Are you writing bad fundraising copy?

Here’s a scary post from Copyblogger: 7 Ways to Write Damn Bad Copy. I’ve seen all of these. Done quite a few myself:

1. Lyrical (excessively poetic)
   
2. Sentimental (falsely emotional — but real emotion works)
   
3. Outlandish (packed with poorly supported superlative claims)
   
4. Humorous (you aren’t as funny as you think, and unfunny humor is the deadest kind of dead any copy can be)
   
5. Short (short copy doesn’t usually persuade)
   
6. Clever (nobody cares how smart you are)
   
7. Advertorial (ad dressed up to look like a piece of news)
   

The problem with most of these things is they call attention to the writer. I have very sad news for you: Nobody cares how clever, funny, passionate, or deep you are. Even your mother doesn’t care. She’s just acting like she does because she loves you.

In fundraising, more than most disciplines, good copy is about the reader and about what they can do. That’s all. Save the look-at-me copy for … well, there really isn’t any good place for it. You can get away with it in poorly edited literary magazines.