How not to kill fundraising copy

I think every experienced fundraiser knows that the approval process is where good fundraising copy goes to die.

Very few of those approvers are killing it on purpose. But it keeps happening.

If you’re a reviewer and you don’t want to be a copy killer, here’s help from Willis Turner writing in FundRaising Success: How to Read a Direct-Mail Fundraising Letter.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you read:

• Read fast.
  
• Don’t trust your feelings.
  
• Read out loud.
  
• Make sure the letter says just one thing.
  
• Recognize that all that repetition is a good thing.
  
• Read gullibly. (If you read with a cynic’s eye, you’ll push the copy into an over-explaining, polemical stance. That’s bad fundraising.)
  
• Make sure the letter doesn’t try too hard. (This would be copy that comes to you already polemical.)