Steven Screen, Author at The Better Fundraising Company

Get Storytelling for Action eBook Now!

Steven Screen | July 27, 2017July 27, 2017Ask, Report, Thank

If you’ve read our blog over the last few years, you’ve heard us talk a lot about storytelling. We’ve written about it, we’ve spoken at conferences, and we share tips about storytelling with our clients.

This summer, we decided it was time to pull everything we’ve learned over the years into one place, so fundraisers like you can benefit.

That’s what we did with our new eBook: Storytelling for ACTION

Three Big Ideas That Nobody Told You

It’s easy to say that storytelling is important. It’s more difficult to use stories to raise more money. That’s why we’ve shared three big ideas in this new eBook:

Your donor should have a role — and see herself — in every single story you tell.
How you tell a story is less important than what story you tell and when you tell it.
You have a Big Story you need to constantly tell your donor.

Sound interesting? We promise it’s more than that. It’s also actionable and proven. Download your copy of the free eBook now.

Practical Advice You Can Use

One of the things that we focused on in Storytelling for ACTION is actionable advice. We didn’t want to just share concepts — we want you to equip you with the tools to start telling better stories for your organization right away. That’s why we’ve included the following tools in Storytelling for ACTION:

A matrix to help you to decide what story to tell at what time
Easy-to-use checklists
Real-life samples
Our 3 Big Ideas Cheat Sheet

Market-Tested And Proven

The ideas in this eBook are market-tested and proven to increase how much money you raise. They will help you get more new donors and keep your current donors around for longer. And they will even— if you let them—help you love your job qand fundraising more than you thought possible.

These ideas are not fancy. They are not just for the “big” organizations and “seasoned” fundraisers. They are for you.

Download your free eBook now.

How to Tell Unfinished Stories

Steven Screen | July 24, 2017July 24, 2017Ask

I’m going to tell you something that is counter to what most nonprofits think.

But it’s tested and proven. Hundreds of times for hundreds of organizations, large and small. Here it is:

If you want to raise the most money, tell a story that is not finished and ask the donor to finish it with a gift today.

Thats a bit conceptual so here’s an example. Most fundraising appeals tell stories that go something like this:

“Lisa was homeless and in dire straits. But thanks to our 4-step program, Lisa is doing great today. Will you please give a gift to help us continue this good work?”

Notice how Lisa’s story is finished? She’s already been helped. The only role for the donor to play is to ‘help the organization continue the work.’

We talk about this in detail in our free ebook on storytelling that we’re launching soon, but that type of story works OK at best. Your best donors might give to it. But most of your donors won’t.

If you want to raise more money — and catch the attention of more people — tell an unfinished story of need like this:

“Lisa is homeless and in dire straits. Will you please give a gift today to help her stay in our shelter?”

Do you see the difference? Lisa still needs help! The donor feels that, and sees exactly how a gift today will help Lisa.

Lisa’s story is unfinished, so your donor has a role to play. And your donor sees how her gift will do something simple and powerful — providing a night of shelter — which donors love.

Here’s another way to think about it:

Most nonprofits ask donors to help them do more of what the nonprofit has already done.
What works better in fundraising is to ask donors to help people who have not yet been helped or are currently being helped.

The is one of the fundamental principals we teach in our training on how to Ask powerfully. Use it in your next appeal and watch your results soar!

Oh, You Want Your Donor to Give AGAIN?!?

Steven Screen | July 13, 2017July 13, 2017Report

We say there are three things that a nonprofit has to be great at to grow: Asking, Thanking and Reporting. “Reporting” is telling your donors what their gift accomplished.

Reporting is crucial to keeping your donors — to getting your donors to give again. We do performance audits on nonprofits all over the country. And when we find low donor retention we almost always find a lack of Reporting.

