Category: Repeat

Writing for TV and Writing for Fundraising

Connor Owen  |  Repeat
Editing.

Working in television would likely be a writer’s dream… and probably a nightmare. Tight deadlines.  Limited budgets.  Constant revisions.  Wait – that sounds like life in a nonprofit, too! 

Maybe you have more in common with a writer in Hollywood than you realized.  You’re both up against a deadline.  You’re both dealing with executives speaking into your copy.  So, what else could we learn from our fellow writers in Southern California?

For some television shows, after their first few episodes, there is a quick realization that they are focusing on the wrong characters.

Let me tell you two quick stories where this happened.  

First, let’s look at The West Wing.  This show was originally intended to focus on the staff who worked inside the West Wing, not the President.  Main characters were set to be the Chief of Staff, Communications Director, Press Secretary, and everyone who makes the White House work.  They did not plan to have the President as a prominent character with lots of storylines.

But something happened after the first episode.  At the tail-end of the Pilot, Martin Sheen stepped in front of the camera as the President of the United States and delivered a handful of lines.  Soon after, his role in the show grew! 

Why? 

Because the writers and producers of the show were smart enough to realize that when the President showed up, viewers loved it!  So, story lines for the supporting cast were decreased, and the President’s story lines increased.

The same is true of the show Family Ties.  Michael J. Fox’s character was supposed to be a supporting actor to the lead actors who played his parents.  But after a few episodes, executives realized that Fox was why people tuned into watch.

So they made a shift, and Family Ties became centered around Fox’s character.

Now, how does this relate to your fundraising?

Think of your programming like characters in a television show.  You likely have one or two programs you focus on (these are your lead actors).  And then you have a few other programs (or supporting actors) you feature here and there.

As you write about different programming in your fundraising, your audience responds differently.  The really smart orgs that are growing are listening to that data, just like successful television executives, writers, and producers.  They might even shift what was once a supporting actor into a lead actor role because of how well it performs!

So, as you send your appeals and newsletters, be sure you’re tracking your data to see which programs your audience loves responding to.  And if the data says you need to feature one more than another – do it!  You’ll love the results. 

PS: If a show like Family Ties missed the fact that they had a star in Michael J. Fox who needed more story lines, maybe you have a program out there that needs featured in more of your appeals and newsletters!  Follow the data, and watch your fundraising results increase!

PPS: Not tracking your data?  You could start now.  Download our proforma so that you can know exactly how every fundraising communication you send is performing, helping you raise even more money.

Trust the Expertise

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Build trust.

Want to know what “letting a Fundraiser do their job” looks like?

Here’s a quick story.  I recently caught up with a longtime friend who is a “fundraising lifer” like me.  He shared a story from earlier in his career when he was brought in as a Director of Development with a specific task of growing the organization.

A couple months in, he presented a fundraising campaign to the Executive Director for approval.  The campaign was different than what the organization had done in the past.  And in an example of leadership and trust, the ED said,

“This makes me deeply nervous.  It is approved without any changes.”

It’s hard to express how much I love and admire that response: the ED acknowledged their feelings, then let my friend do the job he was hired to do.

The nonprofit fundraising world could use more leadership like this.  It’s good to acknowledge our feelings, because feelings are real and strong.  And it’s good to let Fundraisers do the jobs they were hired to do and live with the consequences. 

When a boss regularly doesn’t let a Fundraiser try a new tactic or a new message, that boss dooms the nonprofit to underachievement.  The organization never achieves its potential because any Fundraiser with talent and ambition will leave.

Let me put it this way: for a tiny bit of risk (trying something new), the organization has the chance to discover a way to raise more money AND increase the chance that a talented employee will stay. 

And the campaign my friend put together?  It was a remarkable success.  It was the beginning of a four-year run that tripled the revenue of the organization.  That growth would not be possible without the trust and leadership shown by the ED.

In my experience, the upside of that trust and leadership is FAR greater than the downside.

Hit Songs

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Hit songs.

You know the songs that were hits years ago, but you still love listening to?

Those old hit songs are what allow a band or artist to make a living making music.  Because to have a career in popular music you need at least a couple hit songs that people still love years later.

The same thing is true in direct response fundraising for nonprofits – you need a couple hits, a couple fundraising offers or campaigns that people love. 

The nonprofit equivalent of “hit songs that stand the test of time” are things like:

  • You can sponsor a child for $X
  • You can provide surgery to repair a cleft palate for $X
  • You can give a goat for a family for $X

Does your organization have a hit song you can rely on?

Are you doing the work of trying different things, paying close attention to your audience’s reaction, and looking for potential hits that people will listen to again and again?

Because your goal is not to do something “fresh and new” every time.  Your goal is to experiment, find out what works well, and then get the most out of that “hit” that you can.

And later on, you might get tired of your fundraising “hit song,” but the people giving won’t.

How to Improve

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Keep trying. Keep growing.

The path to improving your fundraising in the mail & email is the same as it is to improve at anything:

  • Make lots of attempts
  • Have a tight feedback loop with good data

In tennis, want to get better at your backhand?  Hit lots of balls and pay attention to where they land.  In writing, want to get better at dialogue?  Write lots of dialog-heavy scenes, have other people read them and give you feedback.  

In fundraising, want to get better at the mail & email?  Send lots of appeals and reports, then review your response rates, your net revenue, and your retention rates.

