How to Keep Writing When You’re on Empty
NOTE: This blog post was written during — and is about — normal times. Now is not a normal time. There are a number of suggestions below — like “sneak out to a movie” and “do your work in a…
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One Rule That Can Turn Your Fundraising to Gold
“This is why people should give!” the new executive director said. He dramatically threw a newspaper on the table, leaned back, and glowered at everyone sitting around the conference room. The newspaper was folded open to A13. Near the bottom…
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26 Tips for More Effective Fundraising Writing
1. Write the call to action (the reply device or landing page) first It’s very un-Zen to say it, but fundraising is more about the destination than the journey. You’re going to arrive a lot more successfully when you know…
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3 Last-Minute Tweaks for Your End-of-Year Campaign
Tweak: a fine adjustment to a mechanism or system Here are some fine adjustments you can do that can meaningfully improve your upcoming year-end campaign. Tweak One Make a direct ask. As in “Fiona, will you please make a donation…
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9 Truths about Fundraising I Wish I Had Figured Out Sooner
One of the more disturbing things about spending decades in a career is looking back and remembering how incredibly wrong you used to be! So I’m going to give you a quick tour of some ways I used to be…
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Arts and Culture Fundraising: the Story to Tell When Nobody Is Dying
The standard formula for a fundraising message goes like this: Something is not right. It needs to be changed, or somebody might suffer in some terrible way — maybe even die. By making a donation now, you can save a…
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Nobel Prize Winner Demonstrates the Power of Story
Denis Mukwege, 2018 co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, used his Nobel address to masterfully tell stories about his work with survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The main story he tells is a harrowing…
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The Most Controversial Non-Controversy in the Fundraising World
Want to stir up a group of professionals? Want to see them sweat and wave their arms and cuss? There’s one issue that will do it every time. I’m not talking about “poverty porn,” and it’s not the overhead controversy.…
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Effective Fundraising Is Always a “Choose Your Own Adventure” Story
Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books? They are kid-fiction adventures that originated in the late 70s. Each book is narrated in the second person — you — and offers periodic decision points for the reader. It goes something like…
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VIDEO: How to Feel the Holiday Season When It’s Still Far Off
One of the strange challenges of the serious fundraiser is the long stretch of time between when you should be crafting your messaging and when it finally goes out to donors. And now, the midst of August, is when that…
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