Our friends at Veritus Group said it this way in their post, Why Your Donor Will Give Again. They are talking about a major donor, but you can apply this thinking to all your donors:

“So why did the donor go silent? Well, when you start digging into what happened after the donor gave, it often becomes very clear:

The donor gave, and it took the organization four weeks to properly acknowledge the gift. Yes, they got their boilerplate receipt within a week – that’s like getting a receipt when you buy groceries. It just proves you paid. But four weeks to be thanked properly! Goodness.
The Major Gifts Officer never told the donor that their gift made a difference. This is so amazing to Jeff and me. Telling the donor about impact is as crucial to a donor relationship as air is to the human body. You cannot live without it. And a donor’s enthusiasm will not survive without proof that their giving made a difference. Won’t happen.

The donor may be thinking: ‘Well, I guess all they wanted and needed was the money. There was so much positive energy and activity on the front end, persuading me to give. But once I gave, they were done with me. I feel used.’ ”

A LOT of donors feel this way; they are asked for a donation, and then they feel like an afterthought until the next donation is needed.

You know the term “donor fatigue?”? Organizations cause donor fatigue in their donors by always Asking and never Reporting.

The remedy for your organization is Reporting! For major and mass donors alike, telling your donors what their gifts accomplished should be baked into the DNA of your organization. And especially for smaller nonprofits, Reporting is one of the best way you can stand out from the crowd of organizations asking your donors for money.

So make sure you have a printed newsletter that’s donor-focused. Send personalized reports to your major donors.

So ask yourself, how can I report to my major donors this summer? Start with your majors first. And for the rest of your donors ask yourself, how can I show them the effects of their giving sometime this fall? Because if you do that — if they know the power and effects of their past gift — they’ll be more likely to give to you in December when you Ask them!

10 Fundraising Tactics You Should Use This Fall

Steven Screen | July 7, 2017July 7, 2017Ask, Report, Thank

Want to amp up your fall fundraising? We recommend these ten tactics to all our clients because they’ve been proven to work again and again and again:

Report to your donors this fall — show them what their previous gift accomplished! Your donors are less likely to give you to at year-end if they haven’t heard lately what their gifts accomplish. We often produce an October Newsletter for our clients and work hard to highlight amazing stories made possible by the donor’s gift.
Reporting is especially important for Major Donors. Make absolutely certain each major donor reads or hears a story of impact each fall.
Focus on your donors more than on your organization. In all your communications, emphasize the donor’s role (“You helped make this happen!”) more than your organization’s role (“We helped 347 people this year…”)
Make your communications to Major Donors stand out. When sending them an appeal letter, use a nicer envelope and hand write the address. When sending them a newsletter, put it in a 9×12 envelope and don’t fold the newsletter. Trust us; it’s worth spending the extra time and money to ensure your major donors pay attention to your communications!
Communicate more than you think. If you only mail your donors a couple times, mail them at least one more time. For smaller organizations who mostly use email for fundraising, please mail your donors at least twice. We recommend most organizations mail their donors at least 4 times from September through December.
During December, review your list of major donors. For all majors who have not yet given a gift this year, ask them!
Have a campaign for Giving Tuesday, not just one email. Email your list on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Pro Tip: having a match for giving Tuesday really increases results. So many nonprofits are asking for gifts that day — having gift-doubling matching funds really helps your organization stand out.
After giving Tuesday, change the first/main image on your website to a simple call-to-action to give a gift before the end of the year. Keep that as the main message on your homepage until January 1.
During year-end, mail another appeal letter. Most organizations only mail one letter, but they should mail two. Mail the first letter the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and mail the second letter around December 11th. The second letter will raise about 1/3 the amount your first letter raises, and it won’t reduce the effectiveness of your first letter.
Send 3 emails the last 4 days of the year. Everyone’s inbox is crowded – make sure they see an email from you when they are so likely to give a gift!

How To Thank & Report this Summer

Steven Screen | June 30, 2017June 30, 2017Report, Thank

Summer is a perfect time for your nonprofit to Thank and Report back to your donors. While most other nonprofits are ignoring their donors during the summer, you can earn your donors’ loyalty by thanking them and showing them the effects of their gifts.

