Confessions of a Fundraising Copywriter

I told her. She gave me her URL and sent an e-mail with her latest Web traffic logs. We agreed to meet at her office in a week.

I showed up at her organization's headquarters at our arranged day and time and was ushered into her office by the receptionist.

"Mr. Grant, how nice to finally meet you. You look just as Denise described you," she said as we shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, too. And if Denise had described you to me I might have shaved."

She gestured to one of her guest chairs as she made her way back around her desk, sat down and looked at me for a moment.

"Denise mentioned you had worked at several consumer advertising agencies in the past. I can see some of the scars. Is what you do dangerous?"

"Some risks come with being a word slinger," I said.

"What kind of risks? Do tell," she asked.

"Well, I've lost count of the number of sentences I've fractured. I've been hit by my share of dangling participles. Split a few infinitives. And I've been knocked out by several direct and indirect objects. I even lost my active voice for a while."

"Oh, my … and you still do it … why?"

"It's all I know. I guess I like staying in touch with the regular verbs. And it keeps my feet planted in concrete nouns … but enough about me. Let's talk about your website."

"OK. What did you find out?"

"Let's start with what I think is working. It's a nice, clean design. Great photos. You've kept the copy short, direct and on-topic with a strong mission statement and compelling case for giving, which means you've communicated very well who you are and why people should support you. And I bet you're also getting good search engine results."