Appealing or Appalling?

1

Fund-Raising Letters:

presented by:

Linda AngérThe Write Concept, Inc.

•President of The Write Concept, Inc. since March 2000

•Client list includes: Crittenton Hospital Medical Center, Rochester Area Neighborhood House, DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Golson Books Ltd.

•Member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, the National Association of Career Women, and Motor City Connect

Linda C. Angér

Program Objectives

Introduce Essential Elements

• Change Your Perspective

What’s on the Menu?

A new definition of Fundraising

Interactive Exercises

Essential Elements

Questions and Answers

•Introduce Yourself

•Name & Organization

•Why are you here?

•One thing you hope to learn in this session

First: About YOU

Marketing

Fund-Raising or Marketing?

Fundraising

is the process of attracting, getting and keeping customers for the long term.

is the process of attracting, getting and keeping donors for the long term.

People TOMA Retention

Revenues are secondary!

Choose Your CharityToday you will make several fundraising choices for a fictitious non-profit. The exercises will:

Take you out of your comfort zone

Demonstrate basic best practices

Ignite your creativity

Change your perspective

Insanity is doing the same thing over & over, expecting different results. (Albert Einstein)

Choose Your Charity

GROG IT

Pair Up / Table Up for the exercises

•Which GROG do you represent?

•Who does GROG help, and why?

The Message

5Essential Elements

The ApproachThe Method

The ResponderThe Close

The MessageThe primary purpose of a fundraising letter is to:

I should be willing to repeatedly support your cause because... ?

Raising revenue is secondary

Give me ONE good reason. This will be the underlying theme of your letter.

Attract and retain donors

A Few Tips

Color Attracts and Sells

Tell them what to give

Tell a compelling story right away

The profit-killing equation

Meet them on their turf

The Profit-Killing Equation

Benefits of the benefits

Benefits of their dollars to the people you help

• education

• health care

• legal assistance

• transportation

• strong workforce

• more taxpayers

• safer streets

• insurance rates

Inability to specify benefits = lower return

Color Sells

Colorful Content:Colorful Elements:

• Headlines

• Subhead

• Photos

• Borders

• image-inducing

• emotion-inducing

Tell a StoryThe Rule of Statistical Deficiency:

Warm-blooded stories draw a stronger response than cold-blooded statistics.

If you must use statistics, combine them with visuals.

EXAMPLE:In 2006, Neighborhood House used your donations to distribute 240,000 pounds of food – equal to the weight of 24 full-grown elephants.

Meet Them on Their Turf

Will your in-terms grab them enough to pick up their phone or click through your website?

Use the language of the people you wish to attract, not your industry lingo.

Tell Them What to Give

Golf Outing Lessons: $10,000 Gold Sponsor (you get...)$ 5,000 Silver Sponsor (you get...)......$ 165 Individual Golfer (round, cart, lunch)

GROG IT• I should be willing to continually support

GROG because...?• Create one benefit, the benfit of the

benefit, & a preliminary message for each

The MethodThe success of your efforts depends on the quality of your list!

Mind Map

The Methods of Delivery impact:Size, Configuration, Colors, Layout, and Cost.Work this out early!

This Leads to this:

This Leads to this:

GROG ITPair Up / Table Up•Choose your method of delivery•Draw a rough draft of your layout

The ApproachThe Six Great Motivators

ExclusivityFear

GreedGuilt

Need for Approval Ego Gratification

At First Glance:

HEADLINES

The headline has only one purpose...

5X

80/20

To compel the reader to go on to the first sentence.

Your Headline must achieve 5 things:

• Be less than 17 words

• Be believable and colorful

• Trigger an emotional response

• Override the “So What?” Factor

• Push the reader to the first sentence of the letter

80/20

At First Glance:

HEADLINES

For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Used.

GROG ITPair Up / Table Up•Choose two “Motivators,” and create a basic message for each•Create a headline for each

Done before everyone else? Write the first paragraph of your letter!

Motivators: Fear, Exclusivity, Guilt, Greed, Need for Approval, Ego Gratification

The Close

And, In the End...

Bring all the elements of your letter together in a summary, and ask for the donation. The Close must:Be strongly emotiveLead the donor directly to the response device

The Response DeviceClearly laid out, easy to follow, with “fill in” spaces that are large enough for long addresses.Restate your promise - what the donor will get as a result of giving to your cause.Don’t ask for more personal information than the donor is likely to consider “need to know” details.

a partial list of

What We’ve Left Out

• Why you should never use the same copy online as you do in print

• Font Fatalities: The psychology of font selection and why it can make or break the effectiveness of your appeal

• Marketing to a culturally diverse audience

• Premiums, freemiums, and thank you’s

• Why casual writing is more powerful than formal writing

• Why envelope size, color and tag lines are critical

• List-Building

• Testing

What did you learn today?

What questions are unanswered??Questions and Answers

Thank You For Being Here!

Linda C. AngérPresident, The Write Concept, Inc. www.TheWriteConcept,.com direct line 248-276-2429Linda@TheWriteConcept.com