Eight ways to increase the effectiveness of your Christmas fundraising emails

As you prepare your final fundraising emails here are some ideas you can use to increase their effectiveness and to get more donations before the end of December.

1.   Think up some great opening lines. Put the small talk 'Christmas is here once again ... have you done your shopping' aside and start engaging donors right from the start.

2. Don't use the 'Christmas spirit' as the main reason for giving - yes, donors give because they want to show generosity and compassion. But, you need to remember and highlight the reasons why they give to your cause - show them the needs you are trying to meet and how their gifts will make a difference. 

3. Be as specific as you can about how the donations will be used - even if you are raising money for your general fund, remind donors how their gifts throughout the year have impacted lives, share some of your plans for 2013 and ask donors to show their commitment to your cause by making a special Christmas gift.  

4. Tell one compelling story - email readers have shorter attention spans than letter readers. So, focus on one impact story, use the story to show donors how they are changing lives. 

5. DONT SHOUT ON YOUR SUBJECT LINE - remember you are writing to friends not making a sales pitch for a business. So, avoid all capitals on the subject line, or words like 'DEADLINE' or 'LAST CHANCE' Donors often shy away from opening and reading pushy emails and sometimes spam filters might block such messages too. 

6. Use interesting subject lines - every day donors are getting tens even hundreds of emails, some of them from charities asking for support. So, statements like 'make a gift to make a difference' are not likely to peak their curiosity to open the email. So, think up an interesting subject line, make the donor curious. 

7. If you are including a video in your email make sure that the video reminds donors to give. Think carefully about the purpose of the video - if it is just to say 'thank you' then send it separately near the end of December. But, if you want to say thank you and ask for one last gift make sure that the video contains clear instructions that take the donor to your giving page. 

8. Insert plenty of links to the giving page throughout the email. With the rise of tablets and other mobile devices, donors are now seeing your emails on the go. And, they are lazy - they don't want to scroll further and further so they can get to your call to action. So, you have to make it easy for them by including several links to your giving page throughout the email, including one within the second or third paragraphs. 

What are the barriers to successful fundraising appeals?

Recently while reviewing the warm appeals for a charity client I got thinking about the barriers to successful appeals. So, what do unsuccessful appeals have in common.

• Unsuccessful appeals fail to respond to the readers (donors) unspoken questions. According to Siegfried Vogele, the father of direct marketing a good appeals writer should anticipate the questions in reader's mind and answer them clearly in the fundraising letter. These questions focus around the charity and the work you are asking the donor to support. The donor might be thinkingwho is this charity? Have I given to them before? How are they addressing me? Where did they find my details? Why should I support their work? How will they make a difference? What is required of me? And, more. Drop me a line of you want to have a look at the full list of unspoken questions that Vogele talks about.

• Unsuccessful appeals lack of clarity about  what they are asking the reader to do. They contain unclear need statements like 'with your money we will impact many lives' or vague and confusing asks like ' support our general fund' or 'we urgently need £750,000 can you please give £10' - Such statements are not likely to motivate anyone to give. 

• Unsuccessful appeals lack of cohesiveness in terms of how all the elements of the appeal package come together, the repetition of key messages, the same fundraising ask, flow of arguments etc. I often see fundraising appeal where the fundraising ask from the letter does not match the ask in the response form or where response forms are generic or cluttered. 

• Unsuccessful appeals lack of authenticity – You know what I am talking about, the kind of appeals where you can take the name of the charity out and replace it with any other charity and it all sounds the same. In a successful appeal the stories and key messages are authentic and fit with what the donors know about the charity and its work. The same can be said about the person who signs the appeal, he or she need to be credible people who are known across the organization.

• Unsuccessful appeals make it difficult for the donor to respond - you might be smiling now but go and have a look at your appeals response forms. Are they cluttered or easy to use? Do they contain clear instructions about how the donor should fill in the form? What is the font size? Can an older donor read it quickly without reaching for their specs? And, what about online giving, sms giving or electronic funds transfers - are you offering donors these giving options or not?  

