Jeff Brooks, a guy who blogs on fundraising contributed the article below to the blog “Future Fundraising Now.” However I believe the message has wider application to anybody in business writing to convince people to buy.
“Does your fundraising look too good? Authentic fundraising beats smoothly professional corporate-looking fundraising every time. It seems donors would rather support something real than something beautiful.
Instead of fancy-pants symbolism and high-end design, donors respond to messages that are odd, home-made, very specific, and sometimes containing the unexpected.
Among people experienced in direct mail fundraising, it’s kind of a joke that often it’s the mail pieces with printing errors or terrible photography that actually raise the most money. I wonder if part of the reason is that they look authentic, gritty, and stand out in the sea of lookalike fundraising.
I don’t think I can openly advise you to make mistakes on purpose, but I can advise you to make your stuff look more real than slick. And to write in a colloquial, simple, clear style, not a heightened academic or literary one.
It always works better. Remember, the purpose is to motivate donors to action, not to pad your portfolio or win awards.”
It’s something I’ve always believed… that you write in the vernacular, you write like the language is “spoken” by your target audience. So, don’t worry that your old English teacher would roll over in his or her grave… write it just like you are talking to them.
The best praise I get is when someone reads my stuff and says, “It’s like you were talking to me!”
Recent Comments