Category Archives: Asks
Answer the Only Question Donors Have and You’ll Raise More Money Fundraising
Your donors have only one question that bothers them. If you want to acquire more donors, you have to answer it. If you want to raise more net revenue, you need to answer it. And if you want to increase … Continue reading
Give Your Donors What They Want so You Get What You Want
Thank your donors promptly and personally every time they mail you a gift. Describe how you are using the donor’s last gift the way the donor intended. The majority of long-term, faithful donors give to make a difference, and many … Continue reading
Boost Your Fundraising Letter Response Rates and Revenue with Five Simple Segmentations
I was 44 years old, about to adopt my second child, and was sitting in my lawyer’s office, looking over his updated draft of my will. Everything looked fine except for one small mistake. Throughout the document, he referred to … Continue reading
How to Get a Second Gift from a New Direct Mail Donor
If your charity is at all typical, you will lose 65% of the donors you acquire by direct mail in the first year alone. In other words, only 35% of the donors you acquire through direct mail will give you … Continue reading
Twenty Postal Strike Survival Tips for Charities and Non-Profits
What should you do if your charity raises money through the mail but your country’s postal workers are about to strike, or are already on strike? Naturally, you’re troubled. Most charities in Canada that are not places of worship raise … Continue reading
Fundraising Letters: Casanova Never Mailed One Love Letter a Year, So Neither Should You
The worst thing you can do in direct mail fundraising is mail only one appeal a year. Direct mail is part of your annual campaign, yes. But that doesn’t mean you should mail only one fundraising letter every 12 months. … Continue reading
Should a Donation Thank-You Letter Ever Ask for a Donation?
I got a big surprise the day I closed my direct mail fundraising consultancy and started working for a national charity. I discovered that my new employer used its gift acknowledgement letters as a way to raise funds. With every … Continue reading
Top Five Ingredients of a Successful Fundraising Letter
Direct mail fundraising will be harder in 2011. Postage rates are increasing. Attention spans are decreasing. And discretionary income, which is to say, the money your donors use to support their favourite causes, is tighter. So, if you want to … Continue reading
Four Steps to Better Donation Letter Reply Devices
Successful direct mail donation letters contain three things: a compelling case for support, a request for funds (the “ask”), and a response device. The case is the Incentive. The ask is the Imperative. And the response device is the Instrument. —————————————————————- Receive … Continue reading
Don’t Ask for a Gift in Direct Mail Fundraising Letters
My wife can still remember the name of her math teacher from grade four. You know why? Because he, um, paused every few words, and ah, ahhhhh, you know, ahh, added an ahh to what he was saying, ah, so … Continue reading
Christmas Fundraising Letters: Make Your Appeal Original but Contemporary
If your non-profit organization is typical, your direct mail program raises 50 percent of its revenue with one mailing-the Christmas appeal. More people give more money to the “Holiday Season” letter than they give to any other single mailing all … Continue reading
In Fundraising Letters, Use Present Tense
If you want your fundraising letters to sound more vigorous, get tense. The present tense, that is. Listen to the sports news on the radio and you’ll hear the announcer saying, “tomorrow the Atlanta Falcons take on the Minnesota Vikings.” … Continue reading
Direct Mail Donor Acquisition: How to Ask for the Right Amount
My wife and I listed our house for sale last Monday and sold it on Wednesday. The buyer offered us a few hundred dollars more than our asking price, so we accepted. But we have lingering doubts. Maybe you would, … Continue reading
Look for Connection, Not Cash, in Prospective Direct Mail Donors
I received an email the other day that reads as follows: –letter starts– Hello Mr. Raiser, My name is _______. I work for a non profit organization, the ____________. We are in a season of taking the ministry international and … Continue reading
41 Things You Can Mail to Donors in Direct Mail Fundraising
Want to learn a lesson in direct mail fundraising from Winston Churchill? He once observed that a fanatic is “someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” A fundraising letter fanatic, of course, is someone who thinks … Continue reading
Boost Your Direct Mail Fundraising Response Rates with Deadlines
Why did the Canadian cross the road? To get to the middle. Your job as a direct mail fundraiser is to give your donors both a reason for donating and an incentive for donating. Your enemy is inertia. Your enemy … Continue reading
Millionaires Are Generous Donors if Asked Properly
I was pontificating with my wife, Ruth, the other day, explaining that fundraisers have no control over one of the Big Cs of fundraising. “Ideal donors,” I announced, “have the Capacity to give, have a strong Connection with the charity, … Continue reading
Appealing Fundraising Letters Request More than Donations.
The last thing you should ask for in a fundraising letter is a donation. You have no business asking for money until you have first persuaded your donor that you deserve her attention, value her time, appreciate her as a … Continue reading
Increase Average Fundraising Gift By Segmenting Your Donor List.
How many of your current donors would give you a larger gift if you only knew how to ask them? Quite a few, quite likely. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for … Continue reading
How to Increase the Size of Donor Gifts with Fundraising Letters.
Do you want your donors to give more, do you want them to give more often, or do you want more of your donors to give?If your answer is “all of the above,” here are some tested ways to increase … Continue reading
Your Fundraising Appeal Letters Need a Villain.
Anger is one of the best emotions that you can arouse in a donor. Anger is a healthy emotion, particularly when your fundraising letter offers donors a way to assuage their anger. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this … Continue reading
