Three Risks You Should Never Take. And Three You Should

Fundraising is risky business. Anytime time you ask someone to give you money in return for nothing more than a good feeling, you're in chancy waters. But some risks make more sense than others. For example, don't take these risks

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Writing before you spec
Direct-mail appeals are not essays. Every page and component costs money, and thus, has an expected ROI. So before you write your first word, lay out the whole package in your mind: sizes, colors, inserts, perfs, every detail. You'll find that establishing your framework in advance will actually help you write more effectively.

As ace copywriter Judith Warrington says, "You can always spot direct-mail writers. Whenever someone proposes a new idea, the first thing they do is start folding pieces of paper." Just jumping into the copy with no parameters is, to paraphrase Robert Frost, like playing tennis without a net.

Trusting your gut
Feel free to ignore this advice if you've written successful fundraising copy for a decade or more. If you have, then your instincts have probably been retrained by thousands of experiences. This is how Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule works. (If you're not familiar with it, see here. 

If you haven't though, your instincts will let you down.

Donors and prospects see the world — and themselves — very differently than we tend to think they do. And we almost always tend to oversimplify people's complicated and contradictory motivations. Or worse, we assume they'll react and respond he way we would. They won't.

If you're wondering why this rule focuses on direct mail, it's because the third risk you should never take is:

Putting all your eggs in one e-basket
If you judge by the amount of attention paid to them by fundraising pundits, you'll think e-marketing, and especially social media, completely dominate the fundraising landscape. But if you go by actual results, stodgy old direct mail (and annoying old telemarketing) still beat the flashier new media by a better than 4-to-1 ratio... even with the higher upfront cost.

There's no question that engagement and brand extension are critical. And there's little question that one of these days e-fundraising will be achieve predominance. But it's not going to be anytime soon.

Meanwhile, organizations and programs and services that change the world run on money. And direct mail still brings in 80 percent of it.

However, there are some risks you should take. Like these…

Write long
In advertising, brevity is the soul of branding. In direct marketing, though, that's not necessarily the case. There's a tendency to look at a four- or five-page letter and say, "No one's going to read all that." But that's not really the issue (see the first "Don't" above). The truth is that readers don't spend that much time reading the letter. They're more likely to glance at the opening and P.S., then scan for highlights or emotional words that jump out at them.

So sometimes a four- or five-page letter can help build credibility just by making the reader feel you have that much to say. This can be especially true in advocacy writing because you can go into lengthy and emotional descriptions of all the outrages your organization's opponents are committing.

Or, write short
And I mean, real short. A package that's served some clients well, especially in disaster relief and human services, is the 3-1/2" letter. Here, the 3-1/2" x 8-1/2" reply device at the top is attached to a letter of exactly the same size.

 In this format it can take a very long time to craft the copy, because every word has to do some heavy lifting. But if it's done right, three or four concise sentences can convey tremendous urgency.

Dance the "formula shuffle"
The structural elements of a typical fundraising acquisition or appeal letter are tried and true. Usually. But there are plenty of exceptions. So, to keep complacency at bay, try shifting the elements around. It might make more difference than you expect. 

For example, we mail one control package that violates the cardinal rule of placing the ask prominently on page one of the letter. This one buries it near the bottom of page two. Yet it's been a control for years. We've also seen good results in certain premium packages that don't even mention the premium in the letter, just on an insert.

One note on risk-taking: They're called risks for a reason, so don't just say, "Oh that sounds interesting, let's mail that." Test everything!