One of the truly cool things about our private members-only community, The Fundraisingology Lab, is the conversations that come up, and where they can lead.

Here’s a recent example: A Lab member—who, for reasons you’ll quickly understand, wanted to be anonymous – put out this call for help:

I know I’ve read somewhere some compelling evidence for using different colour schemes in direct mail…. Has anyone come across something similar? The fact I remember, is to do with readers being many, many times less likely to take in what they read if it’s in white text on a dark background rather than black text on a white background. Need evidence to convince someone who really likes dark backgrounds to change.

Alert and super-helpful Lab member and fundraising copywriter June Steward quickly responded with evidence from the classic book Type & Layout by Colin Wheildon. She also found an account of a test reported in the book Ogilvy on Advertising, where the same direct-response charity print ad was tested with white type over a black background against black type on a white background.

Guess which version did better.

Double the response better.

Yes, the black type on white background.

So let me just put it out here: Any time someone wants to design fundraising using reverse type (or type over images), don’t let them! It may look cool, but it’s very hard to read. And being hard to read makes it hard to respond.

And that has proven out in testing for many decades.

The conversation reminded me of one of the best non-fundraising fundraising books ever: Ogilvy on Advertising (1983) by David Ogilvy.

Why would you read a book that old and only indirectly related to fundraising? Well, Ogilvy (1911 – 1999) is just considered the inventor of modern advertising – especially direct response advertising. In 1955, he famously said, “The customer is not a moron, she’s your wife.” That would be (with just a touch of modernizing) a great motto for fundraising.

And this powerful book includes quotes like: “When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”

So read the book. It will help you be a stronger fundraiser.

I’ll leave you with some copywriting advice Ogilvy wrote in response to a question from a fan. It’s not in the book, but if you ever write fundraising copy, these things are powerful!

1. I have never written an advertisement in the office. Too many interruptions. I do all my writing at home.
2. I spend a long time studying the precedents. I look at every advertisement which has appeared for competing products during the past 20 years.
3. I am helpless without research material — and the more “motivational” the better.
4. I write out a definition of the problem and a statement of the purpose which I wish the campaign to achieve. Then I go no further until the statement and its principles have been accepted by the client.
5. Before actually writing the copy, I write down every conceivable fact and selling idea. Then I get them organized and relate them to research and the copy platform.
6. Then I write the headline. As a matter of fact I try to write 20 alternative headlines for every advertisement. And I never select the final headline without asking the opinion of other people in the agency. In some cases I seek the help of the research department and get them to do a split-run on a battery of headlines.
7. At this point I can no longer postpone the actual copy. So I go home and sit down at my desk. I find myself entirely without ideas. I get bad-tempered. If my wife comes into the room I growl at her. (This has gotten worse since I gave up smoking.)
8. I am terrified of producing a lousy advertisement. This causes me to throw away the first 20 attempts.
9. If all else fails, I drink half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces an uncontrollable gush of copy.
10. The next morning I get up early and edit the gush.
11. Then I take the train to New York and my secretary types a draft. (I cannot type, which is very inconvenient.)
12. I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. So I go to work editing my own draft. After four or five editings, it looks good enough to show to the client. If the client changes the copy, I get angry — because I took a lot of trouble writing it, and what I wrote I wrote on purpose.

“Drink half a bottle of rum” or growling at one’s spouse is not good advice, and I don’t know anyone who has a human typist these days, but otherwise, this advice is golden!

Try it out!

Grow your fundraising with six powerful fundraising techniques. Each one is big, but together they will send your results skyrocketing! Find out how at our free webinar, The 6 Keys to Massive Nonprofit Fundraising Growth. A must-not-miss!

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• How the 40-40-20 Rule Gives You Freedom, Confidence, and Success in Fundraising
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