Category: Writing
-
What is a great fundraising sentence like?
I came across the following sentence the other day. It took my breath away… When he was eighteen and was leaving home for the first time, Ralph Wyman was counseled by his father, principal of Jefferson Elementary School and trumpet soloist in the Weaverville Elks Club Auxiliary Band, that life was a very serious matter,…
-
The world’s cruelest (but probably effective) writing tool
What if your word processor was a cruel, merciless taskmaster. It wasn’t there to make writing easier, but to train you to write better, even if that was painful and difficult. If you’ve put any effort into being a better writer, you know this: Most of the best paths to being a better writer are…
-
How to kill fundraising response: Tell a story
Telling stories is bad for response in fundraising? How’s that for counterintuitive? It’s from a recent study by M+R: “What AI “saw” in 3.8 billion nonprofit emails.” Available for download. The AI found several interesting things about fundraising and advocacy email results. The finding that really caught my attention: Emails that included stories had a…
-
7 mistakes that can sink your fundraising stories
Stories are great for fundraising. Unless you get them wrong. And it’s very easy to get things wrong when you tell stories. Here’s a helpful post from the Nonprofit Fundraising Blog, at Story Crimes: 7 Mistakes That Kill Your Fundraising Stories (And How to Fix Them):
-
5 ways to overcome the “perfection trap” when you write
Most of what makes writing difficult is your own fault. I’m not saying writing is easy. It seldom is. But most writers make it far more difficult than it needs to be by trying to be perfect. Here’s some great practical help to avoid the perfection trap from Publication Coach, at Perfectionism is killing your…
-
[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…
-
10 storytelling hints for fundraising writers
These are the things I tell fellow fundraising copywriters. More on Storytelling for Fundraisers.
-
6 costly ways to undermine your donor thank you letters
Thanking donors is a must. If you want them to keep giving, you need to keep thanking them. And you want t do it right! There are a lot of common, easy-to-make mistakes that can drive donors away. Here are some of the most likely errors in thanking, thanks to Clairification, at The Thank You…
-
Think twice before you finish that fundraising story
Imagine you have a fundraising story that starts like this: Fred the Explorer hiked through the jungle, searching for the Lost City. The dense undergrowth to his left rustled. Fred froze. Suddenly the undergrowth exploded into a mass of orange and black — a gigantic tiger hurtled itself Fred, bellowing. Why are we telling this…
-
Stories that matter are the stories that do the job
Do your fundraising stories matter? I’m not kidding around. So many stories are just a recounting of something that happened. Maybe well-written. Possibly interesting. But nothing big is at stake. Nothing that requires the donor to take action and make some kind of change possible. If nothing bad will happen without the donor, there’s little…