• Unsuccessful appeals have un-engaging copy – dull copy that does not touch donors’ heart, cluttered writing, weak requests. All these things can contribute to the failure of an appeal to engage with the majority of supporters. However, sometimes the writer’s style, the compelling way he or she uses to share a story, how they move from the story to the big picture issues taking the donor on a journey can catch many a reader’s attention and hold it.

Is there anything else that you would like to add to this list? - I would be interested to hear from you so please comment below. 

Is your charity using 'churn and burn' fundraising techniques?

A recent LinkedIn post by Giles Pegram on the Institute of Fundraising discussion board about 'churn and burn' practices in fundraising got me thinking about the why and how this approach to fundraising is alive and well in so many charities today.

If you don't know what I am talking about - let me explain first what 'churn and burn' is. By definition, in a charity fundraising 'churn and burn' is about bringing in new donors/ or new contacts, bombarding them with irrelevant communications and fundraising appeals in order to get the most out of them in terms of donations and then letting them go.

Most charity fundraisers I talk to would never admit that their charity practices the 'churn and burn' approach. Here are some reasons why:

Firstly, many charity fundraisers are genuinely unaware of the 'churn and burn' practices under their roof. They just don't see it. Why? Because they might be doing very little new donor acquisition thinking that the times are hard and people will not give to new charities. Often 'churn and burn' approaches are fuelled by agressive new donor acquisition efforts. The problem is that these new supporters are bombarded with requests to give more money straightaway or included in the current communications cycle that is designed with long standing donors in mind. In other words, new donors feel little or no connection with the charity and they leave.

Secondly, because they are not measuring the effectiveness of their fundraising activities in terms of the how donors give and what kind of relationship they have with the charity. They are not measuring retention/ attrition rates of their donor file or contacts/ donor conversion rates and can not see how their charity might have the 'revolving doors' syndrome. Donors enter, stay a short while and leave.

Thirdly, fundraisers are under pressure from their line managers, CEO's and Boards to meet these year's targets often expressed in total amounts raised and numbers of new donors brought in. So, short- termism becomes the name of the game - let's get the most out of these donors now for meeting today's targets but not really focusing on growing relationships with donors naturally for the long term.

Fourthly, some direct marketing agency is practicing 'churn and burn' on behalf of the charity. Some charities outsource the new donor acquisition activities or even the whole fundraising function. So, a direct marketing agency finds new donors on their behalf or does their fundraising giving the charity the money. While at face value this looks like a good proposition and can work well on many occasions. There are times when the agency, working on behalf of many clients, engages in 'churn and burn' practices to meet the fundraising targets.

Finally, although many fundraisers talk about 'donor-centric' communications what they are sending out  is generic communications pieces that don't really speak to donors' concerns or motivations for getting involved with their work. If you disagree with me just pick up one of your charity's welcome letters, newsletters or fundraising appeals. Take a look, can you find more 'you' than 'we' in these materials? Do your newsletters contain any stories about donors, about what motivates them to participate in your work? Do your appeals contain three or four reasons - from the donors perspective - as to why they should give? If you answered 'No' to these questions that your charity's communications are not donor-centric.

Here are some action points to help you start identifying any 'churn and burn' practices in your charity's fundraising and uprooting them for good:

1. Run some fundraising reports to track donor behaviour, to identify the donors who are lapsing and ineffective fundraising activities;

2. Calculate lifetime value of your donors and start including the numbers of multi-year donors, new donors, reactivated donors etc in your fundraising reports for your CEO and other senior leaders.

3. Start educating your CEO and your Board about the importance of building long term relationships with supporters and the pace of such relationships, in that they do  not happen overnight.

4. Evaluate your communications standing in donors shoes. Show your appeals and newsletters to a group of friends and ask for their honest opinions. Do they understand what you are saying? Are they moved by your stories? Would they support this charity? Would they be impressed by your thank you/ welcome letters?

Please feel free to add any more points to this list...

How to break the rules of grammar for writing an excellent fundraising appeal

Why do you think donors respond to your fundraising appeals? They respond to your appeals because they feel a personal connection with your work and that starts with how you write to them, how you get their attention and involve them in your work.
When I am asked to write fundraising appeals for my clients I try to make sure that my letter feels like a conversation – and in doing so I do indeed break the rules of good grammar. Why? Because, I don’t want my fundraising letter to sound like an essay, a theoolgical piece or an editorial filled with big or empty words.

