Published on Aug 10
Many people write a newsletter article the way they would give a speech— by starting with the background. It works for a speech because people are in their seats and have made a commitment to hear you out. However, the technique doesn’t translate to writing. Your audience has made no commitment. Instead, the reader is [...] [...more]
Many people write a newsletter article the way they would give a speech— by starting with the background. It works for a speech because people are in their seats and have made a commitment to hear you out. However, the technique doesn’t translate to writing. Your audience has made no commitment. Instead, the reader is performing a test: Is this article worth reading? Should I invest any more time? Your audience performs that test over and over as they go through your article and newsletter. If the headline and the first few words catch their interest, you’ve passed the first test and they’ll keep reading. If the rest of the first sentence delivers, they’ll keep reading. They keep testing and reading, testing and reading, until they either finish the article or they stop reading. If they stop reading, it’s not necessarily a failure on your part. Not every article will pertain to them; for example, you might be writing about an event that’s happening on a day when they already had plans. But if you structure your article correctly, you have done that reader a service because the reader was able to discover early in the article that he or she could move on to an article that is more pertinent. As we said in the headline, say the most important thing first.
Posted Under Appeal Letters, Fundraising, Increasing Donations, Newsletters, Writing for Fundraising |
Published on Aug 03
When we write an appeal letter or newsletter, we “put a face on the problem” by telling an emotional, compelling story of a person who was helped by the nonprofit’s services. (See example.) We were shocked to hear that most fundraisers don’t do that. Frank C. Dickerson, Ph.D., was shocked, too. He wrote “The Way [...] [...more]
When we write an appeal letter or newsletter, we “put a face on the problem” by telling an emotional, compelling story of a person who was helped by the nonprofit’s services. (See example.) We were shocked to hear that most fundraisers don’t do that. Frank C. Dickerson, Ph.D., was shocked, too. He wrote “The Way We Write is All Wrong: A Profile of and Prescription for Fixing The Broken Discourse of Fund Raising” during his doctoral studies at The Peter Drucker School of Management and The Claremont Graduate University. Dickerson did a computer-based analysis of the language in 2,412 online and direct mail fundraising documents from 880 elite charities. These should have been examples of the very best story telling, but he found that the prose focused on transferring information rather than creating interpersonal involvement. When he surveyed fundraising executives, they said it was important to have emotional storytelling in their appeals, but the computer analysis found they didn’t actually do it. “The root of the disparity is that we all tend to take writing for granted,” Dickerson wrote. “We all can write. And we all think we can write well. Yet the evidence of linguistics analysis refutes this assumption.” He advises that fundraisers should not shy away from emotion, they should tell stories and they should not over-edit and formalize texts. You can read the whole paper—written purposely in friendly prose rather than in impenetrable academic style, at http://www.thewrittenvoice.org. Make sure you’re one of the rare fundraisers who writes emotional, compelling appeal letters, or find a writer who can do it for you.
Posted Under Appeal Letters, Direct Mail Lists, Fundraising, Increasing Donations, Writing for Fundraising |
