Steven Screen, Author at The Better Fundraising Company

How to Create a Great Fundraising Offer: What’s an Offer?

Steven Screen | April 4, 2019May 16, 2019Ask

I’m starting a series on Fundraising Offers – the least understood, most powerful way nonprofits (especially smaller nonprofits) can start raising more money immediately.

A strong offer helps your organization:

Raise more money with each piece of fundraising
Be more memorable to your donors
Build stronger relationships with your donors

This post will lay out some foundational ideas, then later posts will show you how to do it.

So first, let’s define what an offer is.

What’s an “Offer?”

A fundraising offer is the main thing a fundraising piece says will happen when the person gives a gift.

Here are some examples of offers taken from my files. Some are good, some are poor – later we’ll talk about what makes an offer effective or not. For now, we’re just working on identifying offers and understanding what they are.

I’ve underlined the “main thing that will happen” that each letter / email / newsletter emphasized:

“Will you join us as we fight poverty”
“Will you help these overcoming women in their journey”
“$1.92 will provide a Thanksgiving meal”
“Please partner with us as we end generational homelessness”
“For every $250 you donate, one child will attend camp this summer”
“Your gifts support the Harmony Experience for all”
“Your gift supports the arts in our community”

Every piece of fundraising communication has an offer.

Some offers are more powerful than others.

Some offers work for almost all organizations (e.g., year-end). Some offers only work for some organizations at very specific times of the year (e.g., opening night at the opera). Some offers are so powerful they can create billion-dollar organizations (e.g., “child sponsorship”).

Your job as a fundraiser is to find the most effective offers for your organization.

Can Changing Your Offer – Changing the Focus of an Organization’s Communications – Make that Big a Difference?

A good offer immediately improves an organization’s fundraising.

Just in the last couple months I helped:

An organization raise over $75,000 with an appeal letter when they’d never raised more than $3,000 with an appeal.
An organization raise $49,000 with an appeal when they’d never raised over $1,500.
An organization raise $5,500 with an email when they’d never raised more than $700.

The massive increases were created by changing their offers, by changing “the main thing the fundraising pieces said would happen when the person gives a gift.”

The organizations that went from $3,000 to $75,000 made a simple change. They changed their offer from:

“Together, we can change a young woman’s life”

…to…

“You can help one local woman go to college”

Doesn’t seem like such a small change could have such a big difference, does it? But by having a strong offer, and making it the main focus of a piece of donor communication, you can absolutely see remarkable increases.

Think of it this way: focusing your donor communications on the right thing immediately improves your organization’s fundraising.

What’s Next?

My next post will focus on why a good offer is so effective. I want organizations to understand why it works so well before I explain how to do it well.

Why? Because developing a strong offer is much more a “way of thinking” than it is a series of steps to follow, or a list of ingredients.

When I’ve given nonprofits or audiences the list of ingredients, they haven’t reliably been able to create strong offers.

To use a cooking analogy, I suspect I’ve been giving people a list of ingredients without providing the cooking instructions.

My fault. So with this series I’m going to “start at the start.” I’m defining what an offer is. Then I’ll describe why offers work so well. Then I’ll give you the ingredients. Then I’ll show you how to use them.

And then you’ll be on your way to creating stronger offers for your organization – and will start to raise more money immediately!

Read the entire series:

How to defend donor-centric fundraising to your boss

Steven Screen | March 28, 2019June 21, 2019Ask

Today’s blog post is a 4-minute video.

It’s taken from a recent free webinar I did where I was doing live reviews of appeals and newsletters. (There’s another one this Friday – you can sign up for free here.)

The video helps explain why donor-centric fundraising is more effective than organization-centric fundraising.

It’s this simple truth – that most donors are more interested in themselves and the things they care about – that explains why classic organization-centric fundraising doesn’t work as well.

So if you want to try donor-centric fundraising, share this reasoning with your boss. It seems counter-intuitive at first. But it makes sense when you think about it – and we have 70 years of direct response fundraising testing to prove it!

Watch the video here.

