If you write fundraising copy, you’re probably used to people who review what you’ve written hating it. Goes with the territory.
But when they give their reasons for hating the copy, a funny thing often happens: They are absolutely right in their assessment of its qualities — but completely wrong that those qualities are a bad thing.
Here are some common complaints, along with some reasons those complaints name a good quality for fundraising copy:
- It’s simplistic. Yes! Simplifying complex ideas is a sign of a professional at work. If your copy is complex, it’s not very good.
- It’s repetitive. Yes! You can’t count on people starting on the beginning and reading every word on through to the end. You have to structure your copy so that a skimmer or someone who starts and ends somewhere in the middle gets the message.
- It’s emotional. Yes! If it isn’t emotional, it won’t work. An entirely rational argument for giving will never carry the day.
- It’s dramatic. Yes! To break through the clutter and noise of people’s lives, you need drama.
- It makes me uncomfortable. Yes! Good fundraising causes discomfort, imbalance. It needs to make donors uncomfortable, so they’ll act to make things right.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
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