Category: Ask

Five Tips for the First Sentence of Your Next Appeal Letter

Steven Screen  |  Ask
pencil

Right now, I’m noticing that many organizations are saying similar things about coronavirus, and the impact it’s having on their mission. So how do you rise above the chatter and capture your donor’s attention?

You make a great first impression. 

Steven coaches that when writing your appeals and e-appeals, an eye-popping first sentence will pique your donors interest much more than something like: “Recently we held a staff leadership seminar.”  

Be relevant. Be vulnerable. And if your coronavirus message is sounding repetitive, try applying Steven’s 5 tips to help make the start of your next appeal stand out from the crowd.

– Jonathan

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 sentence. 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!

5 reasons the Myth of “Donor Fatigue” Persists

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Donor fatigue.

Steven Screen wrote this blog on the myths of “donor fatigue” more than a year ago. And I think the message is more relevant now, than ever. Because right now, we know that donors are wanting to make a positive difference in the world. So, it’s important to keep a close eye on your results and let your data tell you when to pump the brakes on your fundraising.

In a nutshell, let your donors decide when they want to stop giving. Don’t make that important decision for them.

Enjoy Steven’s blog!

– Jonathan

Just a super quick reminder that “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 “donor fatigue” simply doesn’t exist for 99.9% of nonprofits.

But this mythical creature 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

The Lesson from a Nonprofit that Shut its Doors

Steven Screen  |  Ask
out of business

A nonprofit I’ve supported off and on for a few years just went under.

My heart goes out to the staff and to the people they serve.

I’m sharing this with you because what they did over the last couple of months is an object lesson in how to fail.

The Lesson For You

Don’t hide your needs.

If you have a need right now, please share it with your donors.

Seriously, if you have a big need and haven’t put it in front of your donors, stop reading this and go write an e-appeal.

Let your donors decide whether to meet that need or not. Don’t take the decision out of their hands.

What the (Former) Organization Did

They hid the need.

I looked back at all the emails I received from them over the past two months.

In the two months before they went under, their fundraising shared nothing but success stories.

Which, unsurprisingly, made me think that nothing was wrong.

How was I supposed to know that my help was urgently needed?

How were donors supposed to know that they could play a meaningful part in helping the organization survive?

Courage & Vulnerability

This organization did not have the courage to share the real situation with their donors.

This organization did not have the vulnerability to really tell donors what was going on and ask their donors to help.

To the end, the organization wanted to keep their fundraising completely positive. They did. And they ended.

So to you I say…

Be Courageous and Vulnerable.

Be courageous and communicate with your donors more during the next few months, not less.

Be vulnerable and share the needs your organization and your beneficiaries are facing, then ask donors to meet those needs with a gift today.

Since receiving this news, I’ve had meetings with two organizations we’re working with. The smaller organization has raised twice as much money thus far this year as they normally do.

The larger organization is ahead of where they were last year, and was up 30% in April.

Just trying to make my final point for today:

Donors will do their part to help the charities, causes and beneficiary groups that they love.

If we let them know that help is needed, that is.

How to Create Fundraising That Resonates During the Pandemic

Steven Screen  |  Ask
resonate

There are two main threats to nonprofit communications in the coming months.

This post is about how to overcome the first challenge: how to modify your fundraising so that it’s relevant to donors, while still following direct response best practices.

Here’s what’s going on in a nutshell:

  1. Your donor is living in a new, different world than she was two months ago.
  2. If your fundraising sounds the same as it did two months ago, you run the risk of sounding out of touch. Irrelevant, even.
  3. How do you modify your fundraising to stay relevant?

Because you can guess how many donations your fundraising communications are going to raise during the slump if they sound out of touch or irrelevant…

Context

I’m not talking about a wholesale change in your message.

But I am talking about recontextualizing why your donor is needed right now, and what your donor’s gift will do.

Which is just a fancy way of saying, modify the way you describe why your donor’s gift is needed. To make it clear you’re talking about right now.

Example Time

First things first: avoid “pandemic-splaining.” You’ve seen this, I’m sure – the e-appeal you received last week where the first three boring paragraphs explained the pandemic.

You don’t need to do this. You might write those paragraphs – I know I have. But you just need to delete them before sending.

You want to acknowledge the new normal, not spend time on it.

Which brings me to a mildly effective way to make your fundraising relevant – tell your donor that her gift is important.

  • “Because now more than ever, your gift is needed to save the whales… “
  • “During this critical time, your gift to support the Arts in Topeka… “

That’s good fundraising, and it’s always important. It’s a powerful message right now because it taps into your donor’s context that the world is a different place.

However, the savvy organizations go one step further – in addition to saying that the donor’s gift is more important, you tell her why it’s more important:

  • “Due to the uncertainty all of us are experiencing, more people than ever are interested in the Gospel. Your gift to share the Word is more effective today than it was just weeks ago. Because more people are more interested in hearing it!”
  • “You’ve probably read that domestic violence has increased since we’ve been sheltering in place. Your gift to provide a night of safety for a victim of domestic abuse is doubly important right now… “
  • “Unfortunately, we’re facing increased food costs that are beyond our budget. Fresh vegetables are more expensive than they’ve ever been. Your gift will help the kids you care so much about by helping meet the increased expenses.”  

