8 BOO BOO’s! Are You SCARING Nonprofit Donors Away?
| We Have Blast Off! |
What makes a fundraising appeal, well, appealing? Success is not that hard to achieve, provided you systematically consider all the key elements.
It’s not rocket science. Yet there is some science, and art, involved. Here’s what you have to do:
- Get it opened. You have about two seconds to get noticed. If you don’t get opened, it doesn’t matter what’s inside. Think about which envelopes you open and which ones you toss. Study this for a week and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to do and not to do. Ask a number of folks on your staff to do this; then discuss. For starters:
- Use a live stamp if you can. It looks less like junk mail.
| Looks inviting. I’ll open it! |
- Choose an appealing envelope. Window envelopes are impersonal. Consider a colored envelope to catch folks’ attention. Or a plain envelope without your name/logo. If folks can’t tell what it is, then they can’t toss it. It might be a letter from a friend. [Of course, use common sense. If your donors adore you (perhaps you’re a school or hospital or arts organization they frequent), then they’ll open an envelope they know is from you].
- Consider a teaser that’s impossible to resist (3 cancer-preventing foods inside… special gift inside…double your money… ).
- Consider handwriting the address. If not feasible for everyone, do it for your best prospects. You can also hand write the name of the person from who the letter is being sent over the return address. And you must get the recipient’s name right (and do not include any deceased spouses); be like Santa and double check your mailing list print-out for accuracy before you do anything else.
- Entice people to read the important parts of the letter. Good direct mail is designed to be skimmed. Eye motion studies show most folks read in a particular pattern from upper right to the salutation… to the signature (which is why who signs the letter is important)… to the P.S…. then back up to any illustrations… then to the subheads… then to the bullets and underlines… then, if you’re lucky, to the entire letter. So it doesn’t have to be every word. It does have to:
- Use simple, legible fonts. Serif fonts are best for text (e.g., Courier or Times Roman); sans serif are best for headlines and sub-heads. 12 point text is readable by most people, including seniors (though some people recommend 13 points).
- Use black or dark blue on white paper. You want the letter to be easy on the eyes.
| This is too hard to read. Forget it! |
- Use “You” instead of “I”. The letter should be about the donor and what they will accomplish through their investment. It’s not about how wonderful you and your organization are. The donor must feel he/she is vitally important. (By the way, “We” is even worse than “I”; no one writes a letter as a group). If you make it sound like you’re just fabulous without them, they’ll go someplace else where they’re really needed.
- Use conversational English. This means short sentences (no more than 10 words) and paragraphs (no more than four to seven lines), contractions, conjunctions at the beginning of sentences, prepositions at the end of sentences, action verbs, not too many adjectives and adverbs and fragments. Read your letter aloud. If it sounds stilted, rewrite.
- Not use “organization–speak”, jargon or labels. Your donor doesn’t care about your ‘fiscal year,’ your ‘clients’ or your AFP affiliation. They care about their own tax year (or the school year or performing season year) and helping people; they’ve no idea what AFP is. Always think from the perspective of the reader.
- Include sub-heads, bullets, bold face, italics, underlining and indented paragraphs to break up copy and call attention to key points (just take care not to overdo this; too much, and nothing will stand out). Every paragraph must stand on its own in case it’s the only paragraph that’s read. So it’s okay (it’s actually essential) to be redundant! Whatever you want folks to do, tell them again and again. Because most people don’t start at the beginning and read straight through to the end*.
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| Please save me |
- Take advantage of a compelling photo or photos.
- Take advantage of the P.S. This is often the second thing the reader looks at, after the salutation. It’s a good place to summarize a key point in the letter. It could be the reason why you’re asking for a gift now. It could be the specific amount/project for which you’re asking. It should be specific and compelling and speak to why a donor would want to invest with you.
Elements
- Be personal. This begins with calling people by their correct name. Don’t use Charles if the donor goes by Chuck. Don’t automate such much that you end up with something nutty like “Dear Mrs. Charles (Chuck) Lucy Brown.” If the donor gave previously, thank them. Let them know you know they’re already a supporter. Tell them what you did with their last gift. If they volunteer… if they have a student in the school… if they’re a former patient… if they attended an event… acknowledge as many of their past associations with you as you can. If you can hand address the envelope, or add a personal note to the letter, do so. And, in the 21st century, err on the side of the informal.
- Be relevant and meaningful. Talk to the reader like you would talk to a friend, or even a compatible stranger. If you were stuck at an airport due to a storm, you might strike up a meaningful conversation with folks you’d never met before about your common predicament. Assume a common predicament; one that your reader understands. Your tone should convey a sense of being in this together and sharing similar values.