In short, here are some of the things I edit my fundraising appeals for in search of conversational writing:
1. Frequent use of ‘I’ rather than ‘we’ – because a letter is meant to be a personal communication between two people and not between one person and a whole group. ‘I am writing to you today….’ ‘I am asking for your help….’ ‘I am inviting you to make a gift to our work…’
2. Beginning sentences with ‘and’ - one of my all time favourite connectors that encourages the reader to keep on reading. Think about it - when you speak to a friend - how many times do you start the sencences with ‘and’ to encourage your friend to listen.

3. Sticking to short paragraphs without worrying too much whether the sentences belong together or not. As a rule of thumb my paragraphs don’t’ have more than six lines. The reason for this is that people find it difficult to read long paragraphs. And, they are often reading your charity’s appeals quickly, giving them partial attention.

4. Incomplete sentences – missing either or both a noun and a verb. We don’t talk in complete sentences. Really. We don’t. So, next time you write an appeal your computer screen should be full of red lines  warning you of bad grammar… if not, you haven’t written a fundraising letter.

5. Liberal use of dashes – they are very useful for linking phrases together - helping the reader to jump quickly from one thought to the next in a natural way.
6. Repeating key reasons for giving and arguments over and over again. I remember how when I was at school I was taught to organise my thoughts and arguments in a logical manner from beginning to conclusion.

As I already mentioned before, most people read fundraising letters only with partial attention so we can’t afford to present our main argument to them only once. In addition to this, most people don’t read fundraising letters in a sequential manner so in that sense every paragraph needs to convey the main argument – and be clear and succint enough to stand alone.

How to evaluate your charity's communications

Before designing the communications strategy for next year take some time to evaluate the marketing and fundraising communications your charity sent out this year. Here is a hands-on, simple evaluation framework that can reap great dividends.
 
Step One: Gather the various mailing packages, and other related online fundraising and marketing materials that your charity has prepared and sent to donors and contacts on the last 18 months. What you have in front of you and on your computer screen is likely to represent the sum total of intentional messages received by your charity's constituents.

 

Step Two: Take a highlighter and mark every purpose statement, expression of your charity's mission and fundraising asks you find embedded in your communications pieces.
 
What do you think? Can you see message consistency? Clearly stated fundraising asks?
 
Are you speechless? Stunned? Pleased? Alarmed?

 

Step Three: Ask yourself and - get your colleagues to ask themselves too - the following questions as you evaluate your charity's communications. Remember to be honest, otherwise there is no point in undertaking this exercise.
 
1. Does every communications' piece contain a clear statement of your charity's vision and mission? - Your goal should be to have bite-size version of our mission and vision in all communications so that donors are reminded of what you do and why their participation in your wok is important.

2. Do your printed and online materials communicate your charity’s brand? - Examine the language, style, design, use of images, headlines, colour schemes - do they adhere to your charity's style guide? Do they express your charity's unique personality and style? - Donors should be able to recongnise your materials and your messages in a crowded marketplace.  

If a donor visits your website, facebook page, or reads one of your promotional mailings, they should be able to easily identify elements (both copy and design) that set your charity apart from others involved in similar work.  

3. How are you telling your charity's stories? - People connect with a cause through compelling stories. How are you telling your stories in words and images? Are they inspiring? Memorable? Captured in headlines, copy as well as powerful authentic images?

4. How are you communicating the impact that the donors are making through their giving? - Today's donors want to know how the money they give is being spent. Openness and transparency helps to build donor trust in charities. So, have a look at your communications? How often do you let donors know how the money is being used? Do you report back on how much was raised through various appeals? Do you let them know what your administration costs are and how much money goes to the project in the field? Is there consistency in these messages or do they contradict each other?

5. How do you thank your donors? - Saying 'thank you' is a way of strengthening relationships with donors and assuring them that their gifts will be used as intended. It is also a way of securing future gifts. How do you say 'thank you'? Are there any thank you messages incorporated in your newsletters, emails, etc as well as personalised letters? Are the thank you messages dry and formal or warm and encouraging?