Note that the examples have nothing to do with the coronavirus or the medical response to the resulting sickness. These are examples of how organizations that are still being harmed by the current situation can share that harm with their donors.

What You Should Look For

Look for the ways the coronavirus, the economic downturn, and social changes have harmed your organization, beneficiaries, or cause. And look for how your organization’s work has been changed – for better or worse.

Use them in your fundraising in the coming months to make your fundraising relevant to your donors.

If your donors are anything like the donors of the organizations we’ve been privileged to communicate with (and they are!), your donors will respond with remarkable compassion and generosity!

Quotes of Amazement about Donor Generosity

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Giving.

Donor generosity is amazing.

To give you a little joy in the middle of the craziness, here are a bunch of quotes about donor generosity that we’ve heard in the last week from organizations we serve.

I’ll just leave these right here for you to enjoy – and for organizations to think about if they or their beneficiaries are being harmed by the current situation but aren’t yet asking donors to help.

“Donors just blow me away with their generosity. So many have responded to share their own story of what they’re going through. And yet they choose to give. What a testament to what amazing people donors are.”

“I was talking to a friend last night, and she said, ‘Oh it must be soooo hard to raise money right now.’ And I thought that’s true if ‘hard’ means breaking all kinds of open rate, click-through rate, and revenue expectations. Then yeah, it’s really hard! ”

“It’s amazing to see how many people want to help right now.”

“It’s like year-end fundraising in March!”

“Donors that gave recently are giving again! This is unbelievable to me. It’s blowing me away!”

And my personal favorite (and a reminder for why your organization should be using the mail, too), a donor replied to an e-appeal with a gift and the following note:

“I forwarded your email to my mom, and she wants to donate but doesn’t want to do so online. Her friend would also like to make a donation. Is there a person and address she could send a check to?”

And finally, a quote from a small organization that used our easy formula for a successful Coronavirus e-appeal:

“I just wanted to thank you again and share the ongoing results of our emergency appeal (following your suggestions, of course). Immediately upon sending our 1st email last week, we received seven online gifts (may not seem like a lot, but it’s huge for us). As I write this email, we have received 81 online gifts, and 43 of those are from first-time donors.

“We also posted the appeal to our social media, which immediately resulted in comments and shares and gifts. Monday, I sent the same letter in the mail (with the edits you suggested in the Free Review Friday last week). I’ve also re-posted and emailed the appeal again this week.

“Not only are the gifts coming in, a couple of other amazing things happened – one of our grantors responded to the emergency appeal by releasing all the restrictions on the grant ($40K) and are allowing us to use the funds as we see fit – HUGE!!! And our local paper (distributed in our county) saw the emergency appeal and printed it inside the front cover of the paper. AMAZING!!”

Donor generosity is amazing! They’re unsung heroes in this whole thing – and I hope you enjoy your role in giving your donors opportunities to be heroic!

Why You Should Send a Letter Now

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Appeal.

Here’s why you should probably be sending out an emergency appeal letter to your donor file:

This chart shows the percentage of revenue that’s coming in from different generations.

Direct mail appeals work very well at reaching the group of folks in blue on the right.

You know, the ones who (statistically speaking) have the most compassion and money to give you right now.

And you know, the people who your email and social probably aren’t reaching in significant numbers.

To any organization who is considering using direct mail for their coronavirus fundraising,

DO IT.

I can’t say that everyone should do it. But chances are, you should.

Here’s how to think about it to make a good decision for your organization:

  • If the coronavirus or the current situation is harming your beneficiaries, your cause, or your organization, then you should be fundraising now.
  • If you’ve sent out an emergency e-appeal and it raised more than a “normal” e-appeal raises…
  • If you’re able to convert your e-appeal into a direct mail appeal and get it in the mail quickly…

Then you should absolutely send out an “emergency direct mail appeal.”

Get it written (your e-appeal is your first draft – and maybe your final draft!) and send it as fast as you can.

Speed matters. If your donors are going to give emergency gifts to five organizations, you don’t want to be the 7th organization who asks them.

And if you can’t get a letter out to everyone quickly, then figure out how to get a letter out to your top donors in the next couple days. One tactic we see working: print out your e-appeal, handwrite a note on the top and send it to your major donors along with a generic reply card and envelope.

The Big Idea here is to use the mail to reach your major donors and the LARGE group of compassionate folks who would like to help but aren’t email responsive. Good luck out there. And we’ll be posting helpful tips every day for the foreseeable future.

“What should we avoid in our fundraising?”

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Avoid.

Remember the Founder I told you about last Thursday?

The one who said that his organization exists “so that donors can help these girls”?

He also asked a question that I wish more non-profits would ask themselves:

“What should we avoid in our fundraising?”

When was the last time you heard a non-profit ask that question?

There are LOTS of things to avoid in your fundraising, like the non-obvious mistakes that cost so much money, of course.

But mostly I liked that he asked it because it’s such a good question.

