Future Fundraising Now

4 weird copywriting cheats for fundraising writers

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by

Jeff Brooks
in

  1. In your first draft of any fundraising piece you write include the word you (your, yours, you’re, etc.) in EVERY SENTENCE. Don’t worry that some of those sentences or sentence combinations may be awkward. You can revise them later. But I can guarantee that with you in every sentence, the psychological core of your draft will be spot on — even after some of those yous go away!
  2. Try not saying the name of your organization anywhere in the body of your writing. This is not to hide who you are — after all, the name will be on the letterhead, the return address, and a dozen other places. But by keeping it out of the body of writing, you are forced to focus on the donor.
  3. Start your first draft with these exact words: I’m writing to you because… It’s possible you’ll eventually edit these words out in subsequent drafts. But if you start there, you will be on track to a relevant message!
  4. Have your computer read your copy out loud to you. I find this even better than just reading aloud yourself. You’ll hear awkward and unnatural phrases that you hadn’t noticed before.

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    The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More.

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    Jeff BrooksJeff 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. More.

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    The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More.

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    About the blogger

    Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 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.