Last year, I had the pleasure of working/coaching with Becky Honeywell, the Executive Director at Friends of Indy Animals and it was a pleasure to work with her on pulling together their first ever newsletter appeal. (Thanks to Rachel Zant for her strategic and writing help with this appeal!) Here are 15 tips that hopefully you can use for your next (or new) newsletter appeal! Outer Envelope: Don’t get lost in a sea of #10 envelopes - use something different - this was a 9” x 6”. If you are including something special for a donor in your mail pack - tell them and/or show them! Don’t for ..read more

"Branding won't let us..." Four words that continually stop or slow: • progress to higher giving • emotional conversations with donors • deeper connectivity to your mission and • space for donors to be a part of your story. "Our brand" has been the professional bubble wrap that marketers, branding experts and bosses have wrapped themselves in to not appear vulnerable or emotional. Your donors don't give a fig newton about your brand. They want to hear your incredible and moving stories, they want to know what problem they can help fix and they want to help you 'win'. Time to stop letting y ..read more

I stood at the edge of the stage and, as I took a breath, watched 400 faces start to smile, all at the same time.  Last week, I was in San Diego, presenting for my 6th? 7th? time at the Nonprofit Storytelling conference. A conference I have referred to as my favourite since my first. My session was about "Creative rule breaking for direct mail nerds". And I wanted to share a little bit of that with you. First, not all rules need to be broken. Some are just fine the way they are. Second, you can't break what you don't know - alternatively - you CAN break what you don ..read more

Full disclosure - the below example comes from a former coaching client of mine. Broadmead Care. I am a donor and received this example from them. I instantly appreciated this pack and it’s always delightful to see fundraisers spreading their creative wings. Kudo’s to Shannon Donnelly and her team for producing this pack. As I looked it over - I thought I could share the 20 things that I love about it and the 11 things I would suggest to make it a bit better - and not to take anything away from it - but there is always room for improvement isn’t there? Outer Envelope <3: Love the use of ..read more

We all know the story of Goldilocks right? Goldlocks and the three bears? The principle is comes out of this story. A young girl named ‘Goldilocks’ wanders into the house of the three bears and finds three bowls of porridge. She tastes them all and finds that the one on the left is far too hot. The one on the right is just too cold. The one in the middle however - is JUST right. How does this apply to your fundraising? I guarantee you’ve seen this principle in action before. An isolated section from a reply form with the gift array. This is one of those tactics you don’t need to do ALL OF THE ..read more

For long time readers, you know who I am talking about when I talked about "Dale". Dale is my mother in law. She is also your donor. She's everyone's donor. She gives one off cash gifts about 30 - 40 times over the year and she is a monthly donor to about 5-10 others. When I think of donors, I think of her. So - I take particular delight when she passes me all of the direct mail that she gets. It's like Christmas for fundraising nerds. And she DOES get a lot. During November, she can get about 30 - 40 packs a week here in Canada. If she's THAT donor in the USA that can be almost 30 - 40 packs ..read more

Happy Halloween y'all! I’m reflecting on a busy few weeks. Back from IFC in Holland and NonProfitStorytelling in San Antonio, Texas and I wanted to share a few “treats” with you that I picked up on my journeys. At IFC, I did a session with the fantastic Dana Segal called “Nudge ‘em. Prime ‘em. Anchor ‘em. Behavioural Science in action.” It was a session that focused on how you can overlay behaviour science and direct response for more effective (ie: RAISE MORE MONEY) fund-raising. Have you heard of the “Goldilocks Effect”? You know the story of Goldilocks yah? This bowl is too hot, this one is ..read more

In a previous email to our subscribers, I asked them to share 3 things they've learned in all the years they've been working in direct response and individual giving! And I wanted to share a few of my favourites with you in the hopes you find them useful as well. In no particular order, here are the things you’ve learned and shared with me about direct response and individual giving! From Lan: Long letters usually work better than short letters Make sure there are a lot of ‘you’ and ’your’ in the copy. If there are too many ‘we’ or ‘I’, you’re doing it wrong. Donors don’t care about the ..read more

Direct response is a conversation. If you’re not letting donors talk to you, you’re doing it wrong. Direct mail is not dead. It is potentially immortal. “You” is glue. It keeps your reader engaged. Donors like to be delighted, give with a smile on their face and love in their heart. Great stories take time to tell. Direct response is 4 things: List > Offer > Timing > Creative. There are relatively few definitives in our work. Your subjective opinion does not matter. There is no process you can follow that will lead you to “love”. To be an artist, you need to obsess ..read more

The creative brief: Craft and send a direct mail pack to donors about our new capital campaign and inspire them to give to help us get closer to our goal. Easy peasy, right? Except… sometimes (ie: almost all of the time), your capital campaign case for support isn’t targeted or designed for your average annual donors. The question becomes, how can you make it relevant and compelling for those donors too? The Regina Humane Society was months away from breaking ground on their new shelter for the animals of Regina. Very exciting. We wanted to craft a pack that got donors attention as quickly as ..read more