Tag: appeals

Design So Donors Can Read, and They Will Thank You by Giving More

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat
Fineprint.

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. 

One part of our journey as an organization was learning how to design fundraising materials that donors could actually read.

I remember one day a colleague a few years older than me called me up to say, “Can you please make the font bigger? Donors are having a hard time reading the print.”

I took a quick look at the piece she was talking about, shrugged, and said – “It’s fine!”

At that point I was still in my thirties, and it WAS fine… for me.

When I started to learn more about designing for readability, I wished I could have that moment back so I could respond differently.

Making things readable for donors is fundamental for them being able to respond with a gift. If they can’t easily read it, they won’t give.

My organization started to pay more attention to readability, and we adjusted three main things:

  • We made the font bigger — minimum of 14pt for everything
  • We stopped using reverse text (white print on a dark background)
  • We used black font for body copy and dark, saturated colors for headlines

These design choices were fairly simple to implement, but we had to be smarter about our copy choices because the formerly-used option to just “make the font smaller” was no longer on the table when we had too much copy.

Our donors responded in a way that let us know we were on the right track.

I even had a board member’s wife tell me, “Finally you printed something big enough that I could read it!”

Making these few design tweaks improved the readability of our fundraising pieces and helped increase giving without raising our costs. That’s a win!


Read the whole series:

How a Strong Fundraising Offer Changes Everything

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat
Can you help?

I used to be a Director of Marketing and Communications for a nonprofit where I had minimal involvement with fundraising.

But then the nonprofit I was working at needed me to start writing their direct response fundraising, and I discovered a whole new world of expertise. This experience 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…

The first thing that made an impact was developing strong fundraising offers for our direct mail appeals.

This meant we started being clearer about what the donor’s gift would do or promising what would happen when they made a gift, like “your gift of $50 will provide a food basket for a child while they are on school break.”

For years, we had been sending out appeals asking people to give but we weren’t that specific about what their gift would do. We asked people to give to help children in a certain country get an education. Or give to help support a church planter.

It sort of worked. The donors who were close to the organization and the mission would respond. But people who didn’t know the organization as well just didn’t seem to respond to our direct mail appeals.

“If they understood how important this is, they would give,” was a common phrase.

But how to get donors to understand?

When I started to learn more about fundraising offers, I brought back some new ideas, and we started approaching our appeals differently.

We started digging into the line items of budgets.

We started asking our program team detailed questions about how many people were participating in different programs, and every last detail they could give us.

This research meant we could put a dollar amount to doing a specific thing. And we could ask the donor to give to do that thing.

Instead of “give to help children in (country name)” we now had “give $35 to provide a backpack full of school supplies for one child in (country name).”

Instead of “give to support a church planter” we now had “give $5 so a church planter can reach one person.”

And suddenly our appeals started to raise more money.

The main change was that we were showing donors the difference they could make for one person with a specific gift.

I remember the first appeal we sent out with one of our newly developed offers. It was year-end — not a time of year you want to fumble things. I was… worried.

I remember saying to my boss, “What if this doesn’t work?”

“You know… it’s possible it won’t work,” he said. “But let’s still try it.”

Having a boss who was open to trying things differently was a gift. (I know bosses don’t always respond like that!)

But what it came down to was this… we could keep doing things the way we had always done them and get similar results. Or we could take a calculated risk based on best practice recommendations from an expert and raise more money for our mission.

And when things are only “sort-of” working, taking a calculated risk based on expert recommendations is a smart thing to do.

My organization went from raising around $10,000 from our direct mail fundraising appeals to raising $30,000, 40,000, and even $50,000 from our direct mail fundraising appeals.

Change can be scary, especially when you’ve been doing something the same way for years. But if you can work through the fear with your team, Better Fundraising can happen for your organization as well (see what I did there?).

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.

Take More Steps

Steven  |  Repeat
Steps progress.

This post is the first in a series of special posts for January.  Last year we kept track of the ideas that had outsized impact on the small and medium-sized nonprofits we serve.  Each of the posts this month is about one of those big ideas.

I hope they are helpful as you think about your fundraising this year.

***

Every piece of fundraising you make & send is a step on your journey to raising more money.

Here’s the simple truth: the more steps you take each year, the closer you are to raising more money, because you get better when you practice.

You know those organizations that send out 10 appeal letters, 6 printed newsletters, and 50 fundraising emails?  They can do that because they’ve practiced so much that their fundraising works great.

They don’t have different donors than you.  They don’t have a better cause than you.  They’ve just practiced more.

