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I have a confession to make

June 10, 2016

I have a confession to make

I have never responded to a direct mail appeal.

While I am embarrassed and I feel guilty that I haven’t been practicing what I preach, I’m sure that many other fundraisers have also never picked up a pen, filled in the donation form, enclosed it in the freepost envelope provided along with their gift, and popped it into the nearest letter box.

If you fall into this category, I encourage you to give it a go today.

Though we may not represent the traditional charity audience, going through the process of donating by mail a very interesting exercise.

1. I kept the letter and donation form for TWO months

In the back of my mind I had already decided to respond to the letter I received on April 15th. And though I received two appeals since receiving the first one, I kept the first front of mind by leaving it on the floor of my office.

What insights can we gain from this?

  • People are probably reminded by subsequent mailings and waves. This includes donor care and stewardship communications
  • It is important that each mailing and wave has its own appeal code and that each gift is recorded against the specific form they respond to
  • I felt guilty about having not donated every time I saw the letter in my office. Remember, your supporters often keep appeals, sometimes for many months. Don’t be afraid to reference those appeals and the stories they contain. Tap into the decision to donate which many of them may have already made
  • Guilt is the fundraiser’s ally. Your objective shouldn’t be to induce guilt – the guilt is already felt by your supporters who wish they could do more.

Your objective should be to give supporters the opportunity to feel good about what they can do to help

2. It felt like a chore to get up and find a pen and my credit card

Don’t underestimate the amount of effort involved in responding to an appeal. To get someone to take action and get up off their chair, your letter must be very motivating. Effective creative is crucial.

I also kept getting distracted by things. Which is also an insight into the challenge of working from home…

 

 

3. I had to enter another room

Fundraising has many associations with psychology but there is one I hadn’t come across until I started to fill in this appeal: What happens when a donor enters another room?

  • It’s known as the “Doorway Effect”, and it reveals some important features of how our minds are organised:

…a woman meets 3 builders on their lunch break. “What are you doing?” she asks. “I’m putting brick after sodding brick on top of another,” sighs the first. “I’m building a wall,” is the simple reply from the second. But the third builder swells with pride and replies: “I’m building a cathedral!”

  • The important point here is CONTEXT. Provide your supporters with a tangible reason to give and show them a vision of what they are about to help build and they will be more engaged, and less likely to succumb to the doorway effect.

4. Filling in my credit card details was a challenge

I am not a neat writer.

  • I found it incredibly difficult to write my credit card number in the tiny boxes
  • I also worried that because my AMEX has 15 numbers instead of 16 whether I needed to put the numbers in a particular format
  • I overcame these doubts and I wrote as neatly as I could but…

…how many of our 75+ supporters struggle with charity forms?

  • There was barely enough room for my name and signature. Thankfully my name is reasonably short. Are we discouraging people with long names, married couples with joint accounts or people with hyphenated surnames from completing donation forms. I suggest we are
  • I chose “My choice” but when I wrote in my give amount there wasn’t enough space to write all the zeros (not really, but a longer line is better)

5. Did I feel GOOD about responding to the appeal by mail?

The only time I felt like I was doing good was when I actually wrote the gift value onto the donation form.

  • This could give some insight into the difference between donors who tick the value boxes and those who write their own amount
  • The extra action that is involved in writing your own gift amount could point to a more engaged and therefore potentially more loyal supporter

Has anyone ever analysed the behaviour of those who write their own amount vs those who tick one of the ask prompts?

6. On the way to the post box…

I had always thought that the act of walking to a letter box and posting a gift to my favourite charity would be part of the feel-good process. Now I’m not so sure.

I didn’t feel connected to the charity when I put the letter into the box. In fact, the first time I passed the letterbox I completely forgot that that was what I went outside to do.

For me, the most important learning from this exercise is that keeping the donor’s attention is critical. And I mean at every point in the process – from fetching the mail, while reading the letter, getting the pen and credit card, filling in the form, putting it into the BRE and right up to the eventual action of walking to a letterbox.

Final thought

If, like me, your supporters are the most actively engaged and connected with the process while physically writing their details and ticking donation boxes, what can you do to your appeals to improve them?

Innovative. Provocative. Fun. #greatfundraising

May 30, 2016

Innovative Provocative Fun

One of the best digital campaigns I’ve seen. This beautiful piece of work takes visitors on journey which is fun, and intriguing through to an awkward atmosphere of realisation and learning and finally to a logical fundraising ask.