11 donor-centric sentences you can use…

Steven Screen | March 26, 2019March 26, 2019Ask

Here’s a question I get asked at least once a week:

“I see why it makes sense to write ‘to the donor about their gift’ instead of writing about my organization…

But how do I do that?”

My encouragement is that you can learn the same way I learned: you can take good copy from another organization and customize it for your non-profit.

So here are some sample sentences you can steal like an artist and customize for your organization. All of these sentences are from appeals that performed at or above expectations.

All are from appeal letters. Some of them are opening lines. Some are from the middle, some from near the end.

I’m writing you today with an important request. You are one of our most faithful donors, and I’m going to be very direct.

I’m so thankful to be able to write you about this.

You can really make a difference in the lives of suffering people.

When you give, it’s as if you’re right there beside us, caring for people in the field.

You’ll love how your gift is multiplied by volunteers and donated goods.

I couldn’t wait to write you this letter.

Look at how much good you can do; you can…

Here’s why your gift is so important.

[NAME], you’ve already been so generous, but I want you to know about the incredible need right now – and the opportunity for you to help.

I know you care for each [CATEGORY OF PERSON/CREATURE YOU WORK WITH].

Thank you for taking a moment out of your day to respond to this letter now.

There you go. Modify these for your organization – or just copy them!

Your donors will feel like you’re talking to them about the things they care about. And that’s the surest path to fundraising success.

5 Quick Thoughts to Help You Raise More

Steven Screen | March 21, 2019March 21, 2019Ask

Here’s a quick list of 5 things that should help you raise more money:

1. Letters that look like letters tend to do better.

A “letter” is a proven way to effectively raise money. But if you break the “form” too much – too many photos, too many graphics, a big color banner across the top – it begins to feel more like a brochure than a letter. And brochures do not work.

2. You do not have to be a great writer to be great at raising money through mail and email.

The things that make mail and email fundraising effective are rarely what most people think of as “good writing.” Really, you just need to know a handful of ideas – all of which I’ll be teaching in a free webinar Friday, March 22.

3. When someone at a nonprofit says they are going to “innovate,” really what they should say is that they are “attempting to innovate.”

Not all innovation works. If we explicitly name that going in, we’ll all be smarter about whether attempting to innovate is a good use of time and budget.

4. If you really want to get better at direct mail and email fundraising – as in actually study good teaching, not just read tips – study Siegfried Voegele.

Start with this article by Chris Keating.

5. “Fundraising Offers” are the most powerful, least-understood tactic in fundraising.

The teaching in our industry on Offers, even my own, isn’t cutting it. So I’m working on a better way to teach the organization-upgrading skill of creating a good offer. Watch this space.

Create & Relieve Tension

Steven Screen | March 19, 2019March 19, 2019Ask

The most effective fundraising communications create and relieve tension throughout the year.

“Creating and relieving tension” is a way smart fundraisers can tap into how humans are wired, to increase your donors’ engagement with your organization.

You’ve seen this at work in movies, TV shows and plays. There’s a classic “three-act structure” where there’s an “inciting incident” that creates tension, then there’s drama, then resolution to relieve the tension.

This approach has been used for centuries because it works. But there’s a specific way to do it in fundraising…

What Works Best

If you look at the best-performing fundraising programs – in terms of net revenue and donor retention rates – you’ll notice the following approach. I’m sure you’ve seen it yourself:

They create tension with powerful appeals
The relieve tension with powerful newsletters

There are a few outliers. But when we started Better Fundraising and really dug into the data, we saw that some organizations drastically outperformed their peers.

The high-performing organizations tended to have a mix of appeals and printed donor-centric newsletters.

The Simple Explanation

Great appeals create tension by presenting unsolved problems to donors.

They remind donors that all is not right with something the donor cares about. They leave the donor hanging. The donor does not know what’s going to happen.

That’s why great newsletters relieve the tension by sharing stories of how the problem has been solved.

They “close the loop” for the donor. They show the donor, usually through a story of a beneficiary, that the problem was indeed solved.

This leaves the donor feeling satisfied. Pleased that her gift made a difference. Trusting the organization more.

I Don’t Know Why, but the Data is Clear…

You raise less money when you create and relieve tension in the same piece of fundraising.

