Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

TY Thursday: Because of You

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My friend Joan reads this blog religiously, and she’s always on the lookout for nonprofits that are taking my advice. Here’s a thank-you email that Joan has shared with us all.

It’s not an ideal thank-you.

  • The “On behalf of” opening line is a waste of words.
  • The sentence that includes both donors and people who included the organization in their prayers shows that they don’t know which group she belongs to–they haven’t segmented their list.
  • And as Joan notes, the idea that she has made this particular nonprofit “a priority” is a sign that they don’t know her very well yet.

Four things make this TY stand out:

  1. The From: line is personal. It’s a message from a particular person, not an organization or, even worse, an auto-answering program.
  2. The photo is personal. It puts a face to the name, so Joan can picture Ralph McCloud saying the words that follow, directly to her.
  3. The salutation is personal. It says “Dear Joan,” not “Dear Friend.”
  4. The message is personal. “What a blessing you are to us” is the kind of thing one Catholic would say to another. By repeating that message in the Subject line, in the photo, and in the body of the email, Catholic Mobilizing Network emphasizes what Joan and Ralph and CMN have in common.

Over all, the message has a recurring motif: “Because of you.”

CMN is working hard to make Joan the hero of the story. In your thank-you letters and emails, are you telling your donors “because of you”?

Blessing you are to us

Dear Joan,

On behalf of Catholic Mobilizing Network’s Board of Directors, I want to say thank you.

Whether you supported CMN financially this Christmas season, or included us in your intentions and prayers, it is because of you that CMN is able to thrive in its mission to end the death penalty and promote restorative justice.

What a blessing you are to us.

We live in a time where it seems like human dignity is under attack on many fronts. As a community of believers, we are called to respond with justice and mercy. But this can be a challenging commission, especially when our time, energy, and financial capacity are all stretched thin.

I know there are a lot of worthy causes out there; that is why I am grateful that you have made CMN a priority in your end-of-year giving.

Your support of CMN affirms your bold commitment to upholding the human dignity of all people — including even those who might have caused or suffered great harm.

Because of you, CMN is able to pursue a criminal legal system that values life, hope, and healing. And for that, I am deeply grateful.

Thank you,

Ralph McCloud, Treasurer
CMN Board of Directors

Fundraising Tuesday: Are You Storytelling Or Just Documenting?

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When a donor does open your appeal letter, after their own name and the P.S. at the end of the letter, the photos grab their attention.

But what do your photos do with the attention, once they have it?

Nothing to see here

Some photos say, “Move on, nothing  to see here.”

Others say, “Let me tell you a story.”

What’s the difference between the two kinds of photos?”

What Makes a Story a Story

just right

When are your stories just right?

We know a story when we hear it. Try telling a child, “A girl went into a stranger’s house, sat in a chair, and ate some porridge. Then she lay down in a bed and fell asleep. The house belonged to a family of bears. Fortunately, she woke up and ran away. The End.”

Do you think your child will ask for that story again? I don’t either!

As Andy Goodman tells us, “To make sure you cover all of the basics of story structure, here are the beginnings of seven sentences that can help you with the process.”

  • Once upon a time… (This starts the story off and introduces our protagonist)
  • And every day… (This will set up how life was before the Inciting Incident)
  • Until one day… (This begins the action of the story with the Inciting Incident and the Goal)
  • And because of this… (This introduces the barriers or obstacles the protagonist faces)
  • And because of this… (There could be several barriers)
  • Until finally…(This ends the story with the Resolution)

A Photo that Tells the Tale

It’s easy enough to write a story with words. How do you write a story with a photo? You’ll know your photo is telling the tale if it does six things:

  1. Features one, at most two, people.
  2. Shows them doing something–not just head shots.
  3. Focuses on the same person whose story the nonprofit told in the text of the letter.
  4. Reinforces the message about the problem.
  5. Reinforces the message about the urgency.
  6. Makes an emotional connection between the person in the photo and the donor viewing the photo and reading the letter.

Here’s an example from the appeal letters that nonprofits sent me last December.

Girl holding chickLook at this photo. I’m intentionally showing it to you without any language from the appeal letter it came in. All by itself, this photo tells a story.

Even if you never heard of Heifer International before, you would look at this photo and think:

“Girl, smiling–because she’s holding that baby chick in her hands. New Life…for her? And I can make that happen for her with a donation?”

That’s a whole lot of storytelling with just one photo!

In coming weeks, we’ll feature more great visual storytelling on the Communicate! blog. Watch for it!

Photos that Document but Say Nothing

Some nonprofits forget to take photos altogether, until after the moment passes. (Raise your hand if that’s you!)

