Direct Mail Fundraising Letters: Your Competitor is American Idol.

The bereaved mother who became a figurehead for the US anti-war movement abandoned her fight in May 2007 after growing disenchanted with the campaign.

Here is an advocate and fundraiser who literally gave all that she had for her cause. After her son, Casey, was killed in the war in Iraq, she set up a protest camp outside the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. All the money from the survivor’s benefits paid for her son’s death, and everything she earned from speaking and book fees, she spent on her cause. “I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times.”

Cindy became the “postergirl” for the US anti-war movement. But now she has quit. And here’s why.

“Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives,” she said.

There you have it, your challenge in raising funds and raising awareness for your cause through the mail. Many donors care more about American Idol than they do about your mission. Your challenge as a direct mail fundraiser is to craft fundraising letters that are so creative, so dramatic, and so compelling, that your donors give you their undivided attention (and their undesignated donations).

Your donor has never been more busy and more distracted than she is today. Five-hundred channels on the TV remote. One-hundred million videos viewed on YouTube each day. Around three-thousand marketing messages a day.

Advertisers are working hard to get your donor’s attention. So are the TV networks. Which means you need to stand out and be different from more than just the other charities in your sector. Your largest competitor is American Idol.

I have no sympathy for the families of American Idol contestants who lost. Sorry, but the show is vulgar and vain. But I have great sympathy for the families of soldiers who died in Iraq in a senseless war, since all wars are senseless. And I have great sympathy for Cindy Sheehan. She lost her battle, and her war.

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