Category Archives: Newsletters, donor
Five Indisputable Laws of Direct Mail Donor Acquisition
I am not a prophet, I am not the son of a prophet, but I do serve on the board of a non-profit. And I’ve discovered through the years that charities who succeed at acquiring donors through the mail obey … 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
The One Question Your Donor Newsletter Must Answer
Your donors expect something from your donor newsletter that they don’t expect from their daily newspaper or cable news show. Yes, your supporters read your newsletter and the newspaper to discover what’s new, what’s going on, what’s current. They read … Continue reading
Is Your Fundraising Copy Silly? Take this Test and Find Out
Do you consider yourself a comic? Your donors might. If you are at all typical, you have let these two silly words steal their way into your copy, rendering it ridiculous. But take out your scissors, remove these offending articles, … Continue reading
Good Donor Newsletter Photos Arouse Curiosity
A good photograph in a donor newsletter arouses curiosity. If you have a photo of your Executive Director receiving an oversized check from the local Rotary President, that photo will not arouse curiosity. It will stimulate a yawn in many … Continue reading
Use Your Donor Newsletter to Acquire Donors
Your donor newsletter doesn’t have to be something that you mail to people after they give you a donation. If your newsletter, business model and board of directors allow it, you can use your newsletter as a way to acquire … Continue reading
Your Donor Newsletter Has Just One Reader
When you write your donor newsletter stories, do you write to one reader at a time? One person writing to another? Or do you make the common newsletter mistake of writing from “us” to “them?” Direct mail donors are individuals. … Continue reading
Donor Newsletters: Show the Person Behind the Story, and the Story Behind the Person
The quickest way to improve your donor newsletters is to start seeing your world in story form. Behind every person there is a story. And behind every story there is a person. Your job is to uncover both. Your donors … Continue reading
Boost Donor Newsletter Readership with Great Photos
Your fundraising newsletter will attract more readers, raise more funds and retain more donors when you publish outstanding photographs. Photographs are the most important images you can feature in your donor newsletter. Good photos make your newsletter pages more interesting. … 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
Donor Newsletters: Four Things Your Donors Demand from You
Back in the 1990s, I worked for a non-profit organization that mailed a multi-page, full-colour newsletter to around 14,000 people each month, at a cost of around $0.50 a piece. The majority of people who received the newsletter had never … Continue reading
In Donor Newsletters, Avoid Cliché Photos
If you want to guarantee that your donors will ignore your newsletters, illustrate your stories with cliché photos. Here are the top four: —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe … Continue reading
Donor Newsletters Must Avoid Boring Stories in Direct Mail Fundraising
One day one of the greatest bores at the Player’s Club said to Oliver Herford, “Oliver, I have been grossly insulted. Just as I passed that group over there I overheard someone say he would give me fifty dollars to … Continue reading
Donor Newsletters Must be Newsworthy in Direct Mail Fundraising
The secret to publishing compelling donor newsletters is to only publish stories that are newsworthy to your donors. But how do you decide if a story is newsworthy? Take this simple test. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this … Continue reading
In Donor Newsletters, Put Captions Under Photos to Boost Readership
A picture is never worth a thousand words. After all, why do newspapers and websites contain more words than images? Because pictures are insufficient on their own. Would you date someone whose nice photo you saw online, if that’s all … Continue reading
Three Donor Newsletter Mistakes to Avoid.
Every healthy direct mail fundraising program balances asking with informing. Appeal letters do the asking. And donor newsletters do the informing. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here … Continue reading
Boost Email Donor Newsletter Open Rates with Safe Subject Lines.
The last time I checked, which is to say, yesterday, the average open rate for an email donor newsletter was 37%. That means 63 percent of donors are not opening the email newsletters they’ve asked to receive. —————————————————————- Receive a … Continue reading
Email Donor Newsletters: Improve Your Open Rates for Online Fundraising and Donation Success
One of the greatest challenges in email fundraising is poor open rates. The majority of donors who subscribe to email donor newsletters receive them but never open them. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. … Continue reading
Donor Newsletters Boost Direct Mail Donations Without Asking For Donations.
I have a client whose direct mail fundraising program is in trouble. I think you can profit from his predicament. I know he is going to. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up … Continue reading
Donor-Centered Newsletter Stories Increase Income, Boost Donor Loyalty.
Your donors read your donor newsletter to discover news about themselves. You are of secondary interest. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse Alan’s books, handbooks and … Continue reading