The journey is seamless.

Ideas like this aren’t easy to come by. When they are, they are usually strict in their objective and often will come from creative agencies with no experience and little understanding of fundraising.

The soundbite that makes my blood boil comes to mind here:

Our campaign will make more people aware of your cause and then they’ll donate

Unfortunately fundraising doesn’t work like that. We have to ASK the reader, viewer or website visitor and we need to tell them why they should give.

This campaign by Asylum Aid in the UK is a great example of an idea that straddles fundraising and communications/brand awareness goals – while still staying true to the proposition and not watering down the fundraising “ask”.

 

Not an easy thing to do.

Have a play – it will likely be shared with you many times over the coming days and weeks.

Thanks @asylumaid and @IlanaJackman for sharing.

And THIS is how to thank supporters…

May 17, 2016

And THIS is how to thank supporters

It’s impossible not to be moved by this thank you email and its powerful video.

What ingredients set this thank you video apart from the rest?

1. Simple message: clear, engaging copy. Remains true to the single objective – to thank supporters.

2. Great email address line: that invites the readers’ enquiry  “See why this village is jumping for joy”

3. Focus on an Individual boy: This is a story that reflects thousands of operations, millions of lives and whole continents of human beings. And yet, we are told of our immense impact as donors through the eyes of a single boy and his elated village. The hope, love and future that fills this village with joy is implied far beyond the single story:  “Watch a whole village Celebrate one boy’s sight” .

4. Masterful storytelling: Happiness and joy is balanced with the story of Leo’s blindness, a mother’s fear and courage to never give up hope. The hero, of course, is Professor Fred Hollows his voice links the Leo’s story to the power of sight, the impact of the organisation’s work and the involvement of supporters through their gifts.

“Good honest work. How many people have the opportunity to be part of that?”

Fred Hollows

Fantastic work by The Fred Hollows Foundation – and an example for all charities as they consider their year end thank you communications to supporters.

Q: What is worse than mailing dead people?

May 17, 2016

Q What is worse than mailing dead people?

Mailing dead celebrities, apparently

We all know that the number of people reaching their eternal demise is on the rise. What I didn’t know was that the Aztecs predicted David Bowie would fall victim to cancer, and that Prince would die of an overdose.

Thanks to The Australian Bereavement Register‘s latest eNewsletter, I’m now enlightened. As we watch our favourite pop stars, TV personalities and comedians curl up their toes, Glenn Harrison at the ABR helpfully suggests that it’s a good reason to wash our databases against the register.

I am definitely an advocate for removing deceased individuals from communications, but I find this a strange and humorously entertaining approach to promoting the service and I felt I should share…

Your Tax Appeal should have a Happy Ending

May 9, 2016

Your Tax Appeal should have a Happy Ending

Advice for Small Charities: If you’ve never asked your supporters for a gift by direct mail, it’s time for a re-write

If you are a small charity and you haven’t made a direct ask for a donation in your direct mail appeals, now is the time to change the story.

1. Small steps – Ask for a small gift 

As your first appeal with a direct ask, you will need to establish an appropriate ask level.

Start with a small value – one that is tied to the need: “Your gift of $23.70 will pay for…”

Ensure you position that ask early in the letter – tell the reader what the organisation needs. Repeat it two or three times so that readers who skim will see what you are asking for. The low ask figure will help you identify the average gift level and will tell you how much to ask each individual for in future campaigns.

2. Segment your audience

Don’t send the same thing to all your supporters. Base the communication on their relationship with your charity. If they have given a major gift, take the time to hand sign, or even handwrite the letter.

Supporters who have made a gift before should be thanked for their support.

3. Watch the clock

Take note of the time you spend on the appeal. Every hour you spend is an investment- just like the cost of postage, printing or copywriting. Establishing the true cost of the appeal will help you manage expectations and show the board the real value of a direct mail appeal.

4. Keep it simple

If you haven’t sent a dedicated appeal to your supporters before, you should keep it simple. A well-written letter, a clean and easy to follow donation form, and a reply-paid envelope are the essentials.

5. Borrow from the copywriting professionals

Don’t reinvent the wheel. The best fundraising letters are based on a formula invented in the 19th century.

Read examples from other charities and apply a similar structure and approach.

6. Get Up, Close & Personal

An appeal letter is a direct conversation between two people – in this case, the signatory and a supporter. It should be as near as possible to a face-to-face conversation; personal, honest, engaging and human.