6. Do you encourage donors to engage with your charity? - How many of your charity's communications give donors opportunities to offer feedback, ask questions, share their views about your work, or even tell you why they support your charity? Do you give donor's a voice through your printed materials, your website or online forums? Do you act on their suggestions and offer them feedback? - In a connected world one way communications are becoming extinct and collaboration is the name of the game. 

These might seem like simple questions but you would be surprised as to how many time charities get them wrong .... so take your time with this exercise, evaluate the findings and improve the effectiveness of your communications in 2012.

 

Lessons from Mister Brown's visit to Haiti

Just in case you were wondering this is not Mr Brown as in the former Prime Minister of the UK. This is an Italian version of Mr Bean who has travelled to Haiti on behalf of an Italian charity and had done a fabulous video.



Mr Brown meets a group of children - teaches them a song and while they sing the group of children and Mr Brown travel across one of the areas where there is much devastation and suffering. However, the tone of the video is positive and upbeat - the key message 'There is nothing we can't do with a smile on your face - there is nothing we can't do together!'

So what makes this charity video stand out apart from the draw of a celebrity character?

First it reminds us of the hard realities of life in Haiti months after the disaster but it does so in a gentle way....Here is suffering and distraction but life goes on as the smiling and resilient faces of the children singing show...

It offers a refreshingly different perspective on a situation that has been addressed in many different angles by the press and many charities...

It tells us that live goes on... the children, the school... learning and growing,

It is fun and lighthearted while at the same time it drives an important message home - this is your opportunity to help these children and communities '

It is something that families and even children can watch and remember and be encouraged to give towards...

There are so many you tube videos out there full of facts and sad stories of communities and children who need our help... but few of them have those special elements that draw you in, make you smile and get your cheque book out... have another look at Mr Brown is back in Haiti and think about the things that might make your beneficiaries and donors smile and your charity's messages stand out from the crowd...

10 simple truths about direct mail every fundraiser should know

Despite the rapid growth of online communications direct mail remains one of the essential tools in a fundraiser’s tool box for acquiring new supporters, soliciting support from present donors and strengthening the relationship between a charity and its donors.

Here are some basic truths about direct mail that can help you make the most of this fundraising and donor cultivation tool:

1. Charities that raise most money from direct mail are those that have a focused direct mail programme rather than an eclectic collection of appeals.

True measures of fundraising success are not the response rate or total income of any mailing but rather an increase in the total number of gifts compared to previous years and overall income generated through direct mail.

The question is: What would you do to ensure that donors increase their giving frequency and the amounts they donate to your charity?

Well, one thing would be to vary the copy and design of your fundraising appeals, to make them more interesting and appealing to your supporters. Another thing would be to allow for adequate amounts of time between different mailings so that donors have time to respond.

2. Fundraising appeals work best when there is a letter, a response form and a reply envelope. These three elements are essential and other additions to your appeal packages are likely to reduce rather than increase response rates.

However, it is important to note here that the letter enclosed in the appeal pack should contain a simple and straightforward ‘ask’ – a direct invitation to the donor or potential donor to make a contribution to the charity. I know this seems obvious but too many appeal letters hint at ‘the ask’ but fail to issue a straightforward invitation to give.

3. Thanking donors promptly and warmly is a key factor in ensuring the success of a direct mail programme. Showing appreciation for their contributions helps donors to bond with your charity and makes them feel they are partners in your work rather than ‘walking cheque books’.

4. A charity’s donors are more likely to stop giving because they have not been asked enough not because they have been asked too often! Some charities are reluctant to ask their donors more than two or three times a year fearing that they will stop supporting the charity if they are asked more often.

In our opinion, such fears unfounded, unless they are backed up by statistical data of increased donor attrition over a period of time caused by increased frequency in appeals.

Knowing how many ‘asks’ are right for your charity is not something that can be decided by looking at other charities but by testing the frequency of appeals with your database over a period of time and carefully tracking your donor’s attrition and retention rates.

5. Integrating newsletter and annual reports in a charity’s direct mail programme is likely to increase the overall income. Well-written and designed newsletters, magazines or annual reviews enable donors to see the bigger picture of what your charity is doing and encourage them to continue their involvement with your work.

