Category: Repeat

Why your direct response fundraising should be like a Hallmark Christmas movie…

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat
Hallmark

Something strange happens to me at the end of October.

I’m a smart, logical, educated person who appreciates arts and culture.

But at the end of October when Hallmark Christmas movies start playing 24/7, I turn into… someone else. Someone who will watch movie after movie with essentially the same characters and the same plot. Someone who tears up at the end of the movie when the lovers FINALLY kiss and then a gentle snow begins to fall.

Sigh. It’s so sappy.

But I’m a direct response fundraiser, so I notice something else.

A Hallmark Christmas movie reminds me of effective direct response fundraising. It’s formulaic. You know what’s coming next. The plot is easy to follow. And you may tear up because, gosh dang it, it’s emotional!

And it works.

Every year, they make more of these movies because people – like me – are watching them!

Sometimes we try to make our direct mail fundraising appeals into something more like a Cannes Film Festival entry. Complex. Ironic. Edgy. Different.

But that just doesn’t work as well.

If you want to appeal to the highest number of donors, your direct mail fundraising should be more like a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Here’s the basic formula:

  • Tell them why you’re writing to them
  • Share the problem that needs to be solved
  • Tell how the problem could be solved
  • Ask the donor to give a gift to solve the problem
  • Go into more detail about the problem and solution
  • Include a story that illustrates the problem (optional)
  • Ask them to give again
  • Signature and title
  • P.S. Ask them to give again and include the deadline.

Listen. I get it. Near the end of every single Hallmark Christmas movie, I grumble and complain and wonder why I watch these silly movies.

Then the snow starts to fall and there’s a magical kiss and I’m a puddle on the floor.

There’s something about that feeling…

The direct response formula isn’t a secret. Simple. Easy to follow. Emotional. Maybe a little bit of magic… These things help donors get to the point where they will write a check to make something good happen.

Follow the formula with your next direct response fundraising appeal or email and let me know how it goes!

Comment here or find me on Twitter @sarahlundberg.
Sarah

Less is Less

Steven  |  Repeat
Less is Less

Most organizations would agree that “Less is less” when it comes to fundraising.

If you ask less, you’ll raise less.

But the converse is also true: if you ask more, you’ll raise more.

If your organization believes that “less is less,” but doesn’t believe that “more is more,” you’ve placed a boundary around the generosity of your donors.

It’s worth asking how that boundary came to be.

Most organizations (and the people working in them) are afraid of being rejected when asking for money. So they set the boundary out of fear.

But like most boundaries that are placed out of fear, they are pretty limiting. The boundary around your donors’ generosity limits how much they will give to your organization, and how much money you can raise.

If you can remove your boundary – and embrace the truth of “more is more” – you’ll unlock your donors’ generosity and you’ll do more good.

Practice On Your Non-Donors

Steven  |  Repeat
try

Want to become a more effective Fundraiser but your organization won’t allow you to send out enough fundraising to really improve your craft?

Practice on your non-donors.

Get permission to send more fundraising to the non-donors on your email list.

After all, you have nothing to lose with those folks, right? And the purpose of your email list is for members of the list to be turned into donors, right?

If people in your organization question you, focus their attention on how the organization has said that you need more new donors, and that’s exactly what you are trying to do.

The side benefit is that you and your organization will be more effective fundraisers because of it.

If your CRM setup means you don’t know which of the email addresses on your list are donors or non-donors, you have an extra step to take. Create an email list for your test sends, and from that list remove any addresses that look like they might be for your major donors, board members, staff and foundations.

Then start to try stuff. Send an e-appeal that tries a new approach. Try sending a “breathless dispatch from the front line” instead of the “standard sanitized perfectly-proofed update.” Send two e-appeals in a week. Send out a survey designed to get legacy giving leads.

It might be a bit messy. But it’s all practice that will make you more effective.

Organizations that want to get more effective at Fundraising allow little “messes” like these in order to learn and grow. As I said last week, “Ship your work. Get feedback. Improve it. Repeat.”

If you’re not regularly practicing, chances are you’re not getting more effective.

The Long Cut

Steven  |  Repeat
improve

“Ship your work. Get feedback. Improve it. Repeat.”

This lesson comes from the Tech and Art worlds, but it applies perfectly to fundraising.

Every time you send out a piece of fundraising, you’ve shipped your work. Celebrate it.

Then you get feedback in opens, click-throughs, # of gifts, response rate, etc. Measure it.

Then you ask, “What could we do to get more opens, click-throughs, etc.?” Improve it.

Then you keep it up. Because when you repeat the cycle, you get the “compound interest” of ever-improving results.

Ship your work. Get feedback. Improve it. Repeat.

It’s not sexy. But it’s a priceless way to serve your beneficiaries or cause.

“It’s Too Easy to Read!” The One Complaint I’ve Never Heard from a Donor

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat

In my 20 years of nonprofit work, there’s one complaint I have NEVER heard from a donor.

I’ve never heard a donor complain that something is too easy to read and understand.