7. Review the results

Calculate the time you have spent on the job, the cost of putting it together and compare that to the income you received.

Look at the specific segments to understand how different groups responded. Establish an Ave gift and a response rate for each segment.

These measures will form the basis for your future appeals. Make sure you record and keep important information about the appeal income, time spent, cost to produce, segments and criteria for those segments, mail date of the appeal, as well as gift date and value information.

8. Shout about your Success

Present the results of your first appeal to the board. Demonstrate the effectiveness of the ask. Share anecdotal evidence from supporters about being asked by your charity. Manage perceptions of complaints by comparing the number of negative with positive responses to the campaign. Compare the income and effort expensed in this appeal, to your investment and return from non-ask activities.

Present your plan for the next appeal and make sure the board is supportive of further direct mail asks, based on the success of this appeal.

If you are a small charity considering producing your first appeal, please get in contact and I will share my advice. 

If you have finished this years’ tax appeal and you would like a second point-of-view, send me a copy and I will gladly give you feedback.

Breaking down silos with engaging content

April 29, 2016

Breaking down silos with engaging content

Here is a great example of a simple, yet effective communication to supporters that crosses the boundaries between fundraising and advocacy or campaigning – courtesy of IWDA.

Ideally, this email would be developed as part of a suite of communications, sent according to a strategic activity plan in which each email has a specific, primary objective as well as multiple secondary objectives.

Where does this infographic email sit within the broader communication strategy?

This particular tactic – an infographic – involves circulating shareable content and it primarily answers to the objectives of research and advocacy stakeholders, while the benefits for fundraising, communications and marketing are secondary objectives. Each activity would have a differnt primary objective to cater to the goals of specific stakeholders. The graphic below has 6 examples of activity with varying Primary and Secondary objectives:

On a 12-month plan in which 20-30 emails are sent, a well-structured calendar will cycle between the different types of activity based on the overarching vision & goals.

What are the benefits?  Valuable outcomes of anti-silo planning:

  • Integrated approach to communication promotes greater internal collaboration and information sharing, as well as more effective and cost-efficient use of resources and content
  • The approach is supporter-centric. The journey can be adapted to suit specific segments and individuals would receive content that is relevant to them based on their behaviour and engagement history
  • The content and engagement offer is varied and multi-faceted, creating a more compelling journey for supporters
  • There is less risk of over-communication, over-asking and overlap of communications

How to hit the right supporters with your Tax appeal

April 18, 2016

How to hit the right supporters with your Tax appeal

Small charity database = no benefit of segmentation, right? Wrong

Selecting your Tax Appeal audience shouldn’t be a game of Drunken Darts

Segmentation is your friend. It will save you money, provide the basis for measurement and learnings, and ensure your communication with supporters is as effective as possible. Segmentation will provide you with the basis for achieving strategic growth from your database.

Basic segmentation will give you a clear, invaluable view of who your supporters are.

Where to start?

1. Categorise broad segments and 

  • Define the supporter types based on their engagement
  • Donors, Bequest pledgers, monthly regular givers, very large donations ($10k+), corporate and trust donors, event participants, volunteers, campaigners/supporters, clients

2. Introduce Hierarchy

  • Prioritise the supporter types based on their engagement
  • A Bequest pledge is a more important relationship than a regular gift
  • If supporters have more than one engagement, the most important engagement should take priority – and your communication should speak to them based on that engagement

3. Add Recency Frequency Value 

  • For those supporters who have made a cash donation
  • Recency of last single cash gift by months (0-12, 13-24, 25-36 etc)
  • Frequency of giving – gave once, or have given multiple times
  • Value of the last single cash gift

 

Then what?

If you have never done a mailing before, send your appeal to everyone, ensuring they are allocated a segment. Then measure results .

This will establish a baseline expectation for response and income across the segments – ready for you to apply the learnings t0 your next appeal

If you have produced a mailing before, but you didn’t have a segmentation system in place, consider excluding the people on your database who have never given a gift or made a meaningful engagement with your organisation. There is no value in contacting people who have never shown interest in your cause and have not responded when you gave them the opportunity to do so.

A Final Word

The most important part of the segmentation process is to produce institutional knowledge. And the key to retaining this knowledge is recording the brief, results and learnings in a clear and concise document. 

Keep everything – including who you contact and the segments each individual corresponded to.

Speak to me if you would like any advice on producing your appeal, who you should include and how to apply an effective segmentation strategy.

