Archive for the ‘Marketing and Communications’ Category

I am reading my favorite blog today, the Agitator. The authors Roger Craver and Tom are “direct response” guru’s (remember it used to be called “direct mail?” Now it’s much more sophisticated direct response.)

They are citing an article by Denny Hatch about the best way to write “marketing copy.” That’s the technical term for the wording we use when we write appeals, brochures, email broadcasts and our fundraising materials.

Denny is apparently an old pro at marketing and copywriting. He says that we need to be sure to do the following things:

1. Set a deadline that will create urgency. By WHEN do we need to hear from you? Now we all know that you really have a terrible time raising money if you don’t have some sort of deadline.

You have to give people a reason for acting NOW. Write that check NOW. Put it in the mail NOW. Because we have to act quickly … (you know how to complete this sentence, right?)

2. But choose your deadline carefully. If you leave it out too long in the future, the  need to act now dissipates. But if it is too close, you are at the mercy of mailing schedules that might go wrong and ruin everything.

3. Use emotional hot buttons. If you appeal to these powerful, motivating emotions, you’ll have the most success. These hot buttons are called “key copy drivers” — because they are so powerful they can change behavior.

When you insert them into your effort, the more powerful your argument. Those copy drivers are: fear – greed – guilt – anger – exclusivity – salvation – flattery.

So how do you flatter your donors?

Tell them how smart and wonderful they are and how they’re so helpful, kind and caring.

I’ve seen lots of fundraising material that appealed to anger and guilt. Haven’t you?  Not so sure about using greed or fear here.

But don’t forget that it is POWERFUL emotions that will get attention and create action – and funds to help your cause.

Let us all be thankful at the outpouring of generosity from donors in response to Haiti’s crisis. The people of Haiti need and deserve our help.

From my standpoint also, I am looking carefully at the fundraising and donation techniques that are being used to raise (or collect) these funds.  What’s particularly amazing is the number and quantity of donations by text.

The Red Cross’s texting campaign is making history.

Apparently they now have over two million donors who have made $10 gifts to the Red Cross Haiti relief effort. Of course the real question is whether these donors will become repeat givers. And that depends on whether the Red Cross is able to establish real communication with them, and convey the ultimate impact their gifts made on the ground in Haiti.

And in a way, this is really “gift receiving” and not “fundraising” because it’s an outpouring of gifts that are not necessarily being solicited. BTW, the Agitator blog has a great entry today about the difference between “gift receiving” and “fundraising.”

Will there be followup?

The true test of all this gift collecting and/or fundraising is in the followup to donors.  Studies show that donors who give on line are less likely to renew their support than those who gave via check in the mail.

Will recipient organizations be able to convert one-time donors over to a longer-term relationship? How will they handle thank you’s?  How will they go forward communicating with donors?

I’ll be looking at renewal rates on these gifts to see what happens after that first gift.

We all talk about the need for a visual and emotional “hook” in our fundraising letters. But it’s really hard to pull off!

What you want to do is create a visual metaphor or a story that portrays your message. In the 09 Year-End Fundraising Strategies Telesummit, direct mail guru Mail Warwick calls this the “dynamite marketing concept.”

It’s something really compelling about the campaign that catches people’s attention and motivates them to learn more about it and eventually to responds.

Here’s what not to do!

Mal shared his perspective,”The problem is that nonprofit folks typically think what they need to do in their letters is to tell their donors all about the great work they are doing.

“They like to talk about the specifics of their work, the programs and projects they have in place, and then they think the donors will come running.”

But we really have to step back and get into the mind of the donor.

We have to determine which aspects of the work we’re doing would really appeal to the donor’s fundamental values and beliefs and what benefits that would provide.

This is very different from starting out an appeal letter “for 20 years the xxx organization has lovingly served xxxx group of people in our community.” (yawn)

Instead start your letter with a story. Just like the way lots of newspaper articles begin.

Perhaps it goes like this:  “Johnny Smith woke up Monday morning, hungry again.”

Wow, doesn’t that strike you in a completely different way?  It creates a visual narrative that draws the reader in. You want to keep reading don’t you?  Starting with a story is an amazing technique.

You could go on to say that Johnny lives right here in our community, and his single mother could not find work. You could talk about how many nights a week he goes to bed hungry. Or perhaps how he stuffs his empty backback with cafeteria food at school because he knows there is no food at home.

As you read this, you are forming pictures in your mind, aren’t you? It is generating an emotional feeling in your soft heart (I hope.)

THIS is the way to appeal to your donors’ hearts. And you’d be surprised at the result.

I bet you are starting to receive year-end appeal letters like I am. Have you ever stepped back to examine exactly what they look like?

Are they dense with type?
Is the type font so small you have to dash for your reading glasses?
Is it all one dull black color?
Are the paragraphs so long that you sorta skim the first sentence and then skip on to the next paragraph?

OR, perhaps
There are attractive photos?
There is nice use of color?
There are boldface headings that make it easier to read?