Two challenges for you:

  1. Quickly jot down a list of all the things your organization currently avoids in your appeals and newsletters. It’s likely to be an interesting list because most organizations have a set of unwritten rules for what they can and cannot talk about.

a. I can almost guarantee you that there are some things on that list that you should be including, not avoiding. For instance, if “Avoid telling stories where the person still needs help” is on your list, you should take it off.

b. Follow-up question: are there some things you should avoid for some segments of your audience, but not others? For instance, there are some things you should avoid doing in grant applications. But if you avoid them in your direct response appeal letters, you’re raising a lot less money than you could be.

  1. Sign up for Free Review Fridays. At 10:00 AM Pacific each Friday, I review appeals, e-appeals, and newsletters submitted by your fellow Fundraisers (and you can submit yours, too). Watch a few examples, and you’ll quickly see what to include – and what to avoid – with your appeals and newsletters!

“Our organization exists so that donors can help these girls”

Steven Screen  |  Ask
communications.

I recently spent an hour talking to a founder of a nonprofit who totally gets it.

His organization provides schooling for girls in Africa.

We got to talking about fundraising (surprise, surprise) and I mentioned the principle of donor-centered fundraising.

He said the best thing any Founder has ever said to me:

“Our organization exists so that donors can help these girls.”

I just sat there and grinned widely.

Because how great is that? That one belief – that the organization exists so that donors can help – will be an incredible driver of fundraising success.

They will just skip right by all the pitfalls of talking too much about the organization itself. Of making the organization the hero.

Of relegating donors to mere “partners.”

I told him about the raw fundraising power of his belief, and how it was going to make his fundraising more effective.

He said, “Well, I knew I loved being able to provide schooling for the girls that I was able to help. I figured other people would love it too. So I’m creating a way to help more donors do that – which of course helps more girls.”

The Truth He Knew

This guy knew another powerful truth.

Most of your donors are more interested in your cause or beneficiaries – and what they can do to help – than they are interested in your organization.

In other words, he knows that his donors will enjoy sending a girl in Africa to school more than they would enjoy being a supporter of his organization.

So he’ll focus his communications on how the donor can send a girl to school in Africa instead of focusing it on his organization and how the donor can support them.

And he’ll raise more money.

How Different Would Your Communications Be?

If your nonprofit were to adopt this attitude – even if it’s just your fundraising that adopts the stance – how would your donor communications change?

Try writing your next appeal as if you were writing to donors, telling them about something they care deeply about – and offering them a chance to make a powerful change that they are going to love doing. You’ll love how well it works!

The Non-Obvious Mistakes that Cost You Money

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Mistakes.

This post is a list of what I call “non-obvious mistakes.”

No one in your organization will ever notice them.

But they cost you thousands of dollars every time you send out an appeal.

Because these mistakes are the difference between an appeal that raises $40,000 instead of the $68,000 it could have raised. These are the difference between an appeal that raises $2,500 instead of $8,000.

Regardless of how big or small your organization is, these non-obvious mistakes are expensive:

  • Lack of clarity about what the donor’s gift will do. Saying things like “Please send a gift today to provide hope” are not clear descriptions of what a donor’s gift will accomplish. As Brené Brown puts it, “Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” (Want to know how to be clear? Have a great offer.)
  • Not printing your donor’s name, address, and suggested gift amounts on their reply card. The tests are clear: customized reply cards with customized gift asks will increase the number of people who respond, and increase the size of gifts they give.
  • Mailing too many people. You’re sending your mailing to all your past donors, even the ones who haven’t given in several years.
  • Making your appeal hard to read. These are things like type that’s below 13pt, too many words per page, too-small margins, too much reverse-type, etc.
  • Not including clear reasons why the donor should give a gift right now, today. Most nonprofit appeals and e-appeals share what’s happening at the organization and ask for support. But they don’t include any reasons that the donor should give a gift right now – and then are weirdly surprised when very few donors give a gift today.
    How many of those mistakes is your organization making on a regular basis?

These get missed because – somewhat rightly – we’re usually focused on the obvious mistakes that everyone knows about:

  • Messing up donor data. Like addressing mail to me as “Dear Seven” instead of “Dear Steven” and doing it for years. (True story.)
  • Print shop foul-ups. Things like half of your donors getting a reply card for a different nonprofit. (Another true story. Super fun!)
  • Lousy Links. When the links and buttons in your email don’t lead donors to the right place.

Everybody who has done direct response fundraising for any length of time has a couple of these under their belt. Things happen. But you can build systems and processes to eliminate most of these obvious mistakes, most of the time.

But it’s the other kind of mistakes that kill you.

It’s the non-obvious mistakes that stop organizations from “making the leap” to the next level.

It’s the non-obvious mistakes that keep organizations from ever reaching the scale they need to make a big difference.

The best thing you can do is learn. Read this blog. Follow people who have done this stuff at scale. For instance, follow Lisa Sargent on Twitter – she’s rocking it lately with great advice. As much as possible, do what experienced people recommend, not what know-nothing opinion-havers in your organization say they like.

And for those of you who can’t do what experienced people recommend because people in your organization won’t let you – hold tight. I’m working on something I’m calling the Convince Your Boss Kit. Stay tuned. And for now, do as much as you can!