Michelle Barber, Page 23 Author

I receive a lot of fundraising letters, so this time of year my inbox and mailbox are stuffed. As I sort through the appeals, a few things bewilder me as a marketer, a few make me laugh and a few frustrate me.

I would like to offer some suggestions to anyone trying to improve their fundraising efforts. This advice is not scientific (actually, some of it is), but it is based on someone keenly aware of what persuades and dissuades me from donating. Use it for what it’s worth.

13 Tips for Better Fundraising Appeals

1. If it’s been so long since you reached out to me that I don’t remember what your organization does, sending an appeal letter probably won’t induce me to donate.
2. Edit your letter. Please.
3. Keep it to one page. Better yet, keep it to a half page.
4. Always use my name on the e-mail, salutation, envelope, etc. You’ll get a higher engagement rate.
5. Sending multiple sheets of paper, a return envelope, sticker, card, photo and more paraphernalia just irks me as it all falls out of the envelope.
6. Segment your mailing. If I’ve given exclusively online in the past, give me a donation link, not a return envelope.
7. If you have a video, don’t spell out the URL in an e-appeal. YouTube links are not pretty. My friend Will Boyd works at Emma, a web-based communications service that takes a unique approach to email marketing. He suggests taking a screenshot of the video and linking to it. He doesn’t recommend embedding the video, since servers might think you’re spam. (Maybe prettier, but still spam.)
8. Here’s the usual script: Paragraph #1 is often a preface about what this letter is. Paragraph #2 is often a recap of the year or an awkward history (“when we were founded 26 years ago…”). Then paragraph #3 delivers the real punch about the work. In a few letters, I even found the true leading sentence buried as the second or third sentence in the third paragraph. Find that sentence and delete everything before it.
9. Twitter distills the message down to the true nouns and verbs. Try writing your appeal in 140 characters or less. Just try it. Then see how that affects your appeal letter.
10. Write shorter sentences.
11. Utilize the end of the appeal and write something as a postscript, but don’t write a paragraph.
12. Consider sending an appeal attached to another holiday besides Christmas. I’ll notice it more. For example, consider Valentine’s Day, Halloween, New Year’s, Thanksgiving or even the start of summer.
13. And, finally, find other ways to engage me during the year: engage with my comments on your Facebook page, thank me for re-tweeting your message or invite me to an event in my area. Personal connections lead to higher levels of engagement.

I understand the importance of money to every non-profit, as well as the astounding fact that the majority of annual budgets are raised in just the last three months of the calendar year, so I wish you well in your end of year fundraising appeals.

Photo credit: Phil Roeder