And perhaps,
They use bold type and italics to highlight key points?
The are margins nice and wide?
There is plenty of white space?
Are paragraphs short?

Guess what! What your appeal actually LOOKS like has an enormous amount to do with whether people actually read the whole thing.

So often we labor over just the right words. Lots of people spend too much time writing and re-writing over and over. And finally we have it perfectly written. Then we jam all the lovely copywriting into a very small space.

There is to much to say that we end up shrinking the font. We narrow the margins to get it all there.  We throw lots of sentences into paragraphs.

And can you find the appeal?

Especially if you are skimming which is what everybody is going to do!

But we forget to step back and take a look at its overall appearance. The amount of white space on your letter may have more to do with whether someone reads it or not!

Number one rule of writing fundraising letters?

Make sure your letter is easy to read!

(Example:  Look at this post and how easy it is to read with all the white space. )

Yet another end-of-year fundraising strategy is here again on this chilly October day in North Carolina. I hope you are warm and cozy wherever you are reading this.

As we discussed in the 09 Year End Fundraising StrategiesTelesummit, the year-end fundraising rush is upon us again. This is the time when most organizations raise most of their contributions. So warming up your donors before you ask them is a mighty smart move that can dramatically enhance your results.

Here’s how:

1. First of all, I hope you have been communicating with your donors all year long, so they feel happy and connected to your cause.

I hope you have been using postcards, emails, direct mail, personal letters, phone calls, newsletters, and your annual report to talk to your donors and treat them like friends. (And I certainly hope you are not relying on just a newsletter to carry communication this for you – studies show that donors think nonprofit newsletters are boring)

2. Be sure your donors have been well thanked. If you need to, before appeals go out, hold a thankathon to your donors. Or hold a “this is how we used your money last year” phonathon to your donors.

3. And here’s how you prep them: As part of your appeal strategy, you should have several steps in the overall solicitation process.

The first step should be a postcard, an email or a phone call letting the donor know that the campaign is about to launch. This preps the donor and helps them be ready for the appeal. The second step might be the appeal itself, with lots of additional followup steps that we will discuss later.

But let’s go back to the idea of a “warmup” postcard. Here’s where you should put a smiling face or family who is being helped by your cause. Here’s where you tell a story. Here’s where you trigger the warm and fuzzy emotions.

I love the idea of the postcard.  You can also send an email with the photo, with a cheery message about launching the campaign and the wonderful things your organization does to help people.

This kind of warm up can dramatically increase the gifts that your donors make when the appeal finally hits.

Give it a try!

I am such a fan of Kay Sprinkel Grace. She is one of the ultimate fundraising gurus who I have followed for a long time. The highlight of my summer was hearing her in person at the Bridge Conference in DC this summer.

So I wasted no time asking her to be a part of the 09 Year-End Fundraising Strategies Telesummit. And, as usual, she had some provocative and pithy ideas to share. (find out more. . . )

Here’s the deal: we have to know where our donors stand if we are going to successfully encourage them to contribute this year. So we need to drill down a bit into our donors’ minds and hearts and understand their attitudes so we can craft the right kind of fundraising appeal.

According to Kay ( and I do wholeheartedly agree), donors are feeling poor right now, whether they are multimillionares or not. So they are being more and more careful about their giving (and spending for that matter).

Kay thinks the economy is starting to pick up. And she is also seeing that philanthropy is picking up as well. : ) So If philanthropy is starting to pick up, then this year-end is a golden opportunity to re-gain the fundraising losses we have seen in the past year.

But we need to know how to talk to our donors.

Right now. Responding to their current attitudes for fall/winter 09.

Here’s the issue - donors are less likely to take risks now. They are becoming more conservative. Gone are the days when a person might issue 30 checks at year-end, just because they cared a lot and also because they had ample income.

Now, people are giving to fewer organizations – AND to trusted organizations.

SOOOOO how do speak to your donors NOW? Remember that credibility is essential for your fundraising now more than ever. How do you establish credibility?

Lots of ways:

• track record – here are our results
• transparency – how we are spending your money
• who is on our board (what community leaders are standing behind us and our cause?)
• 990 posted online
• professional looking web site and marketing materials
• good looking (ie, professional) fundraising appeal
• longevity – we’ve been in business all this time
• endorsements from well-known community leaders
• funding from well-known sources (publicize this because it adds credibility)

Be sure you hit all these points somewhere in your web site and in your appeal.  And you’ll be more successful if you do.

I’m wildly interested in what Margaret May Damen had to say about appealing to women donors in her 09 Year-End Strategies Telesummit interview with me last week.

After years on the big-time university fundraising scene, I know all too well how so many development folks focus waaaaay too much on the men. I know I used to do it too.

But now, take a look at her statistics: According to the Harvard Business Review, 84% of all women make ALL the financial decisions in their households. My oh my.  Too many development officers are missing the boat if they are talking to men.

Here are Margaret May Damen’s top three strategies to engage women donors’ hearts AND their pocketbooks.