Showing appreciation, gratitude and offering examples of how donor’s gifts have made a difference can sometimes be an excellent way of generating additional income without direct solicitation. However, in order to achieve this - your charity’s communications should be donor-centric rather than programme or charity-centric.

6. Brochures, DVDs or other materials included in fundraising appeal packages are likely to reduce rather than increase response rates. Sometimes, senior leaders of the charity insist that a particular brochure should go out with the fundraising mailing to reinforce its message. On most cases however, producing that additional piece slows down the process of getting the appeal out on time, adds to the appeal costs and the increase in response rates barely justifies the money spent on them.

7. Good fundraisers give donors opportunities to give whatever amount they chose be it £2,000 or £20. A fundraising appeal is in essence an invitation to participate in making a difference in the world through a particular charity’s programmes or activities. That is why fundraising appeals should contain opportunities for different types of donors to give at the level they chose.

Successful fundraising programmes contain different types of appeals for different segments of the database asking for varying amounts of support rather than one size fits all!

8. Emergency relief appeals are likely to generate more income than appeals for ongoing programmes or for general funds. This is understandable since the emergency appeals have an element of urgent response and are often responses to disasters, etc. However, regular giving appeals or annual membership renewal programmes have higher retention rates and contribute towards creating higher donor lifetime value.

Here is a challenge for charities involved in emergency relief work that they need to invest in increasing the number of people giving regularly to their work rather so that they can retain their donors for the long term.

9. Few donors who join a regular giving programme are likely to upgrade their gifts after a period of time. Data from your charity’s database is likely to confirm this trend – and show that further mailings to these donors to increase their giving are not likely to produce high response rates.

However, the good news is that those donors who increase their giving help offset the loss from donors who stop giving or decrease their support.

If most donors are not likely to increase their giving then it is important to ensure that your regular giving programme invites them to donate adequate amounts rather than the smallest amounts possible.

10. If you are mailing less then 10,000 contacts testing different variations of appeal packages using random segments is not likely to produce statistically valid differences in response rates.

This does not mean that you should not segment your database and use different types of appeals with different donor segments. What we are saying is that if your database contains less than 10,000 contacts you should not spend time or money unnecessary to test for example the size or colour of the outer envelope of a package with a relatively small random sample.

However, if your charity mails more than 10,000 at any given time then testing variations of fundraising packages with random samples of the database is likely to produce statistically valid results, help you reduce costs and increase the effectiveness of your fundraising appeals.

The Twitter effect: good news and bad news!

How do you feel about Twittering? What is your view on the explosion of this microblogging tool? Is it overhyped? Underused by charities? Is Twittering a good thing or a nuisance?

According to a recent article in the e-Marketer Daily over 12 million Americans will be Twittering in the US in 2009. Apparently this figure will be nearly twice the number of Twitter users in the US in 2008 and probably the UK is showing similar signs of growth in Twitter usage.

So, one thing is for sure that Twittering is a big thing right now. Where is the good news in this for charities that want to use social media to engage with new constituencies?

Well, the good news according to comScore Media Metrix is that the Twitter usage growth is being driven by the 25- 54 year olds. Yes, you heard it right... it is apparently the grown ups who are comfortable with techology who are Twittering away to their friends. Especially, the 45 - 54 year olds who are more likely to use Twitter than other age groups.

Interestingly enough, this is also one of those demographic segments who are likely to support charitable work and volunteer their time and expertise. So if you are looking to engage with more people of this age group - you need to start thinking about Twittering away on behalf of your charity.

The bad news - well according to recent data from Nielsen Online the bad news is that Twitter's retention rate is only 40%. In other words, more than 60% of Twitter users fail to return to the blog in the next month.

The Twitter site can not tell you when your blogs followers have signed off or how many of them have walked away so when you have their attention you must do all you can to direct traffic to your charity's website or find a creative way to hold their interest for a longer time.

Will Twitter fade away when the next hot thing comes along or will it continue to be a powerful marketing tool for relating to unique audiences? -

Who knows, only time will tell.... but for now, why not make the most of this free social media tool for getting the message about your charity out and for raising awareness and financial support