you back in ways that will surprise you.
   
5. Take advantage of your commute. If you commute, do so mindfully, using the time to read (or listen) to good stuff.
   
6. Quit multitasking. Sorry: nobody can really multitask. That's illusion. You think you're getting more done, but you're just doing a worse job of more things. Do one thing at a time.
   
7. Use a timer. Learn about the Pomodoro Method. Many people swear by it. Give it a try.
   
8. Plan each day the night before. It might seem more intuitive to plan your day as you start it, but by moving that step to the night before, you can often think more clearly about it. And you just might save yourself one of those toss-and-turn nights where you can't stop thinking about something that's coming up tomorrow!
   
9. Take lunch away from your desk. Yes, stop working for an hour or so. You work while you're working -- you should eat while you're eating.
   
10. Identify your most productive time and do your most challenging work during it. Everyone has a best time of day for working. Figure out yours, and then defend that time so you get the most out of it. You can get a lot more done in less time if you can arrange your time this way.
    
11. Take more breaks. Small breaks, like taking a walk during the work day. Medium breaks like having one day a week where you don't work. Bigger breaks, like vacations. They all add up to better productivity, better health, and more joy in your life.
    

Don't dumb down your fundraising -- smart it up

Some fundraisers are terribly afraid "dumbing down" their fundraising.

I think it comes from one (or more) of these sources:

1. Fear that if they don't come across as erudite or sophisticated, their donors will lose respect for them.
   
2. Pride (even arrogance) in their knowledge and education.
   
3. Obliviousness that not everyone (in fact, hardly anyone) sees the world as they see it.
   

Here's what it looks like when writers approach fundraising like that:

Donor support will ensure patients and their families have the resources and support systems in place to maintain optimal mental health, including creating wellness centers, providing personalized navigation assistance, expanding treatments and services and a reimagined outpatient environment that develops innovative solutions for community-wide mental health issues.

This sentence doesn't need to be "dumbed down."

It needs to be "smarted up."

• It needs to be made more readable, with several shorter sentences that have one idea each.
  
• It needs to be about concrete things, not abstractions.
  
• It needs to use the language of the reader, not the jargon of the writer.
  
• It needs to address the reader in a direct way -- not just make an observation about "donor support."
  
• It needs heart.
  

And all that takes skillful, careful, smart writing.

You and I see writing like this in fundraising all the time. The writers no doubt think they're displaying their professionalism and intelligence.

What they're doing is displaying their lack of writing chops.

Few donors will notice, because few will make it beyond the third word of a passage like this. Those who get through will have no idea what it's about, much less what they should do about it.

Next time you're told not to "dumb down" your writing, take a moment to see what you can do do "smart it up." You'll see the result in your fundraising revenue almost immediately.

Your unique voice makes your fundraising fail

The worst thing I've ever been told by a nonprofit client:

Our president has a very strong and unique voice. It's critical that all materials you write for us adhere to that voice.

Every time I've heard this, the result has been the same: The boss' unique writing voice doesn't adjust to effective fundraising writing. In fact, it pretty much outlaws it.

The unique voices of boss after boss are surprisingly similar to each other: formal, complex, hard to read, self-focused, padded out with abstractions.

So fundraising limps along weakly, with tepid response to every campaign.

The odd thing about "voice" in writing is that most people don't recognize it at all. It's something they heard about in some English course a long time ago, not a practical reality in their own writing.

You have to be an experienced writer to grasp the idea of voice. Some of those "unique voice" bosses get that much. But they're unaware of an even more important feature of voice:

Expert writers understand that voice adjusts to its audience.

The very purpose of "voice" is to accomplish a goal.

If you find yourself struggling with a "my unique voice" boss, you have my sympathy. If the boss is a reasonable and insightful person, you may be able to have a fruitful discussion about the issue. You can use the many books and blog posts about effective fundraising writing to make the point.

Some bosses will listen to you. Some won't.

If you're stuck with the second kind, I suggest you start looking for a different job. There are some amazing leaders out there who will let you do your job and thank you for not wrongly applying their voice to the fundraising!

When your fundraising story is not story at all

Read this excerpt from a direct mail appeal:

This has the hallmarks of a story.

There's a protagonist (Mary). There's conflict (her situation as a teen mother). There are lots of details.

Yet it's really not a story at all, at least not a fundraising story.

What this story lacks is the main ingredient of stories: Drama.

It says, "This is a dangerous situation for mothers like Mary and their babies." This is an abstract presentation of the situation. Instead, it should dramatize the danger. Make the reader "feel" the danger on an emotional level.

This story is an "explainer." It shows readers a situation in some detail. In hopes, I guess, that when people understand the situation, they'll want to support the project.

Which is not how fundraising works.

Donor's don't give when they understand. They give when they feel.

Explainer stories don't take most people to feeling.

The fundraising story of Mary would be different in these ways:

• We'd learn more about Mary as a person. Her hopes, fears, and pain.
  
• There would be more concrete details about Mary and her situation.
  
• We'd know less about how the program works, and a lot more about what it does. (Donors aren't paying for your processes; they're paying for your outcomes.)
  
