Three Things Your Donor Doesn’t Give a Hoot About
Yes, celebrity endorsements can be effective, but star power used for its own sake will, at best, elicit a resigned ho-hum from your donor. If you’re not mighty careful, your donor will see it for what it most likely is: a manipulative attempt at name-dropping. And name-dropping is gauche.
Even worse, it can come back to bite you in some very unpleasant ways. Consider this close call: One high-profile human-services organization, casting about among its celebrity friends to find a spokesperson, was just about to recruit a well-known supermodel to be one of its public faces.
Willis Turner believes great writing has the power to change minds, save lives, and make people want to dance and sing. Willis is the creative director at Huntsinger & Jeffer. He worked as a lead writer and creative director in the traditional advertising world for more than 15 years before making the switch to fundraising 20 years ago. In his work with nonprofit organizations and associations, he has written thousands of appeals, renewals and acquisition communications for every medium. He creates direct-response campaigns, and collateral communications materials that get attention, tell powerful stories and persuade people to take action or make a donation.