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September week 4 1024x768 1

3 Ways to Amp up the Motivating Power of Your Fundraising Stories

Storytelling, Writing
I have some bad news for you: Stories are not magic. Telling a story doesn’t automatically make your fundraising powerful. You have to tell the right story. In the right way. That’s when the magic happens, and your fundraising goes…
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August week 3 1024x768 1

Two Things That Turn Your Fundraising into “Crap” – and How to Avoid Them

Writing
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock­proof, crap detector.” That’s what Ernest Hemingway said. A super-helpful corollary to that is from author and cultural critic Neil Postman: “At any given time, the chief source of…
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Week 4 Differences

Donors Are Not You: A Guide to the Differences

Donor Love, Writing
A long-ago mentor once told me that the entire problem with human relationships is this:  We judge others by their actions, but we expect them to judge us by our intentions. “He did that hurtful thing because he’s a bad…
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How to Tell the Donors Story in Your Fundraising

How to Tell the Donor’s Story in Your Fundraising

Storytelling, Writing
You already know that storytelling is the gasoline, the petrol, of the fundraising car. We tell stories instead of merely stating facts because stories move people to action. You raise a lot more money with stories. Maybe you’ve heard the…
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Pop Art Robot The Thinker

How AI Writing Can Defeat Your Best Projects … or Not

Writing
Artificial Intelligence invaded the members-only community of The Fundraisingology Lab on Facebook recently. Sean Triner posted a letter thanking members of our special community of fundraising professionals for their involvement and their work. What he didn’t say, at least at…
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Pop Are Love 1

Worried about “donor as hero” fundraising? Here’s another way to think about it

Writing
Trigger Warning: this post contains examples of fundraising that address child sex trafficking. Imagine this. As a smart fundraiser, you’ve put together a compelling appeal. It has an emotional story. A tangible offer. And direct asks in all the key…
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Pop Art typewriter

Fundraiser: Disobey Your English Teachers to Improve Your Writing

Writing
Before I found fundraising, I taught English. Mostly to first-year college students, usually some version of that English 101 course that you remember with either fondness or revulsion. We called it “writing,” but what we were teaching was “academic writing.”…
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Pop art story book

3 Elements of Every Effective Fundraising Story

Storytelling, Writing
There’s a lot of theory about storytelling out there. Some of it is very helpful for hardworking fundraisers like you. Here’s what Writer’s Digest says every story needs: Orientation: The beginning of a story must grab the reader’s attention. Crisis: Something…
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Pop Art writer paper

5 More Winning Ways to Start Your Next Fundraising Appeal

Direct Mail, Writing
Lisa Sargent’s last post on this blog, 6 Winning Ways to Start Your Next Fundraising Appeal, was so popular, that we asked her to give you even more! Over to Lisa… The right lead on a fundraising letter is like…
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Pop Art on the air

How to Conduct Interviews That Give You the Best Fundraising Stories

Writing
Decades ago, before I discovered my calling as a fundraising person, I was a journalist. One cool project I worked on was a series on street musicians who played at Seattle’s tourist-infested Pike Place Market. I’d hang out near a…
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