• There would not be a happy ending. There'd be no real ending at all, because we're asking the donor to help create the happy ending.
  

The purpose of fundraising stories is to touch the heart of the reader. Not to teach her a lesson about how your program works.

Understanding often follows charitable giving. It rarely leads to it.

(This post first appeared on August 29, 2017.)

Two ways to be a better nonprofit -- and raise more funds

A great way to do better fundraising is to be better.

Let me tell you about something that's better. It's a line of blank notebooks called Moleskine. The small one that I use costs around $10. Pretty dumb, huh? I could get a notebook at the drugstore for under $2. And every time I go to a conference I bring home two or three little notebooks for free.

Yet I shell out ten bucks for a Moleskine. Because it's better than the other options:

1. It has better features

The paper is acid free, so it won't turn brown and crumble in a few years. The pages are rounded off, so they don't get dog-eared. It's bound so it can lie open flat. There's a ribbon bookmark. There's an elastic strap that holds it shut. The oilcloth cover looks and feels nice.

All around, it's well made and a pleasure to use.

Other manufacturers have noticed and are selling high-end notebooks. Some probably even better than Moleskine. Or at a lower cost. That's why Moleskine's second advantage is so important ...

2. It has a better story

This isn't just any notebook. It's been around for a long time, and was supposedly used by some very cool people, like Picasso, Van Gogh, Mallarmé, and Hemingway.

Travel writer Bruce Chatwin was obsessed with his Moleskines. Part of the story is that the original manufacturer died; when Chatwin tried to buy some at his favorite Paris bookshop, he was told, "Le vrai moleskine n'est plus." That quote is always in French in the Moleskine story -- it flatters me that they tell it to me without a translation -- of course I understand the (very easy) French!

Moleskine reeks of creativity, sophistication, and quality. The features and the story come together to make it almost irresistible. I know writers who swear Moleskine notebooks are part of what makes them able to write well.

Can you do this with your nonprofit mission? Actually make it better and give it a better story? Think about it...

How to create better features

• You could be noticeably more effective than the usual organization. But it would have to be in a way the non-experts could understand and appreciate.
  
• You could leverage donors' gift in some powerful way.
  
• You could acknowledge donors' giving in some very exciting way.
  
• You could make donors part of a community or group that they love belonging to.
  

How to tell a better story

• Connect with your donors' aspirations better than others.
  
• Really give them something they can brag about when they give.
  
• Connect to a great heritage that donors would be proud to be part of. (This might be an especially powerful for some religious and cultural organizations.)
  
• Have amazing spokespersons (living or dead).
  
• Strongly affirm donors' beliefs about themselves.
  

You can't make this stuff up. You have to make it real.

But it's possible to make it real, if your entire organization is part of the effort.

And the reward? How cool would it be to become the "Moleskine of Nonprofits"?

(This post first appeared on May 3, 2017.)

The writing secret that can double your fundraising success

Easier to read, more likely to raise money.

It's pretty simple, but you might not know that to read a lot of fundraising these days. It mimics that turgid style of academic writing, with long, complex sentences and always-choose-the-longer-word vocabulary.

Some fundraisers apparently think that makes them look smart or sophisticated.

It actually makes them look worried about their organization's future. Because writing that way steeply lowers response.

A recent test, reported in We Don't Write So Good, a free ebook from NextAfter and DonorVoice (available for download, registration required) found the following disturbing, though unsurprising result:

... by lowering the reading level of the message from 10th-grade down to a 6th-grade reading level, we observed a 90.8% increase in revenue....

For many people, the only place they've had formal training in writing has been at school. And school teaches academic style: complicated, erudite, formal. Appropriate in the closed world of academia (maybe), but bristling with barriers to engagement and comprehension in the real world, where nobody is being paid (or forced) to read your stuff.

Writing for ease of reading is not easy. It takes more skill, especially if all you know is what you learned in school.

But if you hope to succeed in fundraising, it's a skill you need.

Check your readability. It's built into the grammar check of many programs. Or you there are many online places that will check your reading ease for you.

And write for reading ease.

When you write like an academic, you actively exclude most of your donors, including those with advanced degrees.

And they'll respond by paying less attention, which means they'll give less often. Or never.

When we write like robots

I saw a trailer for a movie the other day, and it had one line that whacked me in the head:

One character says to another: "We thank you for your support."

The line is delivered for laughs, with a syrupy delivery that no normal person would ever use with another normal person -- the stilted wording making it clearly a rather savage form of sarcasm.

It whacked me because I see those exact words and similar ones all the time. Said in all sincerity by nonprofits I respect.

I've written phrases like that myself: That clueless, awkward, not-quite-human language that just pours so easily from our mouths because we've heard it before and it's what you do.

You wouldn't say something so stilted to a person you know. You'd say something friendly, natural, colloquial.

That movie scene is really bothering me.

So I'm making a vow, and you can join me if you'd like:

I will always do my best not to put in writing something that would make me sound like a robot if I said it in person.

I'll check for that kind of garbage writing by reading my stuff aloud and keeping a human listener in my mind.

Because being human is part of the job. Sounding like a robot is a lazy lapse that shouldn't go beyond our first drafts.