Category: Ask

Share Stories That Support Your Ask

Sarah Lundberg  |  Ask
What's your story?

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. 

When we learned more about the role of stories in our fundraising, it helped us shape our fundraising pieces to perform better.

Our organization had GREAT stories, but we didn’t always share them in a way that worked effectively for fundraising.

Sometimes we would share a long story that would be full of details and symbolism and references to historical happenings. We loved these stories, but they didn’t seem to work when we were asking donors to give in direct response fundraising.

When we learned to use the right story for the right fundraising piece, our fundraising results increased.

Based on expert advice, we gave each fundraising piece ONE purpose, either asking donors to give or reporting back on what their giving had done.

We started sharing incomplete stories in our fundraising appeals, to show the donors the need that existed. These stories featured someone facing a problem that hadn’t yet been solved. This was an effective part of a piece where we were asking donors to give.

We shared completed stories in our newsletters, to show the donors what their giving had accomplished. These stories featured someone who had been facing a problem and also how the donor’s gift helped to solve the problem. This helped us report back to the donor and show that they made a difference.

This felt different to us internally.

For one thing, our stories were shorter and simpler.  But once we got the hang of it, finding and sharing stories was easier. We knew exactly what kind of stories we were looking for, depending on whether we were asking in an appeal or reporting back in a newsletter.

Something that makes me chuckle… back in the day when I was on staff at a nonprofit, the more I learned about best practices for direct response and email fundraising, the more I realized we’d been doing things the hard way.

Once we learned the fundamentals of what worked, everything became easier, including sharing stories. We knew what to do and how to do it.

When we started doing something that was easier AND raised more money – that was a win for us!

Read the whole series:

Make Your Copy Clear and Easy to Understand to Raise More Money

Sarah Lundberg  |  Ask
Make it easy.

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, 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.  Let me share my journey…

Something that made a big difference for my organization was creating fundraising materials that people could easily understand by writing at a lower reading level, using simpler sentences, and eliminating jargon.

As we started communicating differently, a whole host of worries came up. We worried donors would think we were talking down to them. We worried we wouldn’t come across as the “experts” we were.

We decided to try it anyway.

And none of the things we worried about actually happened.

We started to treat donors like the busy, caring people they were, and they appreciated it. We did the work to make our fundraising writing clear, so THEY didn’t have to do the work to read something dense and full of jargon.

Here are the main issues we focused on to make our writing clear and easy to understand:

  • Using short sentences and short paragraphs
  • Not using internal jargon that our donors wouldn’t easily understand
  • Writing at a reading level between 6th and 8th grade so donors could understand our fundraising writing quickly

It didn’t take a lot to make our materials easier to understand. It didn’t cost any more money or take that much more time. It just took working through some discomfort internally.

But changing these three things to make our copy clear and easy to understand helped us raise more money for our mission!


Read the whole series:

Get to the Point FAST to Raise More Money with Your Appeals and E-Appeals

Sarah Lundberg  |  Ask
Get to the point.

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, 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.  Here’s a bit about my organization’s journey…

One thing that made a huge difference in our direct mail and email fundraising efforts was getting to the point fast in our communications.

First, a funny (slightly mortifying) story.

When I started learning about direct mail fundraising, I had to face an uncomfortable reality that nearly every instinct I had as a marketing and communications professional was wrong for fundraising.

I remember telling Steven Screen (co-founder of The Better Fundraising Co. and now my boss) that I used to include the fundraising “ask” at the end of the appeal as a reward for the people who read to the end.

I wish I could include a snapshot of the look on Steven’s face.

What I didn’t know at that point was that almost nobody reads to the end to an appeal.

So almost nobody had been SEEING the fundraising ask in our appeals.

Gulp.

We adapted our appeal and e-appeal format to get right to the point in the first four paragraphs. We shared the problem and the solution right away. AND we asked the donor to give in the first four paragraphs.

It was bold. It was uncomfortable. Internal staff didn’t like it as much. Wasn’t it —impolite — to get right to the point like that?

But it worked.

More donors started to respond to our appeals. And the average gift went up.

Over time, it felt less uncomfortable internally. The team started to appreciate the new approach to appeals and e-appeals. It’s amazing how raising more money can help a team get over discomfort.

If your team is struggling with trying a new fundraising tactic, it helps to acknowledge with your team that change is uncomfortable and be willing to try it anyway. Raising more for your mission is worth it!


Read the whole series:

5 reasons the Myth of “Donor Fatigue” Persists

Steven  |  Ask
Donor fatigue.

“Donor Fatigue” – that mythical beast that haunts the futures of Fundraisers everywhere – doesn’t exist. I’m neck-deep in donor data and fundraising performance all the time. And I can tell you that this creature simply doesn’t exist for 99.9% of nonprofits.

But it still affects the behavior of too many fundraisers. And without question, the fear of “donor fatigue” causes organizations to raise less money and do less good.

This is such a brutal fact that I’m going to repeat it: the fear of something that doesn’t exist – “donor fatigue” – causes hundreds of thousands of nonprofits to raise less money and do less good.

