How to make nonprofit newsletters work

A good look at good nonprofit newsletters at Karen Zapp’s blog: Write a newsletter donors and members WANT to read. Here are Karen’s characteristics of a newsletter that builds relationships with donors:

• Donors feel needed.
  
• You understand that donors don’t give to your charity. (They give through your charity to your cause.)
  
• You wrote for skimmers as well as for readers.
  
• Your headlines are exciting, benefit-driven, and intriguing.
  
• You sat on the front porch and told stories to a friend.
  

In my opinion, there’s one thing behind all these things: You make the newsletter about the donor, not about yourself.

That means all your energy went to telling the donor what she wants to hear in ways she wants to hear it. Do those things, and your newsletters will not only boost donor retention, but bring in revenue.