SIGNUP FOR E-NEWS AND FREE FUNDRAISING TIPS

Be not afraid. That’s generally good advice, and it’s very good advice when it comes to matching gift offers. Matching gift appeals are maybe the easiest and most dependable way to increase response to your fundraising. It works any time…

How to Bulk Up Response to Any Fundraising Ask with Matching Funds

August 27, 2018

I don’t throw around terms like “magic” lightly, because there’s no such thing. But matching funds come close to magic. A match offer can cut through the clutter and encourage more donors to give. In fact, in my experience, a…

11 Ways to Beat the Odds and Raise a Lot of Money

January 22, 2018

Fundraising is just hard. Not only are you trying to persuade strangers to give you money for almost nothing in return — but you’re asking all that of people who are being asked by dozens of other fundraisers at the…

How to Make Fundraising Work: Nail the Offer

October 31, 2017

Lynne Boardman, Managing Director at Harvey McKinnon Associates, and Jeff Brooks, Fundraisingologist at Moceanic, discuss the one thing that makes all the difference in fundraising: The offer — also called the call to action or the proposition. Nail this truth,…

The Weird Power of Long Fundraising Letters

October 23, 2017

Direct Mail, Donor Psychology, Major and Mid Value Donors

Long letters work better. But don’t just take it from me. Dr Barnardo wrote a four-page appeal letter in London in the 1880s using classic direct mail techniques: Underlining, urgency, dollar handles, specific ask and a clear reference to what…

How To Ask Every Donor The Right Amount

June 28, 2017

Direct Mail, Donor Love, Maths of Fundraising

Or: How to Avoid Looking Like You Don’t Know Your Donors In this blog, I refer to the gift ask chart. You can get your own gift ask chart to download as an excel file. Just click here. What’s worse…

Why Do You Do What You Do?

February 10, 2017

Donor Love, Donor Psychology

As I was working on some articles about story-telling, copywriting for your website and making your direct mail great I found I had to come back to the absolute fundamentals about why we in charities write anything at all. It…

The Odd Line From the Bible Increases Response Rate From Christians, But What About Non-Christians?

September 13, 2016

Direct Mail, Donor Love, Major and Mid Value Donors

I have read many a post, article or heard words of wisdom that people who partake in religious activities tend to be slightly more generous than those that don’t. It is hard to get concrete data to back that up in…

A Great Way to Boost Donations in Your Next Appeal…

August 17, 2016