For the vast majority of nonprofits, letting “donor fatigue” affect your behavior is like not going outside because you might get hit by lightning.

I’ve identified 5 reasons that “donor fatigue” continues to haunt our sector and lower revenue. If you know of others, please share them with us. Here are my five:

  1. The complaints of a donor or three, occasionally a Board member, that your organization is asking for money too often.
  2. The fear that comes from thinking those complainers might speak for all your donors.
  3. The awkwardness some people feel about asking for money in the first place.
  4. The lack of understanding that nonprofits can be communicating to their donors far more often than they think.
  5. “Donor fatigue” is sometimes used as a scapegoat for bad fundraising. If an appeal or newsletter or campaign doesn’t work well, that elusive “donor fatigue” is blamed. Then no one has to feel bad, take responsibility, or learn from the mistake.

The first four items above are all real things. They matter.

But complaints and fears should not matter as much as the hundreds and thousands of additional gifts that will come in when you communicate with your donors more often about things they care about.

Look, if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know we believe in Asking more – because all our data shows that it works like crazy, with almost zero negative consequences.

One of the reasons Better Fundraising has been so successful is that we show our clients how organizations their size are communicating to their donors more often and raising a lot more money doing it. (And of course there are other things an organization has to do well, but Asking more is a one of the biggest levers you can pull.)

So next time someone brings up “donor fatigue,” tell them that “donor fatigue” isn’t the problem. And don’t let “donor fatigue” be used as a reason or excuse in your organization.

Acknowledge the fear that caused “donor fatigue” to rear its hideous head, then move forward.

You owe it to your beneficiaries.

Your donors will thank you for it with increased engagement and giving.

You’ll love raising more money and getting to do more good.

This post was originally published on January 22, 2019.

Weird but True (and Important)

Steven  |  Ask
Strange but true.

Here’s something weird but true:

Your Staff and Board receive more of your fundraising communications than your donors do.

That might not seem possible, but here’s how it works:

The Staff and Board of a nonprofit tend to open and read everything the organization sends out… but donors don’t. 

Let me give you an example, and then I’ll share why this is so important.

For example, if you send out a fundraising email, almost everyone on your Staff and Board notice and look at it.  But if your email open rate is 30%, then 70% of the people on your email list did not see the email.

So your Staff and Board received an email, but effectively 70% of your donors did not.

And if you send out an appeal letter, everyone on your staff and Board will notice and take look at it.  But maybe 50%* of donors opened the letter.

So your Staff and Board received an appeal letter, but about half of your donors didn’t.

Play this out over the course of a year and your Staff and Board have received a lot more of your fundraising than your donors have.  Put another way, the Staff and Board understand how many pieces the organization is sending to donors, but they don’t understand how few pieces the donors are receiving.

Consequently, most nonprofits have an over-inflated sense of how much they are communicating with their donors. 

The Consequence

When Staff and Board don’t know this truth, they often inadvertently keep an organization smaller than it could be.

The Staff and Board base their advice on “how much communication is enough” on their own inflated perception, NOT on their donors’ lived experience.

Consequently, nonprofit Staff and Boards consistantly advocate for less communication than the organization could be sending out, which results in less money raised from individual donors.

At Better Fundraising, our general rule of thumb is that most individual donors see a little less than half of the fundraising an organization sends out.  Keep that in mind as you build annual plans and campaigns, and you’ll communicate more effectively and raise more money.

And if you’re at a smaller nonprofit where your Staff or Board are handicapping your fundraising because of a mistaken understanding of “how much we’re communicating with our donors,” please share this post with them.

Getting Staff and Board to recognize the situation, and then moving past the stage where “my Board/boss won’t let us send out any more fundraising because s/he thinks we send too much,” is a step made by every organization with a thriving individual donor fundraising program.

***

* This is an educated guess.  The published data on direct mail open rates is self-reported data, which is notoriously inaccurate.    

***

Hey, I’m giving a free webinar next Wednesday on how to make your most effective annual plan ever.

There are two main things I’m going to teach:

  1. How to know the times when your donors are most likely to give you a gift, so that you can plan your asks during those times
  2. How to tweak your “communication mix” so that you get more response from the same number of letters and emails

The free webinar is next Wednesday, January 29, at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific.

There’s limited availability so that we can have a conversation.  This is NOT me talking for 55 minutes.  There will be lots of time for questions.

For more info, here’s the link:

https://betterfundraising.com/annual-planning-webinar/

I hope to see you next Wednesday!

Need an emergency fundraising email because of the LA fires?

Steven  |  Ask
Fires.

We’re replacing today’s blog post with a special announcement:

If you’re at a small nonprofit, and the fires in LA have caused you to need extra/emergency funds, we’d like to help: we will write an emergency fundraising email for you.

<< If you don’t work in/around LA, but know someone who does, please feel free to forward this post to them. >>

Watching the fires unfold this week has been heartbreaking.  We work with people who have lost their homes. 

Knowing how the nonprofit community jumps into action at times like this, there are hundreds (thousands?) of smaller nonprofits in LA who could use some emergency cash.  And they don’t have the time or expertise or budget to get out an emergency email. 