7 Steps to a ‘Best in Show’ Tax Appeal

April 6, 2016

7 Steps to a Best in Show Tax Appeal

Of the 28,000 organisations in Australia, a great number will send an appeal at this time of year.  Read these SEVEN Must-Do actions to make sure your appeal isn’t collared by the clutter.

i. Lead the pack

Go early. Contact your supporters in April to make sure they have an opportunity to give to your cause before they are inundated with appeals.

Every organisation and its dog will mail, email, phone and visit their supporters in the coming weeks. And your most committed supporters are on multiple other databases. This means it’s highly likely that the supporters you are counting on to give this year, are about to be hounded by other NFPs. Sending a first wave early will give you the best chance to get noticed.

ii. Stand out from the crowd

This goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway: make sure your appeal
is the best it can be.
It should be the most impactful and emotionally engaging communication you send all year. It should have bite and bark. It should present an urgent need with a gut-wrenching story and a tangible solution.

iii. Don’t bark up the wrong trees

Segment and target your database effectively. Avoid contributing to the clutter by mailing people who haven’t given recently. This will also save you valuable resources.

iv. Follow-up with a Second Wave

Wave 2 – by mail, email or phone (or all three) – is a tactical tool to  a.) remind supporters who intend to give but haven’t yet and  b.) to give supporters another opportunity to donate. 

Your second wave communication might come between 2 and 4 weeks after the
first. One of the benefits of a multi-wave approach is that the second and third waves can be flexible. With flexible timing you have the opportunity to adjust the campaign. The date of send, audience selection, case for support and level of urgency can all be optimised to make the campaign more effective.

v. Get on the Dog & Bone

One of the key parts of your appeal strategy must be to utilise your senior leadership, staff and board to engage your most important supporters.

Tactics such as personal notes from the relationship manager, follow-up phone calls to ensure they received the appeal and face to face asks by the CEO will significantly lift the giving potential of your donor base.

vi. Third Wave of the Hunt

A third wave will follow-up only the most important supporters. These would usually comprise individuals who gave at the same time in previous years, but haven’t yet this year. Priority should be given to those who have given large Tax appeal gifts over a number of years.

As it’s the last two weeks of June, this phone call, email, letter or visit will be the most urgent of the Tax campaign.

It can also extend right up until June 30.  A final email on the evening of the last day of the financial year might be enough to motivate some stragglers to give. Your relationship managers, CEO (and board) can move further down their contact list and continue calling until close of business on the last day.

vii. Best in Show

Finally, don’t forget to provide your CEO, senior leadership, relationship managers and board with a list of people to be thanked personally – either face to face, or on the phone. This will begin as soon as you receive the first gifts and continue in July – until everyone who warrants a personal approach is thanked.


Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about your Tax appeal.

‘NEWSLETTER’ is a dirty word

April 3, 2016

NEWSLETTER is a dirty word

Let’s retire the term “NEWSLETTER”. Great examples of newsletters should not contain news, they should be filled to the brim with STORIES.

Stories of passion and triumph, heart-break and accomplishment, which connect with the people who have made those outcomes possible. These stories reaffirm your supporters’ decision to give to your charity. A great newsletter will show donors what their gifts have achieved and make them feel involved in your cause and responsible for the outcomes that are achieved.

The supporter newsletter is a stewardship tool that updates donors on the impact of their giving.

Is your supporter Newsletter written with your supporters in mind?

The ingredient that all great newsletters will share is a complete devotion to the audience – they will refer to successes and events as the result of their contribution and they won’t describe outcomes as the charity’s achievement.

They will also use the word “YOU” and “YOUR” often. 

At the heart of a good Newsletter is the objective to thank supporters.

If your newsletter is sharing the accomplishments of your organisation, it is not acting as a stewardship tool. It isn’t supporter centric and it won’t instil readers with the warm and fuzzy feelings that it should.

If your newsletter is a device used to ask for donations, then it being under-utilised and your appeals programme is less effective than it could be.

Rather than “Newsletters” let’s call them Supporter Updates

To read a fantastic example, see the RSPCA (UK) Animal Guardian half yearly newsletter from 2009, which was developed by Whitewater for confirmed and prospective legacy givers.