The standard theory: when you relieve your donor’s tension, you remove some of her emotional momentum and reason to give.

But when you leave your donor with a little tension, she is more likely to take action. Because by taking action, she resolves the tension.

She can say to herself, “I know that I helped. I know that I did my part.”

Side note: note that in this scenario, the donor is giving to help someone and to “scratch her own itch” – to relieve the tension she feels. She is not giving to scratch the organization’s itch. My personal theory: if more organizations knew that donors gave mostly to scratch their own itches, organizations would make more donor-centric fundraising, and a LOT more money would be raised.

How Does This Help You?

Great question. This whole line of thinking is a bit conceptual. So here are your takeaways:

During your year, you should have a mix of printed appeals and printed newsletters
Your appeals should present current problems to donors – not share a story of someone you’ve already helped, or work you’ve already done (free tips here)
Your newsletters should be full of stories of people you’ve helped and work you’ve already done (just be sure to give credit for those things to your donor)
Don’t try to do both things (share a need and a “story of success”) in the same piece of fundraising. When you do that, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

And Up Next…

Many organizations don’t like to share current problems, or unsolved problems with their donors.

I get it. It’s uncomfortable.

But it sure works better. And I think that the arguments that there’s something wrong with that approach fall apart when examined.

I believe Asking in this way is a form of donor love. Or #DonorLove.

I call it #DonorToughLove, and I’ll write about it next…

You Must Earn Your Donors’ Attention (they don’t read the whole thing)

Steven Screen | March 12, 2019March 12, 2019Ask

Most nonprofits, without realizing it, make a big assumption when they write their fundraising.

They assume their donors will read the whole thing. The whole email. The whole letter.

That’s a really unhelpful assumption.

Here’s a heatmap of a 1-page direct mail letter. It shows what a donor’s eyes tend to look at, and in what order it happens:

We could spend a lot of time talking about what this means for your fundraising writing and design. But there’s one main lesson I want you to take away…

You Have to Earn and Keep a Donor’s Attention

You cannot assume your donor will read the whole thing.

Well, you can. But you’ll raise a lot less money.

So first you have to earn your donor’s attention. That’s having a great teaser on your envelope. Or a catchy subject line for your email. You need to get good at those things.

For your mass donor fundraising to excel, you need to be better at earning attention than you need to be at describing your organization or your programs.

That might feel like a “sad truth.” But it’s a really helpful truth if you want to raise more money and do more good.

How to Earn Donor Attention

There are three main ways to earn donor attention. You need to make your fundraising:

Interesting to donors. This almost always means talking about your beneficiaries and your cause more than your organization and your programs. Remember: your donor first got involved because of your beneficiaries or cause, not because of your programs.
Emotional. Emotions are what keep us reading. You want to constantly be using the emotional triggers: Anger, Exclusivity, Fear, Flattery, Greed, Guilt, Salvation.
Dramatic. You want your fundraising to be full of drama and conflict.

Here’s an example. You already know that your first sentence of any fundraising appeal is super important. Take a look at these two:

“[NAME] Theatre is dedicated to producing high-quality, daring productions that take on challenging topics.”

vs.

“I’m writing you today about something you care about – and it’s in danger.”

I can basically guarantee you that more people are going to keep reading the second example. It’s written directly to the donor, it’s about something she cares about; it’s emotional, and it’s dramatic.

The first example – from a real letter from my files – is a classic example of telling the donor something the donor probably already knows and doesn’t really care about.

Note: Arts organizations often say that their fundraising can’t be emotional or dramatic because they don’t have babies or puppies to raise money for. I think the first example above shows that Arts organizations can absolutely be dramatic and emotional in their fundraising – they just need to think about it differently. After all, if a Theatre can’t get dramatic, it’s probably not that great a Theatre!

The Big Lesson

Your donors are moving fast. They don’t read the whole thing, watch the whole thing, or listen to the whole thing.

You need to get great at getting and keeping their attention. Study it. Know what your donors care about and then borrow tactics from advertising and social media to get your donor’s attention. And remember; we have 70 years of best-practices for earning and keeping donor attention. Smart fundraisers have learned a LOT over the years. Tap into it!