And remember that your donors are BUSY – but that works in your favor this time of year. It means you don’t have to send them an epic thank you letter or an 8-page newsletter. You just have to send them something that gets their attention and has a short message.

Here’s a list of quick things you can do. And as always, make sure you’ve Thanked and Reported to your major donors first, then move on to the rest of your donors.

Send a Thank You card:

Just a short note that says something like, “Thank you for your incredible gift. Because of you, someone will be helped. Your gifts are really making a difference!” And if you can, send it on a card from the hallmark store, not on a card branded from your organization. Make it feel personal!
Send a picture of a beneficiary:

All you need to do is print out a photo and write a quick note on the back. Keep it short and sweet – and about outcomes: “This is Jerry and he’s at camp this week thanks in part to your generosity. Thank you!”
Email it:

You can do the same thing in email to all of your donors! (If you do send it out via email, fight the urge to send it to everyone on your email list. Send it just to donors.)
Send photos of summer programs in action:

If you have programs that are active in the summer, send photos of the beneficiaries participating. Avoid the urge to write too much – you’re trying to create a bite-sized Report that your donor can recognize even if they immediately delete the email. Three short paragraphs (max!) and make sure the word “you” is used in the very first sentence.
Pick up the phone:

This is a stretch for many organizations, but call your donors this summer! Starting with your major donors and your monthly givers, just call them! Prepare a 30-second speech that starts of by saying, “I’m not calling to ask for money, I’m just calling to thank you for your gifts and generosity. . .” If you’re on the phone with the donor for just a few seconds, that’s great. If they want to engage you for longer, even better. But it’s their call – you’re just there to thank them, tell them they matter and that their gifts make a difference!

MUST-LISTEN Interview with Scott Harrison of charity:water

Steven Screen | June 29, 2017June 10, 2020Podcast

Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water (and a fan of this podcast) reveals some of the thinking behind this innovative nonprofit that came on the scene 10 years ago and his virtually re-written the fundraising playbook in many ways.

Get the inside scoop on:

How charity:water takes its donors on a journey — every time
How they manage and market their promise that 100% of a donor’s gift goes to the field
The power of “productizing” (which anyone can do!)
Charity:water’s biggest challenge and how they’re tackling it

We learned a lot from Scott. You will too!

Click here to listen

Jeff Brooks’ Summer Recommendations — An Interview

Steven Screen | June 28, 2017June 28, 2017Ask, Report, Thank

Jeff and I have been friends for a long time — both personally and professionally. We often bend each other’s ear about fundraising and he’s one of the people in my circle who I reach out to for advice and new perspectives. And Jeff’s a straight shooter. So, I thought I’d ask him for his candid recommendations to nonprofits on what to work on this summer. Here’s what he said:

SS: What do smart nonprofits do during the summer to get ready for fall?

JB: Use the lull in activity to get ahead for the final months of the year. It’s gonna get crazy — and the crazier the better! So know exactly what fundraising activities you are going to be doing. Dates and descriptions. And get started on it now.

SS: Of those things, what’s the most important and why?

JB: Most important is having your plan in place. If you don’t know what to do and when to do it, you’ll be distracted by the craziness and not working on the things that matter most.

SS: What’s an example of a successful summer fundraising campaign that you’ve seen?

JB: When the topic has something to do with the season. Like raising money for hungry children who are not getting the subsidized school lunches and breakfasts they get during the year. Or offers having to do with the challenges posed by hot weather. It may surprise you that appeals about the “Summer Slump” in giving often do well. Just be honest with donors and tell them how giving drops in the summer but the need for services stays high.

SS: If there was one thing you could have nonprofits focus on this fall, what would it be?

JB: Make sure you have the systems in place to treat donors well even when things get crazy. You MUST be able to acknowledge gifts promptly no matter how busy you get. Systems things like that really matter!

