Grammar Day: One grammar rule for fundraising

Today is National Grammar Day, so here’s a little grammar help for your fundraising:

Professor Jeff’s Fundraising Grammar Syllogism

In fundraising…

• It’s better to sound friendly and colloquial than pedantic.
  
• It’s also better to be correct than incorrect.
  
• Therefore, if you find yourself with a passage that’s forcing you to choose between friendly and correct, rewrite the passage to avoid the conflict.
  

Example: Say you find that you’ve written this sentence: Whomever you help, you’ll make all the difference in the world.

Correct, but sounds pedantic and off-putting. The easy change would be: Whoever you help, you’ll make all the difference in the world.

Sounds a little better, but it’s now incorrect. (It’s incorrect in a way most readers wouldn’t notice or care about. But still — incorrect.)

The advanced fundraising writer will strike the whole sentence and start over. Something like: When you send your gift, you’ll know in your heart that you helped someone in need. And that makes all the difference in the world.

Fundraising Ninja Superhint: Awkward sentences can almost always be fixed by cutting them into two (or more) sentences.