Because if you can earn your donors’ attention, they are more likely to keep reading.

And if you can keep your donors’ attention, they are more likely to give you a gift.

When to Attempt to Innovate

Steven Screen | March 7, 2019March 7, 2019Repeat

I wrote recently about how the vast majority of small nonprofits should not spend time and money attempting to innovate.

But there are times when attempting to innovate is the right thing to do:

You should attempt to innovate after you have stabilized your fundraising, optimized your fundraising, and expanded your fundraising.

Stabilize, Optimize, Expand, Innovate

Most small- to medium-sized nonprofits need to stabilize their fundraising.

That means getting your systems locked in so you know exactly what to do, when to start, how long it takes, and you get it done on time. (Most small nonprofits have work to do on this stage, in my experience.)

Then they need to optimize their fundraising.

That’s making each appeal or e-appeal work as well as possible. That’s using segmentation and talking to different groups of people with different messaging. That’s analyzing the results of each fundraising campaign and making the next one better.

Then organizations need to expand their fundraising. That’s trying a new channel, like radio or Facebook. Or beginning a scalable donor acquisition program. Or sending 6 appeals instead of 4.

Then, and only then in my opinion, should organizations be trying to innovate.

The three things above are hard. But our industry knows how to do them.

Don’t Skip a Stage!

Too many nonprofits skip over the steps above.

They skip things that we know will work to raise them more money. Instead, they try things that might work.

They waste tons of time and money. And they pay the opportunity cost of the money they could have raised – and the donor relationships they could have made deeper.

Because remember, innovation doesn’t always work. In fact it rarely works.

(Side note: this is why I’ve been saying “attempting to innovate.” Because when organizations attempt to innovate, they often come up with a) things other organizations have tried before that didn’t work, and b) new strategies and/or tactics that don’t work.)

To all you small nonprofits out there: let the big organizations, who have optimized their fundraising, spend the money to innovate. There will be some successes and some failures.

Then copy their successes.

The Real Trick

The real trick is knowing when to innovate.

In my experience, too many smaller nonprofits like the idea of innovating – of working on something exciting – more than they like the hard work of following best practices.

So they attempt to innovate when they should be following surer paths to success.

If a nonprofit follows best practices, it will raise more money.
If a nonprofit tries to innovate, it might raise more money.

And you want to know what’s really exciting? Raising more money with less work. That’s what happens when you follow best practices!

Why attempting to innovate is rarely the smart choice

Steven Screen | March 5, 2019March 5, 2019Repeat

The vast majority of nonprofits should not spend time and money attempting to innovate.

Let’s keep this super brief.

The fastest, cheapest way to raise more money is almost always to follow fundraising best practices.

Especially when most small nonprofits can see growth of 15% to 20% per year when they start following best practices.

“But wait,” I can already hear people thinking, “we’re small, we have to innovate. And regular fundraising is boring.”

Please hear me out: that line of thinking is what keeps many small nonprofits small.

First of all, you do not have to innovate. Your organization was started to do one thing: make an impact for a cause or group of people who need help. Not to make an impact AND create innovative fundraising.

Having the impact your organization was started for and creating innovative fundraising are two completely different things that require completely different skillsets. It’s highly unlikely that a small nonprofit will be good at both.

Attempting to Innovate is a Bet

Organizations that attempt to innovate are betting time and money that the results will be better than the results they could get from best practices.

Sometimes you win. Most of the time you lose. Best practices are best practices for a reason: they are proven.

In my experience, attempting to innovate is a bad bet for most small nonprofits.

Let the “big guys” innovate. Let the big guys absorb the costs of all the testing and failures that lead to breakthroughs. Small nonprofits should be following the known paths to success.

Try Proven Tactics that are New to You

Most small nonprofits confuse “trying new things” with “attempting to innovate.”

Should small nonprofits should try new things? Of course.

For instance, you could try to acquire new donors using radio. That might be new for your organization, but it isn’t innovation. It’s a proven tactic. There are known Cost Per New Donor amounts (around $100). There are known ROIs (around 1.1 to 1.3). There are known ways to make it succeed (have a great offer, tell stories, long form is more effective than short form).