But interestingly enough… that IS something a lot of organizations worry about.

The worry goes something like this:

  • “We don’t want donors to think we’re talking down to them!”
  • “That doesn’t sound like our executive director!”
  • “Our donors are different… they are educated!”

There’s a Steven Screen saying that I have on a sticky note next to my computer screen: “Nobody has to read your fundraising.”

Painful… but true!

If you don’t make your fundraising easy to read, most donors will stop trying.

That’s why you need to do the work to make your fundraising communications easy to read.

When you make your fundraising communications easy to read and understand, more donors will read. And that will lead to you raising more money.

Here are three simple things you can do to make your communications easier to read.

  • Use short sentences.
  • Use words that are easy to understand (and limit organizational jargon!).
  • Don’t be afraid of sentence fragments or starting a sentence with And or But.

Here’s the thing…

This has nothing to do with how smart your donors are. Your donors ARE smart – I get it! But your donors are busy, and they have a bunch of things competing for their attention at any given moment.

So… you must do the hard work to make things simple and easy to understand.

It’s worth it – I promise!

Before I go, I want to share a free resource you can use to help you make your fundraising communications easy to understand. I use it all the time!

https://hemingwayapp.com/

Copy and paste your text and Hemingway will assign a reading level and highlight complex sentences. Aim for a 6th – 7th grade reading level.

When you do the hard work to make your fundraising communications easy to read and understand, your donors are more likely to give. It’s that simple! Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Find me on Twitter @sarahlundberg.

Fundraising “Decision Razors”

Steven  |  Repeat
razor

Over the weekend I was introduced to the term “decision razor” – a rule of thumb that simplifies decision making.

Turns out that “Occam’s razor” is one of several decision “razors” that allow you to “shave off” possibilities you can ignore, steps you don’t need to take, or discussions you don’t need to have…

I bring this up because decision razors allow Fundraisers to make better decisions faster. They allow Fundraisers and organizations to “shave off” valuable time and potentially bad decisions by applying one core principle.

Here are five of my fundraising decision razors. They’ve proven helpful and successful over the years.

Razor #1

If a tactic or approach is effective for the donors of several organizations, chances are it will be effective for your organization’s donors.

When I suggest a new tactic or approach to an organization, I often hear, “Oh, that would never work with our donors/donors for our sector/donors in our country.”

In truth, it’s the opposite; if the tactic or approach works for a lot of other organizations, it’s more likely it will work for yours.

Razor #2

When deciding whether to add another piece of fundraising to donors, go ahead and add it unless you have numerical data that shows that previous additions resulted in reduced net revenue or retention rates.

If you don’t have numerical data, you’re flying blind. And if your organization is having trouble with this issue, read this.

Razor #3

Little of what you write will be read.

Most donors will scan – not read – your donor communications.

So you should create your materials knowing that most people won’t read the whole thing. This results in a style of communication that gets the point quickly and highlights the ideas that are most important to the donor – which is proven to work GREAT in fundraising communications.

Razor #4

Most donors care more about the beneficiaries or cause than they care about the organization itself.

Creating donor communications that are mostly about your cause and/or beneficiaries, and less about your organization / programs / staff / beliefs / etc., will generally raise more money.

Razor #5

The amount of communications you send to donors is a signal about how important your work is.

Fundraise a couple times per year? Must not be that important.

Fundraise regularly? Run a campaign that includes two letters, 10 emails and social? That’s one of the things that signals to a donor that “this is important.”

I know it’s hard for smaller organizations to make the time to create donor communications, but that doesn’t make this razor untrue. (And we created Work Less Raise More specifically to combat this problem – we make it crazy quick and easy to create effective fundraising pieces.)

So… are these “decision razors” helpful to you? If so, leave a comment below and I’ll share more of them!

Confidence Not Needed

Steven  |  Repeat
work

This post is for people who are worried about their fundraising work this fall because they aren’t confident that they really know what they’re doing. 

To quote the writer Chuck Wendig,

“The work doesn’t need your confidence. 
The work just needs the work.”

The same is true for fundraising: the fundraising you create doesn’t need your confidence. It just needs your work. 

Yes, there’s lots to learn about fundraising. But always remember that your donors want to help. You are communicating to donors who are friendly to your fundraising. 

So if you aren’t confident in the fundraising you create, I want you to internalize these three truths:

  • Donors care about your beneficiaries.
  • Donors will often give you the benefit of the doubt.
  • Your donors WANT to do good.  They are LOOKING for ways to give away their money to help the world become a better place.

You can raise lots of money without doing “great” fundraising. Your donors want to help!

Make your fundraising, put it in front of your donors, and pay attention to the results.

Do “the work” this year, and by December 31st you’ll have raised money and helped your beneficiaries.  Your confidence is not needed, but your work is.

How You Can Get Comfortable Using the “F” Word

Jonathan Steck  |  Repeat
Man shocked.

I recently heard a client tell me, “I find it hard to even talk about fundraising at work. It’s like it’s a dirty word.”