“An aid model makes good leaders bad and bad leaders worse”

March 20, 2016

An aid model makes good leaders bad and bad leaders worse

In the current climate, as international NGOs compete with one another for donors’ funds; as board directors demand growth akin to that of the publicly trading corporations that they came from; as governments preach austerity and cut humanitarian aid by billions of dollars, it could be a good idea to revisit the pros and cons of an alternative to the foreign aid model – particularly in Africa.

Dr. Dambisa Moyo, global economist and author, has challenged the model as stifling growth and fuelling corruption. Does the aid get to the people who need it most? According to Dambisa Moyo, only 20c on each $ provided to Africa will reach the intended beneficiaries. Is this a necessary cost investing in Africa’s future? Or is the developed getting it wrong?

Is Aid Killing Africa?

“Removing aid will hurt the African elite most and they would probably lose their bank accounts in Geneva.”

 

You can purchase Dead Aid here: http://bit.ly/22q8Nhj

And watch a debate including Hernando de Soto / Dambisa Moyo (Pro) and Stephen Lewis / Paul Collier (Con). here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWlLE7IohXo

What Michael Jackson can tell us about Fundraising

February 23, 2016

What Michael Jackson can tell us about Fundraising

Man in the Mirror.

Those who remember the 1988 video to promote the song will recall images of starving children, of old men in soup queues and evicted families pushing belongings along in shopping carts. That year, MTV reflected the horrors of the 20th century – of poverty, famine and genocide – to an audience of millions of teenagers.

Does Man in the Mirror have a negative or positive effect on audiences? Do viewers feel overwhelmed and despairing? Or are we encouraged to feel empowered to do something?

At the same time that MJ was at the top of the charts, Australian Sponsor-a-Child campaigns showed images of African children near-death and we were told that if we gave just $29 a month, we would save a life.

 

Today, aid organisations rarely portray the people that need our help as actually needing our help. Instead, child sponsorship advertising will focus on the outcomes and solutions.

I’d like to understand more about the philosophy of showing positive messages, rather than the need. Did organisations like World Vision and Oxfam make a strategic decision in order to combat audience apathy? Was there a belief that persistent negativity would fail to tell the whole story and were there concerns that this would have consequences for future giving?

Did donors respond in focus groups: “I don’t like to see negative images on TV”? Did they say that starving children would not make them want to give?

If you show only the solution, your audience will not feel compelled to respond and fewer people will donate. As fundraisers, marketers and communicators, we all understand this, yet that knowledge is not often reflected.

It might be true to say that negative messages can discourage people from giving and even influence despair.

Perhaps negative messages give people the impression that the problem is unsolvable.

Along with apathy, a perception that the ‘problem is too big to fix’ is a charity’s worst enemy. And today, audiences are bombarded by problems that are too big to fix.

Footage of the war in Syria; the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and pictures of people fleeing in their millions is experienced by audiences between episodes of The Big Bang Theory, over bowls of Cornflakes, or on You-Tube. Are these images – presented in a ‘business-as-usual’ context – normalising death and suffering and excluding the human story from the narrative?

Does Michael’s video provide a Need and Solution dynamic? What emotions does it evoke in audiences? 

To only show the positive outcome of a story is the same as only showing the starving children in need.

By not reflecting the whole story, aid organisations are providing inadequate context. The Need or Problem is absent from the narrative.

It’s impossible for armchair viewers to identify the relationship between African families drowning in the Mediterranean on CNN, and a drinking well in a Somali village that means a little girl doesn’t have to walk 30kms a day to get water.

The reason people aren’t able to connect with refugees fleeing Syria is the same reason that they struggle to understand why Jorge in Bolivia needs their help. Without the broader narrative, audiences are being asked to fill in the blanks. Child sponsorship needs to be presented within a context of Need, Hope and Solution. 

Man in the Mirror is not reflecting anything that we cannot already see on television. However, audiences are not expected to make the connection between poverty, death and famine and what they can do to help. Instead, images of starving children reflect a clear Need which is answered by a Solution. The story inspires us and we are invited to play a role in the solution, rather than to be shown the end result without any context.

Don’t let the Comms Dept. hijack your survey!

February 16, 2016

Don't let the Comms Dept. hijack your survey

Fundraising surveys are easy to get wrong.

There is one rule – above all others – that you should know and commit to memory before you begin.