The thing I want smaller nonprofits to know is that the Fundraisers Who Came Before You have tried almost everything. If you look around, they’ve figured out what tends to work well and what doesn’t. Lean into that set of knowledge!

And here’s the amazing thing; those Fundraisers Who Came Before You will share their knowledge! They’ll tell you what they did and how they did it. They’ll share the results. You can apply what they learned to your organization, to grow faster.

You just have to take the initiative.

The Good News for Small Nonprofits

There are things you don’t have to do. Things you can take off your plate.

And one of them is attempting to innovate.

There’s an incredible body of knowledge that’s been built up over the last 70 years for how to raise money effectively. Lean into that body of knowledge – it’s what I do every day.

Every once in a great while, attempting to innovate is the right course. It’s fun (and usually expensive).

But the majority of the time there are huge gains to be made not from attempting to innovate, but from taking what’s worked for other organizations and applying it to your organization.

You’ll save yourself a lot of time and heartache. And you’ll do more good faster.

PS — Get some of our best practices from our free e-book, “Asks that Make Your Donors Take Action.”

How to Raise 15%-20% More This Year

Steven Screen | February 28, 2019February 27, 2019Repeat

We’re doing a series of short posts called Mastermind Lessons.

The Fundraising Mastermind is transformational consulting for nonprofits that we do with Chris Davenport of Movie Mondays and The Nonprofit Storytelling Conference.

Today’s post is the fourth top-level lesson we’ve found that every organization in the Mastermind needs to learn…

It’s simple… but it’s not easy.

The Three Things You Should Focus On

I realized that every organization we worked with needs to get better at these three things. And all of them saw immediate gains from doing so.

Over my career, I’ve noticed that the organizations who focus on doing these well see a lift of 15% to 20% in net revenue over the first year they focus here.

So read on if you’d like to see that kind of growth…

#1 – Communicate to Your Donors More – About What Donors Care About

It’s a fact: most nonprofits under-communicate to their donors. (To be more nuanced, most nonprofits under-communicate to their donors about what their donors care about.)

Just one example: most small nonprofits who send four appeals per year are scared to death that they will drive their donors away if they send another appeal or two. What those small nonprofits don’t know is that their donors also give to other organizations who are mailing twelve, sixteen or even twenty-four times a year.

If you literally don’t have the human resource capacity to be communicating more, that’s a good reason. But if the fear of bothering/offending your donors is causing you to contact them less, you need to stop fearing and trust in a) best-practices and b) your donors’ willingness to help.

And of course, you have to communicate with donors about what they care about. Most smaller nonprofits have a hard time with this, which is why they should…

#2 – Use Specific Offers

To smaller organizations, it’s counter-intuitive that highlighting a specific part of one program will work better than Asking donors to fund your mission or all of your programs.

But it works almost every time.

Most of your donors, most of the time, don’t want to know the whole picture. They want an easy way to do something meaningful that they understand.

A great offer gives donors what they want: it highlights a specific part or step of one of your programs (so it’s easy to understand), and it shows your donors how meaningful and important that step is.

#3 – Manage Your Major Donor Relationships

About nine out of ten organizations we work with openly acknowledge that they could do a better job with their major donors.

And for the organizations where we can spend a year or two helping them improve their major donor systems – their revenue growth is remarkable.

Investing in your major donor systems is an easy win. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it will sure feel like it.

15% Growth is Simple, But It’s Not Easy

To the smaller nonprofits out there: if you do the three things above, and do them well, you’ll see significant revenue growth.

Because there is no magic bullet. Here’s how John Lepp of Agents Of Good said it on Twitter:

“Charities are looking for a magic (technologic and demographic) bullet to solve all of their problems, and I’m sorry… it doesn’t exist. It’s the 1000+ small boring things you need to do that make the big difference.”

The three things above are the three most important “1000+ small boring things you need to do.”

We’re helping several organizations do them right now. And we’ll continue to post about what they do as they grow and grow. If you want personalized, experienced help, visit this page to learn more and fill out an application.