George Crankovic

The debate has been raging for decades. Add a teaser to the outer envelope of your direct mail appeal. Or don’t. Which is better?

The better you know your donor, the better your appeal is going to be. That’s obvious. The problem is your donor is probably coming from a completely different experiential background. How do you get inside that person’s head?

When it comes to your fundraising, don’t be like Othello. He loved “not wisely.” You should do the opposite. Love your donors wisely. And you do that by mailing and emailing them not necessarily more but smarter. Here’s what to do.

Most donors have a built-in distrust of fundraising messages. It’s true partly because people tend to be skeptical of marketing in general and partly because donors are usually skeptical of nonprofits and how they’re run...

When did telling donors “you’re a hero!” become the go-to theme for fundraising of all kinds—for any type of appeal and for any charity? The hero theme gets used (actually, misused) again and again...

You’re sauntering down the street on a warm Saturday afternoon when you turn a corner and see a long line of people in front of a French bakery. Your first thought is, "What’s going on here?" You glance at all the people. You glance in the window. You think, "The pastry chef must be brilliant." Next thing you know, you’re standing in line too, eager to order a baguette, a brioche and a couple of chocolate croissants...

You might think infomercials are corny and campy. Maybe so. But they’re also gems of direct response. Let’s take a look at the role the demo plays in an infomercial, and then we’ll see how to apply it to fundraising.

You can use verbal images to make just about every part of your offer and your fundraising appeal more compelling for donors, keeping in mind that the images should be based in fact and not just made-up. A verbal image is an effective way to …

Here are three ways to make sure your fundraising appeal stays on-message for maximum impact and response.