Remember, your fundraising is just as important as your programs.  Your nonprofit has two jobs, and both must be done or you don’t have a nonprofit any longer:

  1. Deliver programs that solve a societal problem
  2. Inspire and retain supporters to fund the programs

If you want to scale past a few hundred donors, it’s highly likely you need to get good at using the mail & email.  Which means your best bet is to make lots of attempts with a tight feedback loop.

A Strong Foundation

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Foundation.

Gall’s Law states that “a complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.”

The same is true for individual donor fundraising: a complex fundraising system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple fundraising system that worked.

And here are the key elements to “a simple system that works”…

  • Ask like help is needed
  • Thank like the donor’s generosity meant something
  • Report, using “before & after” stories, to show positive change

There are additional things you can do, of course.  For instance, you can manage your major donors with a proven system.   You can optimize your online giving experience.  You can engage people in your community.

But if your fundraising system doesn’t have these three elements at its heart, you’re unlikely to last long or grow large.

‘By November, your year-end cake is already baked’

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Bake a cake.

At last year’s Storytelling Conference, Chris Davenport shared storytelling advice from successful movie directors.  Here’s one of my favorite things he highlighted:

“What an audience feels at the end of the movie is entirely dependent on what they felt earlier in the movie.”

Here’s the parallel to that in fundraising:

How much you raise at the end of the year is dependent on the fundraising you sent your donors earlier in the year.

Here are some examples:

  • If a nonprofit has shown up often in donors’ lives throughout the year, with relevant content, its year-end campaign will raise more.  The organization has earned its place to be one of the organizations a donor thinks of at year-end.
  • If a nonprofit has not done any fundraising for several months, its year-end campaign will raise less.  Because it disappeared for months, the organization is less top-of-mind for donors and won’t receive as many gifts.
  • If a nonprofit has made it clear through the year that its work is needed, its year-end campaign will raise more.  The organization has made it clear that it’s working on something important, and donors tend to support causes and organizations that they feel are important.
  • If a nonprofit has spent the year only talking about how well things are going, it will raise less at year-end.  The organization has shared only success stories, so it sounds like things are going great and help isn’t really needed, thank you very much.

A friend of mine put this memorably.  He used to run the annual fund for a national nonprofit you’ve heard of.  Over beers one night he said,

“Look, by November, your year-end cake is already baked.  All that’s left to do is see how it turns out.”

What he meant was the fundraising you do throughout the year has a large effect on how well your year-end campaign performs.  (You can, of course, have a strong year-end campaign without communicating much during the year.  But a strong year-end campaign after a strong annual campaign will raise even more.)

I share this here in January so that, as you’re creating your fundraising this year, you set yourself up during the year for the best year-end campaign you’ve ever had.

Specialized

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Specialized.

Another helpful idea to start your year with:

As a nonprofit moves forward on its fundraising journey, each piece of communication tends to become more specialized.

Specialization happens because, as you grow and start to measure the performance of everything, you find that the more specialized pieces of fundraising tend to perform better.

But this is hard for smaller nonprofits at the beginning of their fundraising journey.  When you don’t communicate to donors very often, each piece of communication tends to “say all the things.”  An appeal letter will thank donors for their previous gift, and ask for a gift, and share a story to report back, and update people on the recent programmatic change. 

All of those different messages tend to make it hard for individual donors moving fast to know what you want them to do.  (This is why Better Fundraising help nonprofits specialize their comms into three main buckets: Asks, Thanks, and Reports.)

And here’s the thing for today: don’t wait to specialize until you’re one of those big, sophisticated organizations – specialize now so that you become one of those big, sophisticated organizations.

Don’t Get Too Hung Up on Authenticity

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Guaranteed authentic.

In general, “be authentic” is good advice to nonprofits.

However, to be successful in fundraising long term you will absolutely need to do some things don’t feel authentic to you at first…

For instance, it doesn’t feel authentic for anyone to send 12 pieces of direct mail a year.  Yet tens of thousands of nonprofits are joyfully do it each year because it raises so much money, is so good at identifying new major donors, and keeps the relationship going with people you can’t meet in person.

It’s doesn’t feel authentic for anyone to send out 50 fundraising emails a year.  Yet that’s happening thousands of times a year from successful fundraising organizations.

For a relationship-driven MGO it doesn’t always feel authentic to keep a spreadsheet with an annual communication plan and giving goal for each major donor.  Yet that’s happening hundreds of thousands of times a year by MGOs who know that “having a plan and working the plan” is the key to maximizing revenue from major donors.

My point is just to say that the idea of “authenticity” is often taken too far.  It becomes a binary when it should be a guiding principle.

Stay authentic to who you are and what you believe in.  But don’t miss out on successful strategies and tactics because you wouldn’t naturally do them.

Progress, Not Perfection

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Progress.

It’s January, and it’s good to admit that your fundraising in 2026 will not be perfect. 

Everyone will make mistakes and miss opportunities.

But our job is to make progress, not to be perfect.  And progress can look pretty simple:

  • The plan for your top major donors is a little more specific this year
  • You send one more piece of fundraising than you sent last year
  • You spend a little time getting better at subject lines and teasers so that your open rates are higher this year (and next year)

“Raising more money” can feel hard.  Making progress and getting a little bit better at fundraising isn’t.