Some take a ton of photos but don’t share them, or share them but don’t label them or sort them. Only the person who took the photo knows who’s in it or what it means, and when that person leaves, the photo is useless.

But even if your nonprofit takes photos, labels them, and shares them in some kind of story bank, they might not mean anything to your audience.

Runners on beach

Who are these people? Do you care?

Here are types of photos that signal “Nothing to see here, move along.”

  • People sitting at tables at an event.
  • People standing in a group.
  • People at a rally.
  • Professional head shots.
  • Photos with no people in them altogether.

Yes, there are exceptions. And yes, you might have good reasons to use these photos in a newsletter, or an annual report, or even online (where you can tag the people in the photo).

But your appeal letter is not the place for a photo that just documents an event. When you are asking for money, you must show a photo that instantly connects the donor with the typical person they will help by making their donation.

Start collecting that kind of photo today!

Where to Give, in the Time of Coronavirus

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asking questionA friend recently asked, “Where are the best places for me to be donating right now?” She didn’t say it, but “in this time of coronavirus Covid-19” was implied. That’s all anybody was talking about on March 17, 2020.

Here’s how I would answer my friend’s question, as a nonprofit consultant:

Keep Giving Where You Give

If you’re a big supporter of the symphony, the mosque, or the Girl Scouts, don’t stop! Those organizations still need your donations as much as they ever did, even if they’re not specifically dealing with Covid-19.

Be strategic. Too often, well-intentioned people read the latest headlines and give their donations for disaster relief, only to realize later they don’t have the money to give to their regular charities.

Make sure you have a budget for your annual giving, and then, if you can, give to organizations addressing the current crisis on top of that.

Provide Services to the Most Vulnerable

An epidemic is like a spotlight on the inequalities of society. The people who are always vulnerable are the first ones to be hit, and hit the hardest.

  • People who can’t afford to stay home, or have no home.
  • People whose home isn’t safe, because their abuser lives there.
  • People whose “home” is a prison or a detention camp for undocumented immigrants.
  • People who have no health insurance, or people whose policies have such a high deductible they might as well have none.
  • People with no living relatives to check up on them.
  • People with the kinds of disabilities that make them depend on caregivers who may or may not show up.
  • People whose relatives have abandoned them because they’re LGBTQ+.
  • People whose healthcare will be questionable because they’re LGBTQ+ and doctors don’t know what to do with them.
  • People whose healthcare will be questionable because they’re Black or other people of color, and doctors don’t know what to do with them or don’t care.

Some of the best places you can give right now are organizations that serve these highly vulnerable populations. Many of them have been doing good work for years, and in the crisis, their resources will be stretched and strained. Look for groups that have been around for a while and have a good reputation.

Support Advocacy for a Fairer, Safer Society

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist. – Dom Helder Camara

Let’s be clear: services are fine, but they will never be enough.

Even in ordinary times, the nonprofit organizations I know, love, and work for are struggling to keep up with demand.

We cannot fix homelessness by keeping this one family from being evicted. We cannot end racism in healthcare by making sure this one mother gets proper postnatal care. It takes collective action. It takes policy. It takes government.

So, if you are trying to figure out where your donation dollars will do the most good, by all means keep supporting your regular causes, and certainly, give to organizations that serve the populations hardest hit in a crisis.

But please, for the love of God, direct some of your donation money to groups that are advocating for policies that will create more equality and make us all safer.

reducing inequality

Policies that Help All of Us

We know that living in a poor community makes you less likely to live a long life. New evidence suggests that living in a community with high income inequality also seems to be bad for your health.  (Margot Sanger-Katz in the New York Times, 2015)

Income inequality is not just bad for poor people’s health. It’s bad for all of our health.

So, policies that reduce inequality are better for all of us. Whether that’s raising the minimum wage, providing a universal basic income, imposing a wealth tax on the 1%, or making health care and free college education for all the standard in our supposedly advanced society, or some mix of all of those, adopting those policies would make life safer and fairer.

Right now, you can be washing your hands several times an hour, but if you go pick up a prescription and the person behind the counter is working sick–because they literally cannot afford not to work every day–you’re at risk.

Paid sick leave for pharmacy workers (and the people who cook your takeout food–mostly immigrants where I live–and the ones who do day care for your toddler–mostly women) means more safety for you, too.

You can find organizations that advocate for those policies. You can donate to them. Right now would be an excellent time to do that.

(And you can also donate to candidates who would make sure government tells the truth and takes effective action. Because that is the most important thing we need, for this crisis and the next.)

 

 

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