Creative

In the July 2008 issue of FundRaising Success, Katya Andresen, then with Network for Good and now CEO at ePals, spoke with Kivi Leroux Miller, president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide, about how to take nonprofit and fundraising newsletters "From Snoring to Soaring."

Here are a few things in fundraising I see that (it seems to me) started out as optimism but are now sliding swiftly down the slope toward stupidity. If you identify with any of them, try to throw yourself in their paths and stop the looming disaster before it’s too late.

What’s the factor that will have more impact on the success of your fundraising campaigns than anything else? It's not your brand. It's not your campaign creative. And it's not your budget either. So, what is it then — this secret ingredient for success?

It’s what marketers call "the audience": the donors and potential donors that contribute from their own pockets to help your charity achieve its mission. Or, putting it another way: People.

I gave a workshop on newsletters. People from Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, Minn., attended. Their donor newsletter, mailed quarterly to 20,000 people at that point, racked up an annual net loss of $40,000. Was there a better way, they wondered?

Something amazing happened post-workshop: Giving to Gillette's newsletter increased 1,000 percent (not a misprint), after a few changes.

The old way, the foundation received about $5,000 in gifts per issue.

The new way, the foundation received about $50,000 in gifts per issue.

Kivi Leroux Miller, author of "Content Marketing for Nonprofits," discusses her book. She will present on content marketing at the second annual FundRaising Success Engage Conference.

If creating compelling content can help you make the case for giving and hold the attention of supporters, exactly how do you come up with the best stuff for your nonprofit? Creating content for content’s sake won’t do much for your cause and may have a negative effect when done poorly. A lot goes into making and effectively distributing quality content, but ideally your nonprofit content should be URGENT: useful, relevant, genuine, edited, necessary and tested.

What makes a good fundraising story? Like a good movie, it’s not the challenge or threat, or the vision and end goal that provide the excitement, though they are essential ingredients. What provides the excitement is the journey; the tension of the underdog hero battling the villain and facing adversity; the uncertainty of not knowing if the hero will win; the emotional energy of wanting the hero to succeed. Even better, it’s the knowing that whether the hero wins or not is down to you.

Here’s a very smart, efficient way to present your fundraising appeal. It's called the "MPI" formula: how much money you want to raise, what project it will fund and what impact it will make. The formula works because it makes you define a concrete goal: Define the money (M) you seek. Define your project (P). Define the impact (I) it will make.

One of the hardest parts of fundraising copywriting is that, to be truly effective, you have to be a genuine advocate for your client or organization. That means you have to genuinely feel what you want your readers to feel.

Remember that you're sending engagement communications to donors. Your most important job is to keep them motivated to donate.