5 things that make your fundraising boring

One of the most common ways fundraisers fail is they create boring fundraising.

As far as I know, no fundraiser tries to be boring.

But many succeed at it. Here are some of the common ways fundraising is boring:

1. It’s “educational.” Some fundraisers think if they just explain their programs and approaches well enough, that will motivate donors. It doesn’t work. Some of your donors want to get educated about your work. That’s great. Most are bored by your attempts to educate them.
2. It’s about processes, not outcomes. Donors aren’t giving to fund your processes. They’re hoping to “buy” great outcomes. Your processes are critical to your success, but they’re boring noise to most donors.
3. It’s all about you. Your accomplishments, your excellence, your proud history — they’re all important. But none of them are why donors donate to you. They give to for internal reasons of their own. When you focus on you, you’re just being boring.
4. No story, just facts and numbers. The facts and stats may stack up to a slam-dunk case for funding your organization. That doesn’t matter, though, because hardly anyone will pay attention to what you’re saying. People are attracted to and influenced by stories.
5. It’s hard to read. Whether it’s complex writing that’s a struggle to read, jargon, tiny type, crummy fonts, or light-colored type, when you build a wall around your writing that keeps people from easily reading and comprehending your writing, you’ve written the ultimate boring fundraising.