Do you feel like this, sometimes?

It’s a common struggle among fundraisers as we work to educate our co-workers and internal teams to the necessary, yet nuanced world of fundraising.

And yes, the “F” word is Fundraising.😀

The misconception in many organizations is that fundraising isn’t really a function of our mission. Instead, fundraising is the activity that nobody likes to talk about.

And it’s you, the fundraiser, who suffers.  Often times folks in fundraising feel the internal tension that their task is simply not seen as important as the boots-on-the-ground work that the organization is doing.

I’m sure you’ve heard some, or all of these objections when using the “F” word in your organization…

“That story is too sad, we can’t share it with donors.”

“We’re sending too many letters to our donors, we should stop.”

“We should be telling the donor more about the good things we do.”

“We don’t need to raise money for the programs you want to talk about.”

“This letter implies that we need help.”

Well, here are 4 tested and proven things you can do right now to help remove the internal tension and get folks more comfortable with using the “F” word.

1. Meet With Your Teams

To help educate internal teams on the importance of fundraising at your organization, schedule a short meeting that gives folks a simple overview of what fundraising is, and why it’s necessary for the mission.

This doesn’t have to be a long, bloated meeting.  In fact, I would recommend to keep it short and use visuals, like a PowerPoint presentation to get your point across.

Donuts help, too.

Better Fundraising regularly does these presentations to programs teams, leadership, and boards, and find that folks walk away with a much clearer understanding to what fundraising is, and why it’s not a dirty word.

2. Share Your Appeals with Internal Teams

It’s often overlooked, but taking some time to walk around and literally handing internal staff a copy of your next direct mail appeal works wonders.

That’s because a common complaint from many internal teams is that they don’t know what’s happening in fundraising, and what donors are receiving. 

So, handing out a copy of your next appeal gives you opportunity to build relationships, answer questions face-to-face, and develop goodwill with all stakeholders.

3. Run a Kick-Off Meeting

It’s a great idea for your Fundraising Team to have a kick-off meeting for every campaign. 

The kick-off meeting is a great way to provide non-fundraising staff with an overview of the campaign, its components (letters, emails, events, etc.), the fundraising offer, story, and messaging, plus internal goals and objectives.

This meeting is not designed to be a discussion about “how” or “why,” but rather answering the “when,” “what,” and “where” for the campaign. 

Set the expectation at the start of the meeting, and invite participants to stay behind after the meeting for questions and clarification, if needed.

4. Food

Folks working in nonprofits generally don’t need a reason to share morning tea and snacks with each other.  Food brings people together, so take advantage of it!

If the weather is nice outside, consider having your fundraising team host a BBQ or picnic. Or have fundraising staff each bring a pie, cookies, or something delicious to put in the lunch room.

The key is to email your organization staff and let them know that the Fundraising Team is doing this, and to come and grab something to eat.

These ideas sound simple, and in many respects they are.  But they are proven ways to educate folks to the importance of fundraising in your organization, remove tension with internal teams, and get you confidently using the “F” word, again.

5 Tips for Getting Internal Feedback that Doesn’t Make You Scream

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat

Picture this:

You create a high impact direct mail fundraising piece. You have a strong fundraising offer. You write using a structure that is proven to work. You use simple language that is easy to understand.

Now it’s time to…

(drumroll…)

…get internal feedback and approval so you can send your mailing to donors.

(cue: terrified scream…..!!!!!)

Here are five tips to help make this process easier so you get feedback that DOESN’T make you scream.

  1. Keep your feedback list small. Who absolutely MUST see the mailing before it can go out? Keep that list to one or two people, including the letter signer. If your list is more than two, have a conversation with your boss and see who you can gently release from this process. When people at your organization give feedback without understanding direct mail fundraising, you end up with a less effective mailing.
  2. Ask for “feedback” rather than “edits.” When you ask for “feedback” you leave room for YOU to use your training and discretion to make a change or not. When you ask for “edits” you may give the impression that you will make the changes… all the changes… that are sent your way. Cue the screaming.
  3. Give context before asking for feedback. When you ask for feedback from someone who is not trained in fundraising, they may inadvertently remove the things that make the piece effective. Give them a heads up about the important parts of the piece that need to stay the same for the piece to raise money. (cough – hands off the first four paragraphs and the P.S.!)
  4. Be specific what feedback you are asking for. When you ask for general feedback, you will get a range of opinions that are not helpful. Ask specifically for what you want. Factual corrections? Design input? Grammatical proofing? Final approval from the signer? Ask for what you want specifically from each person on your feedback list, and you will filter out some of the opinions that don’t help get the job done.
  5. Give them a due date… and build in some cushion time. Make sure your mailing doesn’t get derailed because it’s sitting on a pile somewhere. Be clear about the due date, and follow up to make sure you get the feedback when you need it.

Getting internal feedback can be a frustrating process, but it doesn’t have to be. These five tips will help you get the feedback you need without wanting to scream. Give it a try and let me know how it goes by commenting on this post!