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Fundraising Tuesday: Appeal Letters, Easy to Read

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wall-of-text

Are your fundraising appeal letters easy to read? If not, all the work you put into choosing the right words may be wasted. (As in, tossed into the trash, unread.)

Let’s say you’ve done what it takes to persuade your potential donor to open the envelope. You’ve called them by the name they like to be called by, and you’ve written a P.S. that makes them want to go back and read your message. You’ve even included some excellent photos that go a long way toward telling the story.

And then they look at the language of your appeal letter, and it’s a solid wall of text. Into the trash it goes! (If they’re conscientious, into the recycling!)

What You Can Do to Make Letters Easy to Read

White space

white spaceBefore & After Magazine’s John McWade describes white space as no less than a “zone of silence”–and that’s a good thing!

White space gives your readers a break from the printed word, allowing them to rest their eyes, and making them more likely to continue reading. (And that’s what you want, right?)

Lisa Sargent gives five easy and powerful ways to use white space in your fundraising appeals:

  1. Use reasonable page margins (at least one inch, right and left).
  2. Write short, indented paragraphs and leave a blank line between them.
  3. Leave plenty of space for your signature.
  4. For longer letters, use subheads.
  5. Indent quotations.

Font

Why should you care about something seemingly trivial like the font your letter is printed in? Well, Colin Wheildon, author of Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes?, says:

It’s possible to blow away three-quarters of our readers simply by choosing the wrong [font]. If you rely on words to sell, that should concern you deeply.

Kathie Kramer Ryan of Arroyo Fundraising Fluency advises:

  • Use serif font for print and sans serif for online.
  • Use at least 12-point font for older eyes. (I would say 14!)
  • Don’t let designers dictate the look of your fundraising letter. Choose a font that invites your audience in.

Serif and sans serif fontsUnderlining, bold, and italics

The late, legendary fundraiser Mal Warwick counsels you:

Let’s assume you’ve decided that subheads are inappropriate for the appeal you’re writing… There’s still an easy way for you to accent the benefits offered in your appeal, answer readers’ unspoken questions, and make your letter easier to read: by underlining. Do it sparingly. Choose only a few key words and phrases. But, if possible, choose them before you write the body of the letter!

Why should you choose the words to emphasize even before you write the letter?

Because it helps you decide what the letter is really about.

Because it helps you remember what the letter is really about.

Because it helps you communicate what the letter is really about to your donors–and it forces you to ask, “And why does that matter to the person I’m asking to give?”

You should pay attention to white space, font size and shape, underlining, bold, and italics for the same reason you pay attention to your donors. Click To Tweet

By making your appeal letters easy to read, you show them you care–and make it easy for them to see why they should give.

 

Fundraising Tuesday: How to Ensure Donors Read Your Letter

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Yes, you can raise funds this summer.

I’ve been showing you how asking for donations in the middle of a pandemic and an uprising against racism is actually doing your donors a favor. One of the things donors want most in times like these is the feeling of making a difference, and you can give that to them! (If you don’t, other nonprofits will.)

I’ve also been explaining how to raise funds even if your nonprofit works on issues that have very little relation to Covid-19 or to murders of Black people and other people of color by police. Take the A-B-C approach to fundraising: Acknowledge the crises. Be responsive. Continue to pursue your mission.

 

 

 

 

Direct mail works–better than asking by email, and much better than fundraising online. Sure, the best approach is a multichannel fundraising campaign. But it all comes back to the letter. And job #1 is to make sure the donor actually reads it!

So, how do you give the donor everything she needs to want to open and read your fundraising appeal?

Here’s how to make sure that letter you worked so hard to write gets read:

Envelopes Make Donors Want to Open Your Mail.

Once your donor opens the envelope, the postscript is the most important part of your appeal letter. (So important that here are four more ways to use postscripts!)

If you want a donor to read your letter, “Dear Friend” won’t cut it. Get their name right.

“But how do I know what the donor likes to be called?” Ask their name.

Use photos that tell the story.

Ms. Marvel hero

How your donor should see herself

Tell stories in words, too! And be sure to make the donor the hero of the story.

Follow these six steps and donors will be intrigued by the envelope, attracted by the letter, moved by the story, and motivated to give.

 

 

 

 

 

Fundraising Tuesday: Ask My Name

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Hello my name is what?People’s names matter. Donors’ names matter to them. So, their names should matter to you too–especially when you are asking them for money!

But how do you know what to call them? Last week, I suggested that the simplest and most effective way to get the names right is just to ask.

You could ask online donors immediately, on the post-donation page of your website that thanks them for their donations.

You could also ask them when you call them to thank them for their donations. Or in a donor survey.

Keshet, the organization for LGBTQ equality in Jewish life, found another good way to ask which names to use. They checked how my wife and I would like to be listed in their annual report. Here’s the email:

Action Requested: How should we list you in our Annual Report?

Keshet banner

 

Dear Rona,

Thank you for being a supporter of our work for LGBTQ equality in Jewish life. In the next few months, we will be sharing Keshet’s 2019 Annual Report.

As a valued and appreciated donor, your name(s) will be listed in our Annual Report and will appear as: Dennis and Rona Fischman.

If you would like to request an edit or correction in how your name is listed, please click here.

L’Shalom,

James Cohen

Chief Development and Communications Officer

 

Pronouns: he/him/his

Notice how many things Keshet did right!

  1. The subject line told the donors why we should open the message–why it mattered to us.
  2. The name in the salutation matched the name in the email address.
  3. The closing was in Hebrew (“for peace”), affirming the Jewish connection.
  4. The signature included the name of a real person plus preferred pronouns–useful for all, but particularly important to the LGBTQ+ community.

Most important, however, was that Keshet asked what we wanted to be called. They saw the way the names were listed on the check we’d sent them, but they didn’t assume that was exactly how we wanted our names to appear.

They asked. You should too.

Because donors’ names matter to them. So, their names should matter to you too–especially when you are asking them for money!

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