Rule No. 1: NEVER let your communications or brand teams know that you are developing a survey.
They will get involved, they will get excited and they will hijack your survey.
Should you need to defend the integrity of your survey, consider these discussion points which might rationalise why your fundraising survey shouldn’t include market research questions:

    1. “I’m sorry, [Insert name of communications person here], there are only 12 to 15questions in my survey and there is no room for your brand learnings”
      • By mail, the audience is likely to be older and your fonts will need to be 14pt. So there won’t be enough room for questions about supporters’ income, or which newspapers they read
      • If sending email, the survey must be short to ensure you keep them engaged. You should assume that the online attention span of your supporters is far too short to be asking them questions about how much time they spend online.
    2. “Do we have enough supporters for the results to be statistically significant?”
      • Whether the response volumes within key segments are large enough to accurately compare or not is irrelevant. Your communications and brand colleagues probably don’t know enough about your the donor base to have an answer to this question.
    3. “How will you make sure that the responses aren’t biased to the most responsive donors?”
      • Research by direct marketing is fundamentally flawed because the people who respond are already your best supporters
      • As a fundraiser, you already know how to contact the most responsive prospects. What you don’t know is how to exclude all the people who won’t donate
      • What would be far more interesting for communications and brand marketing is a survey of the people who don’t reply to emails or direct mail. These people could tell you what the rest of the country thinks about your cause and that might influence their marketing and communications strategies.

Marketing and communications surveys can be very valuable to not-for-profits and the insights might support brand design, engage board members and help drive awareness strategies. But there is no room for marketing questions in fundraising surveys. 

‘Santa is Real,’ ‘Reindeer can fly’ & ‘There’s still plenty of time to write the Christmas appeal’ Fantasies we all wish were true

October 29, 2015

Santa is Real, Reindeer can fly & There's still plenty of time to write the Christmas appeal Fantasies we all wish were true.

It wasn’t enough that the supermarket aisles were plastered with reminders.  I had to ask Siri how many days until Christmas and the answer is 57.  That will terrify some fundraisers who haven’t yet written their Christmas appeal.

If you are yet to write an appeal letter or email to send to supporters, then the following Quick-Fix structural guide might help save you from the proverbial grinch.

Write a personal letter – in the voice of your CEO or a senior figure at your charity – directly from him or her to your readers.

The following structural guide can apply to email or direct mail appeals.

Introduce with Emotion and that Express the Problem

Introduce the case story – ideally through a quote or an emotional excerpt from the individual’s story.

Introduce the NEED – what is the problem that has caused the case story to be in this situation? ASK supporters for their help to meet the demands of this need.

Story: Bring the need to LIFE

Share the details of his or her challenge and their heart-wrenching tale. The signatory is a storyteller who has witnessed the person’s pain and expresses the emotion of the story using their own feelings.

Tell the case story’s specific need. What does he or she require? What is their situation? What will happen if the CHARITY isn’t there to support them? What item, programme or service will benefit them?

Solution = YOU

How much money will the programme or service need and how will supporters’ gifts contribute to towards that target?

e.g. “CHARITY will rescue 5,000 abandoned or neglected dogs and cats this summer. Last year this programme cost $1.5m over the Christmas period and the strain on the teams of Inspectors and shelter volunteers will be tremendous in the coming months. I need to raise that money – and more – before Christmas so we can meet the demands this year.”

“Your gift of $750 will help me to keep one of our rescue vans on the road for two days.> OR A gift as small as $25 will go towards the cost of keeping Inspectors on the road during the challenging summer days ahead.”

Outline the success story – Evidence of track record

Why should the CHARITY be trusted with this task and with your gift?

  • How many lives have been saved by similar research in the past?
  • Are there any testimonials or quotes from real people whose lives were saved by other research by CHARITY?
  • What do experts say about this programme? Will scientists point to the potential life-saving results if the research goes ahead?

 

Bring the donor into the heart of your Success Story 

Tie the “track record” and proof of programme success back to the supporter’s previous gifts.

“None of this would have been possible without you. Which is why I’m asking again for your support.

I can’t do this without you – and there are so many more children like Nathan who are waiting for treatment.

Please support my appeal for children like Nathan and I’ll give him a better Christmas, and some hope for the future.”

Thank and Sign-off

“Thank you again. Merry Christmas”

 

PS

If a supporter reads any part of your appeal, it is likely to be the introduction or PS. So make sure it has both, and make sure they are impactful.

“It’s not everyday you get a chance like this to give a family the gift of hope. At Christmas time, their need is all the more greater, and your support at its most crucial. I hope you are able to help again this year.”

