Category: Books
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The most frustrating fundraising image of all time
Excerpted from my book, The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors to Give, Give Happily, and Keep on Giving. You’ve probably seen photos much like it before. It’s commonly used in fundraising by urban rescue missions in the United States. It was discovered in the misty early years of direct-response fundraising. To those who have worked…
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[Book Review] A stylebook that will actually improve your writing style
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer I’m no fan of stylebooks in general. Many of them do more harm than good to quality writing. (Like the awful Strunk and White.) But here’s a good one. It’s packed with smart writing advice from a seasoned copy editor who has…
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How to tell donors what they need to know
Excerpted from my book, The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors to Give, Give Happily, and Keep on Giving. I’d been in India maybe 20 minutes, in a cab from the airport, when I saw him: a small man, sitting by the road, his feet stretched out toward traffic. Something was wrong with the shape of…
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How to be a Leonardo da Vinci fundraiser
I just read a wonderful book: Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. It closely follows the life of Leonardo, had an amazing mind and a hard time staying on task. At the end of the book is a section called “Learning from Leonardo.” It gives some characteristics of Leonardo’s genius that any of us can…
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[BOOK REVIEW] Truly great fundraising needs a great organization … here’s how to create that
Great Fundraising Organizations: Why and How the World’s Best Charities Excel at Raising Money by Alan Clayton Why is fundraising difficult? Too much competition? Not enough attention? The increasing costs of paper and postage? Shifts in demographics and psychographics? Sure, all of those things. And more. But there’s one big reason that overshadows all of…
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Tell the story that’s relevant to donors [BOOK REVIEW]
Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller It’s almost comforting to discover that commercial marketers face almost exactly the same challenge we fundraisers face. They’re also prone to the same basic mistakes that make our messages ineffective. Building a Story Brand is talking to marketers, and the big…
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207 ways to write better fundraising [BOOK REVIEW]
Very Good Copy: 207 Micro-Lessons on Thinking and Writing Like a Copywriter by Eddie Shleyner It has 207 chapters, all of them short. The longer ones are 4-6 pages. Most are shorter. Some much shorter, like “Length,” here in full: “If your copy is fascinating, the length is irrelevant.” If you want to write better…
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Are you ready to become a better fundraising writer? [BOOK REVIEW]
Everybody Writes: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content (2nd Edition) by Ann Handley Why is so much fundraising writing so bad? Not just fundraising writing, but writing almost everywhere. Crummy, lifeless, misdirected, confusing, hard to read. Just bad. Is it because we just need more professional writers on the job?…
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[BOOK REVIEW] Classic fundraising book is back, this time with even more
Relationship Fundraising: A Donor-Based Approach to the Business of Raising Money (3rd Edition) by Ken Burnett I’ve been a fan of this book almost since the first edition came out in 1992. Just thinking about the title can be a catalyst for great fundraising. Fundraising can be a relationship? Really? It can! It must! Back…
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[Book Review] How to get smart about legacy giving — fast
Book Review: How to talk About Legacy Giving: Your Guide to Creating Inspiring Legacy Message by Aimée Lindenberger My alma mater keeps sending me this fancy, nice-looking newsletter that’s all about “planned giving.” They’re hoping I’ll include them in my will. So far, so good. That’s a smart strategy for any fundraiser. But the bulk…