1. Gather a group of top women donors across generational divides. Ask them for their best ideas on how to succeed with your mission.  And ask them to be the pebble in the pond. To go out there and tell the story of what our organization is doing.  Ask them to increase their gifts by 10-20% – not for a dollar goal but for a specific need.  And then ask them to go out and ask two or three other women for the same thing.

2.  In your next newsletter – put a photo or a testimonial in it from a female donor. There are TOO MANY photos of men in our materials – and it matters to women!  Why are they being left out?

3.  Call your female donors and ask them outright – for a specific need, not a general goal:  “Our students need meals – with another $100 from you we can buy 20 more meals.  Can we count on you?”

It was August, and that meant time to create our dreaded Annual Report.  I was working on one of my least favorite projects as a Development Director.  I was worried that the content was pretty deadly, with the standard “Letter from the Chair” and pie charts of expenditures.

Creating this and the rest of our publications was a painful, lengthy process. I also knew that no one would read it if it were boring.

What to say and how to say it?  This is the perennial challenge of nonprofit fundraisers. And we usually don’t do a very good job in our attempts at “messaging.”

This morning I was reading marketing guru Seth Godin’s blog and, as usual, he nailed this issue. He said this is where marketing is heading:

“Big companies, non-profits and even candidates will discover (the best communications are) hyperlocal, hyperspecialized, hyperrelevant . . . this is where we are going.”

What he means is that people (donors) want to receive messages from their favorite nonprofits that are “anticipated, personal and relevant.” And if the nonprofit marketing communication they are receiving fits these criteria, then they’ll read it.

If your letters, reports, brochures, invitations are not “anticipated, personal and relevant,” then you are not going to be heard or read or paid attention to.

How do we make our communications “hyperlocal?”  By referring to something that is going on locally. Or that the reader is currently involved in.

How about “hyperspecialized” – what does that look like?  It means that the folks who attended your auction get special communications about how well the auction did and what you did with the funds raised.

How about “hyperrelevant?” It means that donors who gave to help teach prison inmates to read get updates about that particular program.

This is a tall order for nonprofit organizations with few fundraising resources.  But focusing on your current donors, and sending them relevant information that they are actually interested in, can keep them involved and coming back for more.

And that’s the basis of our holy grail – a sustainable fundraising program, full of repeat donors who are enthusaistic and passionate advocates for your cause.

Do you ever consider what we fundraising folks are really up to when we appeal to our donors?  Is it hype? Is it promises that we will keep? Is it mission, vision and values?  Is it changing the world?

Last month at the Bridge Fundraising Conference in DC, I kept hearing a theme echoing through many of the presentations I attended.

“We are in the dream business.”

It really means that we are telling stories of a happy dream of the future. Of a better world. A better community. People being helped. Smiles. Comfort. Happiness.

But in our appeals for help, we forget this all too often. Instead we focus on problems, what’s wrong, what we will do to fix things.

But the most successful approach – whether you are doing fundraising, sales, bringing together groups of people for a common purpose, teamwork – whenever leadership and inspriation are required – is to picture your dream for the future.

Think Martin Luther King, one of the greatest inspirational leaders – and orators – of recent times. His “I have a dream speech” is a spectacular example of inspired dreaming.

The dream is so powerful that it’s like a great river sweeping everyone up in its path, surging inevitably downstream to a much happier future.

When we paint a picture of our dream for happy students, healthy children, cared-for elderly, majestic symphonies, clean sparkling water – whatever we are raising money for – we also capture the power of that mighty river of energy sweeping everyone together.

When I work with boards, we talk about dreaming. I tell them they should always be standing high on the hill sharing their vision of a happier world with everyone they know.  When they are standing on that hill, solid in their dream, focused on the future, they are more powerful than they can imagine.

When you, your board members and your volunteers take a firm stand on the mountain, that’s when you have the energy and the power to change the world.

That’s when nothing can stop you.

I was talking today with my friend and client Cynda Heward of the Saint Mary’s Hospital Foundation in Montreal.  She was telling me about the Foundation’s new web site that is being developed.

She used an interesting term that we should all embrace:  a “story platform.”  This means that you tell a story right at the beginning of your web site.  Remember that “narrative” or “story-telling” is by far the most effective way of communicating an idea or concept.

Just about the most important thing you can do on your home page is to launch a heartfelt story about someone who was helped by your organization.  And we all know that one story is more effective than three, right?

Most nonprofits want to crowd 5 pictures where only one would be much more effective. And many folks seem to think that instead of “less is more,” they believe “more is more.”

Are you telling stories everywhere you can?  Try the “story platform” for your annual report, your brochures, your handouts, your powerpoint presentations, and most of all – your fundraising solicition letters and grant proposals.

Stories are stickier than statistics.  They are more compelling than facts.  And people can remember them a lot better.

Best of all, stories carry emotion.  And we all know that people give out of emotion.  So if your web page looks like a static brochure on  information overload, I’d recommend going back to the drawing board and starting with a story.