John the appalled charity call recipient – set straight

October 27, 2015

John the appalled charity call recipient - set straight

John calls charity phone calls SCAMS and is disgusted that deceptive agencies earn 40% ‘commission’ on monthly gifts made to charity.

I had to set him straight:

“Hello John,

The company doesn’t receive commission from charity gifts. They do however receive a one-off fee – for each call, or in some instances, per supporter who makes a committed gift. 

Organisations use specialist agencies because it is a more cost effective way of asking supporters to give monthly. Agencies retain passionate teams of experienced fundraisers – which is too expensive for most charities to do themselves. 

Monthly gifts are important because they give the assurity of donations month-to-month – enabling them to react to emergencies or plan for changes in demand. 

I hope this understanding of regular gift fundraising and your experience hasn’t eroded your trust in your favourite charities.”

Feelings and how to destroy them. (Another fundraising post about storytelling)

September 23, 2015

Feelings and how to destroy them

A lot has been said before about emotive storytelling and its importance to fundraising. We walk away from presentations by Tom Ahern or Ken Burnett and we say “yeah! That makes sense!” Alan Clayton is rumoured to make people cry in his masterclasses. And if you’re open to being confused by dead-pan humour, Sean Triner and Mark Phillips can be pretty convincing.

And, while we say we “get it”, do we really get it?

When you read George Smith, Terry Murray, Mal Warwick, or even great advertisers like Bernbach and Ogilvy, they all say something about Feelings and connecting with people. And that is what all great fundraising does.

I, like most people, enjoy the illustrative language, the humorous anecdotes and puns and the – almost expletive – never-ending rants from fundraisers like Jeff Brooks. Yet the Twitter accounts, the RSS feeds and blogs, the multiple conferences and masterclasses, volumes of beautiful books and countless success stories from other charities around the world fail to influence some fundraisers. 

And then it dawned on me.

Maybe one more blog post will do the trick. Perhaps THIS repetition of the ‘tried and tested’, the black and white facts and irrefutable proof might make the difference. Tell me I’m dreaming.

Whether in vain or not, here are FIVE Key, well-rehearsed and ever preached passages that no direct mail letter should ever exclude:

1. Find a story. A real human story
. Tell that story it until the words bleed from the paper.

2. There must be a clear and present NEED. If your organisation isn’t able to articulate a real problem that requires it to fundraise, then don’t bother writing the letter.

3. The SOLUTION is YOU (no not you, the supporter). A supporter’s gift has the power to save, change or improve lives. Your task as a fundraiser is to convince your supporters that this is true.

4. People give to PEOPLE, not organisations.  Your readers are not donating to you. The charity is merely the facilitator of a donation, not the recipient. If you want to sell your organisation to supporters then get an advertising budget like McDonald’s or Coke.

5. Ask. Don’t forget to ask for something. Anything. That three syllable word in your title implies that you are responsible for raising funds. To do so, you need to ask. If disguised behind a real purpose as dictated by points 1 through 4, it might actually convince people that you need something.

With any luck, these 5 points may have just made the world a better place.

Which NFPs make the loudest noise about the Cost of Fundraising?

September 2, 2015

Which NFPs make the loudest noise about the Cost of Fundraising

How do Australia’s largest NFPs communicate their cost effectiveness?

Are the most sophisticated fundraising organisations supporting positive messaging around the cost of fundraising? Or are they perpetuating a negative, misinformed perception that is harming the sector as a whole?

The best fundraising in Australia comes from both large, sophisticated charities as well as smaller, more agile and necessarily frugal ones.

The same is true for the approach that the sector takes when approaching the question of cost effectiveness.

Which NFPs make the loudest noise about the Cost of Fundraising

This survey conducted last month compares the use of Cost of Fundraising messaging and infographics across the largest and most visible not-for-profits across the sector.

By comparing where on the website an organisation communicates their Cost of Fundraising, one can get a sense of how much value is associated with this message by each organisation.

Many organisations produce graphics to help express visually where the money goes and to show their cost effectiveness. It aims to combat a perceived negative public sentiment that suggests charities aren’t spending enough on the cause.

Are organisations being foolish to spend money on producing messages that communicate how great they are at saving money? Or are we assuming that audiences – our supporters – are fools?

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Kim Gorski, Campaign Manager

+61 (0) 411 733 931

kim@amplifyfundraising.com.au


Paul Bailey, Fundraising Strategist

+61 (0) 424 745 848

paul@amplifyfundraising.com.au

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