Too Much Collaboration Is Killing Your Fundraising Appeals

You know what they say: “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” 

Despite the obvious truth in this saying — a truth we’ve probably all seen for ourselves — the idea persists that collaboration is necessary for concepting and creating fundraising appeals. 

Nonsense. 

There’s this wrong-headed belief that through all this collaboration the best idea will float to the top. That rarely happens. More often, instead of soaring to new heights of brilliance, you’re likely to end up with an appeal that simply skims along with the status quo, because that’s the only thing everyone can agree on. We’ve all been there.

In the concept meeting, nobody wants to speak up and suggest something out of the box for fear that everyone else will snicker and give a sideways look. So you just nod when everyone else seems to be nodding. 

Then, once the appeal reaches the proof stage, the committee really gets to work. The revisions are everywhere until everyone from the account manager to the proofreader to the receptionist has weighed in and marked up the proof:

• “This photo is weird — I don’t like it.” 
• “Let’s say ‘provide vaccines’ here instead of ‘send vaccines.’” 
• “Don’t use contractions.” 
• “The client won’t like this paragraph.” 
• “This doesn’t sound like the executive director.” 

The predictable result? Mush. 

The appeal gets worked over so thoroughly that any energy or personality it may have had is gone. In an attempt to make the appeal acceptable to everyone, it ends up speaking to no one.

When Collaboration Goes Too Far

But sometimes, collaboration has the opposite effect. Sometimes, instead of everyone ripping an appeal apart, a kind of groupthink takes over until you end up with something that completely misses the mark. 

This nonprofit, which published an inspirational newsletter, wanted a fundraising appeal to persuade donors to give so the organization could distribute the newsletter to hospitals, churches, and other similar organizations. 

The team wanted to create something really good. So naturally they convened a meeting. With a crowd sitting around the conference table, they brainstormed. Ideas were bing-banging all over the place. And the concept produced from all this collaboration sure seemed creative. 

It was this: Create a faux issue of the newsletter, complete with handwriting, doodles, coffee mug rings, and dog ears. And inside that faux issue would be the letter exhorting donors to give so the organization could distribute newsletters for people to read — much like the sample they were holding in their hands. Brilliant!

Except when donors received it, they were either baffled by what they saw, or they thought that the whole thing was too cute by half. Clearly, the teamwork didn’t work. They got so caught up in their own ideas that they failed to realize one vital point: cleverness isn’t creativity. 

And neither is complexity. Instead of making the appeal more powerful by simplifying it, they made it weaker by overcomplicating it. 

How to Manage Fundraising Appeal Collaboration

So, if collaboration isn’t the answer, what is?

1. Start with a clear fundraising strategy. Detail the audience, the media, the offer, and the problem to be solved. “We need an appeal for January” is not a strategy. That’s mush.
2. Assign specific and limited ownership of the project. This would ideally be one person in charge of the creative, or a creative team consisting of a writer and designer, and another person acting as a decision-maker. That’s it. 
3. Review the appeal. Once the appeal is created, the project owners appraise it honestly, with one question in mind: Is this appeal on strategy or off strategy?
4. Limit critiques. Of course, it never hurts to get a gut-check from a few others. But they have to be the right ones. They have to understand fully what the strategy is for the appeal. And they have to know how to give worthwhile feedback. This is important. 

By restricting the review to people who know how to critique, you avoid nonsense comments like “I don’t like this,” or “Use another word here,” or “This photo looks like my brother-in-law.” Feedback like that is useless. It serves only to make the appeal different but not better.

What you want is feedback that actually makes the appeal better. That’s feedback like, “The call to action here lacks a specific donor benefit,” or “The problem to be solved by the donor isn’t explained fully,” or “The tension in the beneficiary story is lost in the third paragraph.” But again, this isn’t everyone and their brother weighing in. It’s one or two others who know how fundraising appeals work.

By keeping the creative process tighter like this, you’re less likely to produce a fundraising appeal that simply follows what’s expected and reinforces the status quo. And you’re far more likely to produce an appeal with a unique approach that has the power to break through and really connect with donors.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.