Before my time at The Better Fundraising Co, I used to be a Director of Marketing and Communications for a nonprofit. But then the nonprofit I was working at needed me to create their fundraising materials from scratch, and I discovered a whole new world of expertise – it challenged the beliefs that my nonprofit and I had for how fundraising worked.
But we started raising a LOT more money.
Before we learned fundraising best practices, we spent a fair amount of time trying to make our fundraising look sleek and professional.
I remember sending a donor a thank you note and taking the time to print out a label on the printer to make it look more professional.
Little did I realize… a hand scribbled address would have been the better choice.
We were a medium-sized nonprofit and we had the mistaken assumption that we had to have a certain polished “look” to be taken seriously by our donors. For us, this meant highly designed pieces, glossy paper, and yes… many, many printed labels.
Then we learned how powerful it was to be real – to show our donors that there was a human behind each communication. Being authentic and making a connection became more important than looking sleek and professional.
We began to look for opportunities to show donors that a human had touched the communication they were reading.
Things like a scrawled “thank you” on the carrier envelope of a newsletter or a plastic coated paperclip clipping together pieces of a newsletter pack (brilliant idea from John Lepp of Agents of Good!). These tactics showed that a person was behind the mailing, not a brand or a marketing campaign.
Over time, it felt like we were building a friendship with our donors through direct response fundraising, rather than just trying to get a donation.
As with the other best practices we learned along the way, being real and less polished with our donors made our job easier. It felt more like “us.”
Being real and less polished with our donors caused them to trust us more! And their donations increased because it was clear that a person was asking them to give, not just a brand or an organization.
Read the whole series:
- How a Strong Fundraising Offer Changes Everything
- Get to the Point FAST to Raise More Money with Your Appeals and E-Appeals
- Make Your Copy Clear and Easy to Understand to Raise More Money
- Design So Donors Can Read, and They Will Thank You by Giving More
- Share Stories That Support Your Ask
- Avoid Looking Too Sleek or Professional (This post)