So we’d like to help.

If you’re at a small nonprofit and would like us to write a free emergency fundraising email for you, here’s what to do:

  1. Send an email to info@betterfundraising.com
  2. Give us a brief snapshot of what’s happening for your beneficiaries or organization
  3. Tell us if your organization is too small to afford to do this on your own, or if you’ve just never really known how

We’ll reply with a few detail questions about your exact situation so we know what to say in the email.  Once you send us the answers, we’ll write an emergency email for you within a day or two.  We’ll also send a handful of tips that will help you with emergency fundraising in general.

We made this offer after hurricanes Helene and Milton last fall, and it was a joy to meaningfully help the organizations who took us up on our offer. 

We are inspired by all that nonprofits in the LA area are doing right now.  This is the way we can help, and just like you, we’ll help as much as we can.

If you or your organization need an email, please get in touch!

Approach to Appeals

Steven  |  Ask
Appeal.

This month we’re sharing the ideas and strategies that had an outsized positive impact on the nonprofits we serve. 

Today’s idea is that there’s an approach to appeals (appeal letters and e-appeals) that, in our experience, tend to work the best.

Here’s the simplest summary of what the performance data leads us to believe:

  • The most successful appeals tend to be about the help that your beneficiaries or cause needs now, and how the donor’s gift will provide that help.
  • The less successful appeals tend to be about help that the organization has already provided, and request support for the organization.

When organizations change their appeals to be about the help that’s needed, and how the donor’s gift will help provide it, two things happen.  First, each appeal raises more money.  Second, the organization retains more donors year-over year.

Put another way, they start raising more money in the short term and in the long term.

Of course, appeals like this are only one element in an effective donor communications plan.  And they take a lot of thought to create.  For instance, appeals like this only describe part of an organization’s work.  You have to choose which part of your work to talk about, and you have to talk about it in an accessible way.

But if you create appeals that follow this approach, you’ll start raising more money immediately.

***

If you’re interested in what it would look like to have Better Fundraising write and design your fundraising, fill out the “get in touch” form on this page.  We’ll reach out to schedule a chat. 

And if you fill out the form before the end of the month, we’ll give you our 2024 pricing for all of 2025, a savings of $3,500.

For Overcoming the Resistance, We Thank You

Steven  |  Ask
Overcome.

There are a LOT of reasons not to ask for money.

At a conference earlier this year, we asked people to share what their biggest challenge in fundraising was.  The following list is just a small sample of the resistance that many fundraisers must overcome in order to ask for support…

  • “I’ve worked from age 10 to pay my way in life so it’s hard to ask for money”
  • “Being very new and not knowing where to start and expecting people to say no”
  • “My boss and his ideas”
  • “Fear about making a direct ask”
  • “Knowing how much to share due to the traumatic nature of our work”
  • “We have a private community that doesn’t want their photos taken or their story touted due to cultural tradition”
  • “Being too timid or just being intimidated by asking”
  • “Being new and don’t want to do something wrong”
  • “Managing all the tasks grants, major gifts, events etc. all by myself”
  • “Amount of permission / reviewers of fundraising pieces”
  • “I am a quiet person”
  • “Having the courage to talk about emotional stakes of children dying”
  • “Lack of any personal connection with our audience”
  • “My organization has a general unspoken theory of don’t ask”

There’s a lot that holds people and organizations back from asking for support.

So if you and your organization sent out fundraising this year-end, you overcame the resistance.  You overcame the fears, the bosses, and the hurdles.

You showed vulnerability and courage.

You served your beneficiaries or cause, and you served your donors.

Thank you.

Matte, Not Glossy

Steven  |  Ask
Paper choices.

In the midst of the holiday hubbub, here’s a tactical tip for you…

I was once part of a test to see if using matte paper, as opposed to glossy paper, would change fundraising results.

Here’s how the test worked:

  • We took the organization’s active donors (about 80,000) and randomly split them into two equal groups.
  • After writing and designing their newsletter, we printed half of the newsletters on matte paper and half of the newsletters on glossy paper.
    • Just to be super clear, the design and content of the newsletter was exactly the same.  The only difference was the finish of paper.
  • One of the groups of donors received the matte version, and the other group received the glossy version. 

The matte version of the newsletter raised more money.  Both the Average Gift and the Response Rate were slightly higher.

I’ve replicated these results in other tests, and so have lots of other Fundraisers.

The general understanding for why this happens is that glossy paper reflects more light than matte paper, and the reflections make anything printed on glossy paper a little harder to read.  This is especially true for older donors whose eyes don’t adjust between bright and dark as well as they used to.

And as you already know, when your fundraising is harder to read, fewer people read your fundraising.  And when fewer people read your fundraising, fewer people give.

The difference in money raised was not astronomical, but it was significant enough that the organization started using matte paper for almost everything (even over the objections of somebody in leadership who thought glossy paper was “more professional.”)

Using matte instead of glossy doesn’t apply to everything.  Does the outside of your holiday card to donors need to be matte?  No.  Can your annual report be on glossy stock?  Sure.

But when you desire a response from the piece, and therefore readability matters more, go matte.