Creative

One challenge that nonprofit organizations face is that people aren't responding to their messages. When creating content, remember the four C's — clear, concise, conversational and compelling. Besides being well-written, your messages need to be easy to read and navigate. Use short paragraphs with lots of white space and at least a 12-point font. If your e-mail message or Web page is a cluttered mess with tiny type, your supporters are less likely to read it. Here is more on creating good content.

In his October 2009 Easier Said Than Done column, Jeff Brooks taught us "The Magic Words of Fundraising" and provided what could be the single most effective fundraising letter template ever written.

What do high-performing appeals and Harry Potter have in common? And, in both cases, what makes donors give and readers buy even when they’re going through a rough financial patch? The answer? Creative writing principles that will grab your readers’ attention and keep them reading. The principles that make novels like Harry Potter phenomenally successful and that sell millions apply to fundraising appeals as well.

Effective fundraisers are storytellers, no matter what the platform. And fundraisers should "leave the story better than you found it." What a high calling for us as fundraising professionals and the donors and volunteers we are privileged to work with.

Here’s a curious little study — Post-it Note Persuasion: A Sticky Influence — forwarded to The Agitator by reader Tina Cincotti. In this research project, participants were sent a survey packet and asked to complete the survey. Some packets included an affixed personalized Post-it note. Some packets had no note or other variations. Those receiving the personalized Post-it note on their packet had significantly higher return rates, and returned their surveys more promptly with higher quality responses.

Repurposing is an essential part of a manageable communications plan, because it allows you to get more mileage out of your writing, while reinforcing your key messages with your readers. Here are seven easy ways to repurpose your content: 1. make short pieces longer; 2. make long pieces shorter; 3. change the lead; 4. round it up; 5. integrate the comments; 6. add your opinion; 7. recast it.

A nonprofit that my husband and I both love totally screwed up its recent annual report donor list, in at least three ways I saw, and odds are, many more. By insisting on using the too-formal and very outdated Mr. and Mrs. listing, because it supposedly confers more respect on donors, it instead has done two downright awful things: 1. Wrongly guessed the gender of some of its most loyal supporters; 2. Alienated couples who consider themselves a marriage of equals. How respectful is that?

Every piece of content you create should have a marketing plan to support it. Why invest in something if you don’t have a plan for how you are going to reap benefit from such? Below are 16 golden rules for content marketing. I could write a much longer list of these. However, to keep things simple, we’ll stick to short and simple for now.

In the November 2010 issue, fundraising copywriter and creative consultant Kimberly Seville wrote in her DM Diagnosis article, "If your letter signer has a unique 'voice,' use that to enliven your direct mail."

No matter the communication channel, donors must be interested in the messages fundraisers send. In July 2008, FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board member Katya Andresen, chief strategy officer at Network for Good, interviewed fellow FS Editorial Advisory Board member Kivi Leroux Miller, president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide, on how to take your newsletter "From Snoring to Soaring."