- Be clear what problem you’re addressing. Don’t assume the prospect knows what you do. Even if they’ve been giving for a number of years, they may just have a vague notion of your mission. Be clear and compelling about the depth and breadth of what you do and the scope of the project at hand. You may just get them to stop and think. Your goal should be to turn a habitual pro forma gift into a thoughtful passionate gift.
- Be clear what solution you’re offering, and why you’re uniquely suited to do so. Lots of people help the poor and instill hope. Lots of folks make a difference. Lots of organizations create a caring community. What does your organization do differently, and especially well? If you fight cancer, how do you do it that differs from how another organization does it? If you feed the hungry, how might I decide to invest with you rather than another organization that provides food and meals? If you provide after-school programs for youth, why are your programs more worthy of investment than another organization’s programs? Think of it as a job interview. I can only hire one candidate. Persuade me to choose you.
- Be emotional. Your readers don’t care about information; they care about drama. Help them to feel something that will motivate them to act. Tell a compelling story.
- Instill trust. You can do this by including testimonials from clients or supporters. Or sometimes simply listing the board on your letterhead can accomplish this. And if you have any accreditations or awards (such as a Guidestar 4-star rating) it’s great to subtly include this on the letterhead. Finally, letting readers know how many people you helped last year is a good idea. Just don’t overdo it on the numbers and statistics; they should simply supplement the story or stories you tell about individual people. You want to demonstrate to the reader that you’ll be a good investment.
- Include a clear, compelling call to action. What exactly do you want your donor to do? How much does it cost to do this? Ask! That’s the purpose of your letter, so don’t be shy about it. Just remember: you aren’t asking for money because you want money. You’re asking for a specific amount to implement a specific solution. Help the reader understand the scope of the dollars required to implement the solution. If they give $100, what will that accomplish? What happens if they give $1,000? Relatively few donors today give because it’s the right thing to do. Most donors give to achieve results.
- Create a sense of urgency. Did another funder pull out? Has the need increased significantly for some reason? Do you have a challenge grant? Why must the donor give NOW?
- Add a hand-written note. I’ve found this to boost returns from as little as 2% to 20% with current donors. Ask board members, volunteers and staff to review your lists and agree to take on assignments.
*I’ve tried to model using sub-heads, bullets, boldface and underline here. If you read just the red subheads you should be able to get the gist of this article. Similarly, you can read just the bold face items. Or, you could read just what is underlined.
They all give you similar messages in slightly different formats. One way or another, hopefully you “get” the message.
What do you think about how this works?
6 Comments
Very nice summary of how direct-mail appeals work!
Thanks Gina. I appreciate that you read and commented on the article. Please share my blog with your friends and colleagues. The more people I can help this way, the more worthwhile the endeavor. Cheers!
You offer some very good ideas! Just a suggestion… have it apply to e-mails as well.
Thanks for reading/commenting. Some of this advice applies to emails, but not all of it. The way the eye moves across the page with a direct mail letter is different than what happens with an email. You must generally be a lot more succinct with email. And the attention grabber is not the envelope but the headline. Plus, you don't really have a remit device. You have to inspire folks to click on a donate link NOW (they won't put the email aside and save it to consider later, as is the case with direct mail). For that reason, you should consider a separate landing page that ties directly to your appeal.
Honestly, I hardly ever open direct mail. And I'm in the business! The only things I'll even consider opening are from the 4 or 5 NPO's that I already support. If it even has the scent of being "personalized" instead of "personal" I'll toss it in the trash on the way to the desk.
On occasion, if a package gets my attention, I'll put it in a pile of stuff for me to look at later and consider whether to put it in my sample file. It can be either very good or very bad to get my attention. In fact, my "worst direct mail piece ever" file is really fun to go through with students.
Am I jaded? Maybe. Picky? Certainly. In the past 5 years, I can't recall a donation I've made because of a letter or direct mail package. I can't be that unique, can I?
Actually Clay, I think you can be that unique. We're in the business, so these appeals are not written for us (except for the professional curiosity factor). Donor acquisition direct mail works for the demographic for which it's intended. And the more science and art that is applied, the better the results. In my food bank days I worked with a major direct mail firm that really had their system honed to perfection. Switching from another less specialized firm to them made a significant difference. That being said, major and ongoing donors will not respond in kind to this sort of strategy. Some of the guidelines in this article still apply, however. We still must get the envelope opened. We still must entice them to begin reading the letter. Hopefully we entice them to continue reading the letter… to the point where they become emotionally drawn into what we've written. Then they see we've added a personal note and thanked them specially for their past support. We've made a tailored ask that makes sense based on their previous connection with them. We've included a remit devices with appropriate choices. And the minute the gift is received we send out a prompt, personal thank you. It seems simple/straightforward, but charities miss these steps all too often. Thanks for commenting!