So, there you have it, folks! Make a plan, work ahead this summer, and build donor-focused systems. If you’re already doing these, well done! If not, this is a great “short list” of things to work on thus summer.

Start Today for a Successful Fall Newsletter

Steven Screen | June 23, 2017July 5, 2017Report

Want to make your fall newsletter easier than ever?

Start today. And here’s how getting started now will make your life easier and help you raise more money . . .

Pick what issue or program your newsletter will focus on.

In our experience, newsletters that focus on one program or activity do better than newsletters that feature stories about multiple different things.

Find three stories with clear “before’s” and clear “after’s.”

Stories can be hard to find, so start looking now. If you get stories through the people who work directly with your beneficiaries, ask those folks for stories today. Take it from someone who’s probably done this a hundred times: they like this part of their job MUCH better if you ask them early, are specific about what you want, and give them plenty of time with a clear deadline.

Write the stories now…

…even though you don’t need them for a couple of months.

I guarantee you that if you write them now, then come back to them in a month or two, you’ll see ways to improve each story. This is especially true for headlines and picture captions.

By the way, be sure to include the donor in each story. So use the word “you” at least once in every single story – and try to get it into every headline.

Knowing which stories you’re going to tell gives you lots of time to get great photos of each person. Get a close up photo of each story subject – by themselves, not in a group. The guideline I was always taught; “be close enough to see their eyes and teeth.”

Have the last story of your newsletter be a request to send in a gift today.

Make sure the reader knows that their gift will help people in the same way that they saw the people in the stories being helped.

Finally, design your newsletter to be sent in an envelope, not as a self mailer.

We’ve done multiple tests and self-mailers raise less money — we don’t even do them any more. So you’ll need an envelope, your newsletter, a reply card, and a reply envelope. Doing it this way will cost you more money, but you’ll raise more than enough additional money to cover the extra costs — and then some!

Five Tips for the First Sentence of Your Next Appeal Letter

Steven Screen | June 21, 2017June 21, 2017Ask

The first sentence of your next appeal letter is really important.

Most readers will use it to decide whether to keep reading . . . or start thinking about whether to recycle or delete your message.

So yeah, it’s important. We’ve written hundreds of appeals and e-appeals over the years, and studied the results. Here are five tips to make your first sentence GREAT:

1. Short and Sweet

Your first sentence should be short and easy to understand. If your first sentence is long, complex, has lots of commas and clauses, and maybe a statistic or two, would you want to keep wading through? Remember, your reader is using it to decide whether to keep reading . . . or not.

2. Drama, Drama, Drama

Fill it with drama or make it interesting to your donor. Drama and tension are two of the best tools you have for engaging their interest. Or make it something that would be interesting to your donor – which is likely something different than would be interesting to you!

The worst example of this I ever saw was a first sentence that said, “Recently we hosted a staff leadership seminar.” Ouch.

3. What’s The Point?

One of the best first sentences is, “I’m writing to you today because . . .” That sentence forces you to get right to the point – which donors really appreciate. You want to know why so few donors actually read fundraising letters? It’s because they know how long it takes most nonprofits to get to the point! So if you and your organization get to the point quickly, your donor will be far more likely to read more.

4. Who Cares?

Another great tactic is to make the first sentence about the donor. Think “I know you care about Koala bears” or “You are one of our most generous donors, so I think you’ll want to know . . .” Listen, most of the other organizations she donates to wax poetic about totally unrelated things or about how great they are. When you write her and talk about her, she’ll love it!

5. Less is More

After you’ve written the first draft of your appeal, you can often delete your first couple of sentences or paragraphs. This happens to me all the time in my own writing, and in appeal letters that I edit for clients. In the first draft, the first couple sentences or paragraphs are often just warmup. They can be deleted and your letter will be stronger because now it gets right to the point.

So next time you’re writing, pay special attention to your first setence. Keep it short and easy to read. Fill it with drama if you can. And when more people read your writing, more people will donate!