At some point in the past, someone at those organizations said, “Let’s figure out a way to make and send more fundraising.”

If your organization needs someone to say that, you can be that someone.

Don’t be afraid of making & sending more fundraising.  The more steps you take, the better you get at taking steps.

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.

A Procrastinator’s Guide to Year-End Fundraising

Steven  |  Year-End

Just getting started with your year-end fundraising?

Here’s a quick list – my best tips – for what to do with your remaining weeks before the end of the year.

Make a Plan to Start Earlier Next year

First, the hard news: if you’re just starting now, you’ve left money on the table.  You could have raised more.

That is a harsh truth.  Many people won’t like to hear it.  But it’s true.  And for the moment, don’t worry about it.  But right now, go set a calendar reminder to start earlier next year.

Seriously, set a reminder.

I’ll wait.

It’s that important.

The organizations that start their year-end fundraising earlier tend to raise more money.

What to Do Now

Do as many of the following things if you can.  And here’s the order I’d prioritize them in:

Identify and contact your major donors who have not yet given a gift this year.

Don’t do what most nonprofits do, which is hope that their majors give a gift before the end of the year.

If you haven’t already, identify exactly which of your major donors have not given gifts.  Then reach out to each of them to ask for a special year-end gift to help your beneficiaries (not to help your organization).  Do it in person if you can; phone is the next best way.  Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

Write and send your year-end letter.

Send out a direct letter that powerfully asks donors to give a special gift before the end of the year.  Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

If you use a mail house and it’s going to take too long to get a letter produced, here’s what to do:

Write and prep your year-end emails.

Be sure to have at least three emails prepped for the last three days of the year.  Remember that you do not have to reinvent the wheel: the emails should be VERY similar to your letter, and the emails should be very similar to each other.  Repetition is the most effective tool you didn’t know you have!

Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

Update your website to ask for a year-end gift.

Make an update so that the first thing users see on your home page is a clear call-to-action and a large “donate” button.

And…  wait for it…  tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference.  You will raise more money than you expect.

That’s it! Do as many of those as you can, starting from the top of the list.

Do a great job on each one before doing anything else.

And if you can only do three things, do the top three.  If you can only do two, do the top two.  You get it.

Remember: year-end is the easiest time of the year to raise more money than you expect!

This post was originally published on December 4, 2018.

Who Are You Writing To?

Steven  |  Ask
Who writing to

Quick post today.

When you write, if you don’t have a picture in mind of what the person reading your writing is like, you tend to write for yourself.

I can speak from experience on this – the first posts from this blog are… not interesting.  I was writing to myself.  It took me months to develop a good picture of who I was writing to and for.  And that’s when this blog started to be helpful to people and our number of subscribers started to grow.

“Writing for yourself” happens all the time in nonprofit fundraising.  And it results in fundraising that’s not interesting or effective.

Contrast that to a nonprofit that has a good picture of what their donors know, care about, and the language their donors use.  When the nonprofit writes to and for those donors (instead of themselves) they create fundraising that connects more and raises more money. 

***

If you’re like me, you want to know why “writing to and for your donors” works so much better.  So even though I said this would be a short post, here’s a longer explanation if you’re interested.  🙂

When a nonprofit writes to itself: they base their fundraising on what the organization knows, what the organization cares about, and uses the words the organization uses.

This results in fundraising that:

  • Tries to teach the recipient things, instead of tapping into what the recipient already knows.  This is “13% of people in our county have experienced homelessness” compared to “You know that no one should have to be homeless.”
  • Tries to make the recipient care about new things, instead of tapping into what the recipient already cares about.  This is “Our program is one of the most effective literacy programs” compared to “You know the immediate difference knowing how to read makes on a person’s life.”
  • Tries to teach the recipient new words and phrases, instead of using words and phrases the recipient already knows.  This is “They are what we call a UETA – Under Exposed to The Arts” compared to “They haven’t been exposed to the Arts enough, and you can change that.”

Think about that for a second; look at all the extra work a donor has to do before they can give!  The reader of the email or letter:

  • Has to learn new things
  • Has to care about things they didn’t care about before
  • Has to learn new vocabulary (and sometimes whole new concepts)

This puts what we call an “education barrier” between the organization and its donors. 

Organizations using this approach tend to stay small because their fundraising materials ensure that only the “true believers” will give; because only the “true believers” will spend the time and effort to be educated.

The more effective approach is to build a picture of what individual donors who care about your beneficiaries or cause tend to know, care about, and read. 

Then write your fundraising to and for the people who fit that picture.

You’ll make your organization more accessible to more people, raise more money, and achieve more of your mission.