Crafting an Annual Appeal to Maximize Your Revenue

Hey everyone, I'm Sarah Lange, and I'm here to spark the philanthropy revolution. The word "philanthropy" means love of mankind. My show is all about the ways we can revolutionize our fundraising so we can raise more money and do more good.

Hey everybody, happy Wednesday! Welcome to episode 35 of The Philanthropy Revolution. I'm so excited that we've put out 35 episodes. I'll be honest with you, when I started this broadcast back in April of last year, I thought I was gonna vomit. Wait, was it April of this year? I think it was April of this year. Anyway, whenever I started, I was so nervous. I swear I was gonna vomit on screen. So I'm really proud of myself that I've been chugging away for 35 episodes.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sarah Lange. I’m a professional fundraiser and troublemaker. I raise more money so you can do more good, and I absolutely love what I do. You know, I’ve been in the nonprofit sector since 1987. I’ve been doing fundraising since 1989. I’ve raised over $100 million and worked with more than 200 nonprofits in the United States—clearly very passionate, dedicated, and committed.

And why do I do this work? Well, when I was really little, I found arrowheads in my backyard—I was four. I grew up in an area formerly occupied by the Mohawks and the Iroquois Indians. My twin brother and I were digging up in the backyard—who knows, maybe looking for buried treasure—and we found these arrowheads. So I ran inside and asked my parents, "What are these things?" I have no idea what my dad said, but apparently, I got on a kitchen chair, jutted out my little four-year-old chin, and with my hands on my hips, started yelling at my parents about how it’s not okay that you took this house from the Indians. In my little four-year-old head, I thought they used to live in this house, and somehow, we had taken it from them. So I think I just came out of the womb this way—committed to a more just and equitable world, and I’m still at it. I’m going to be at it until the day I draw my last breath.

The reason I do this broadcast every other week is to help you raise more money so you can do more good and create more equity and justice in your corner of the world. Today, I want to talk about crafting an annual appeal that's going to maximize your revenue. We're working with a bunch of organizations on their annual appeals and follow-up campaigns right now, and I thought it’d be a really good time for those of you who might need a little help with yours as well.

So, the first thing I wanna tell you is that over 30% of all individual donations are made in December. That is a lot. There was over $557 billion given away in 2023, and if you think about a third of that—well, that’s a big fat chunk of money. More interestingly, in the last three days of the year, 12% of those donations come in. So again, lots of money is transferred to nonprofits in December, particularly in the last three days. This is why it's really important to not just write a letter and shove it in the mail or email and wait—you’ve gotta follow up, you’ve gotta remind people. We’ll talk about that.

The thing to remember is that we're operating in a super congested, competitive marketplace. There are 1.8 million nonprofits—this doesn’t include religious institutions—and 1.5 million of those are 501(c)(3)s. So, there's different categories of nonprofits, but most of you watching this broadcast are probably 501(c)(3)s, and there's 1.5 million in the United States—super congested market. 66.3% of those 1.5 million nonprofits have budgets under a million dollars. So, if you fall into this category, you know about role compression. You know you need probably 10 more people at your organization to get things done.

Another important fact is that 6% of nonprofits own 80% of all nonprofit assets. I don’t know if this surprises you, but when I first learned this fact, I was like, “What?” Until I started thinking about universities, hospitals, and other big mega-institutions that are considered nonprofits, and then I was like, “Okay, now I get it.” This means the rest of us are vying for 20% of the assets that are out there, which just makes the competition that much fiercer. But here's the good news—like I said, in 2023, more than $557 billion was donated to U.S. nonprofits. Yes, $557.16 billion, and this number has increased by billions—not millions, but billions—each of the last seven years.

While individual contributions are down at this moment, that doesn't mean your donors don’t want to support your cause. This is particularly true about boomers. That’s why it’s so important to send out a compelling year-end appeal and follow up with emails and social media posts. But before we dive into constructing a compelling appeal, let’s look at donor motivations.

Why do people give to your nonprofit instead of the one down the street? The first thing is that they have a passion for the cause or the issue. I'll give you an example. Both my cousin and I lost our moms to cancer. I will do everything for my friends with cancer. I’ll do their laundry, clean their house, babysit their kids, take them for the weekend, drive them to appointments—you name it, I will do it for you if you’re my friend and you have cancer. Because, oh my God, having lost my mom to cancer, I know what hell that can be, so I want to be there to support my friends during that time. But let me finish that thought—I don’t give to cancer causes. It's not that I don’t care about people with cancer; it just doesn’t resonate with me. Whereas with my cousin, she can’t do enough. People are wired differently—we all have different passions, and I’m sure that’s true for you as well. People want to do good in their community—that’s another reason they may contribute to your organization. They have a sense of obligation or were taught to.

The top two motivations are: they were asked (yes, it’s that easy), and your mission is in alignment with the world they want to see, right? There’s got to be that resonance with your donors. Now, that doesn’t mean somebody might not come to your gala, your golf tournament, or make a one-time contribution, but our goal is to engage people with a passion. They’re the ones who are going to go to the mat for our work.

Excuse me—go to the mat for our organization. Because the truth is, people act out of self-interest. This is just wired into us. Oh, hi Eva! So good to see you—not see you, but see you! I’m glad you’re here.

We are all hardwired to survive, right? And so, we will always act out of our own self-interest. And for those of you who are moms, you know that a lot of us can be very “mama bear” about our cubs, so we want to protect their self-interest too. But the truth is, agencies don’t have needs—yeah, I just said that. Of course, your organization has needs, but in the bigger picture, we have to remember that your clients are the ones with needs, and also, your donors have needs. So, your organization is simply the vehicle through which those donors can contribute to a cause they care about.

So, you may have heard me say this again, and I will say it again and again—please stop talking about the mattress. What do I mean by that? Think about when you’re shopping for a mattress. Obviously, you need to keep the size in mind, but at the end of the day, do you really care whether it’s a Sealy or a Serta or an Avocado or some other type of mattress? No. Do you care if it’s a pillow top or memory foam or some other kind of fancy mattress? No. Do we care if the coils are individually wrapped or not? No. What we really care about with a mattress is getting a good night’s sleep. At the end of the day, that’s all we care about—we want to get a good night’s sleep.

And it’s the same thing with your nonprofit. People don’t care about the mattress. They don’t care about how many staff you have, your board—yes, that’s all kind of nice to know, but what they really want to know is, what is the good night’s sleep you’re delivering? Maybe that’s getting a mom with two little kids out of the back of a car and into a warm shelter. Maybe it’s getting cats off the street and finding them forever homes, right? Whatever that good night’s sleep is, that’s what your donors want, and that’s what you need to focus on.

So, think about the good night’s sleep.

Hi Lynn! It’s OK that you’re late—you can watch the recording to catch up on what you missed.

What I’ve noticed is that in the nonprofit sector, we tend to spend way too much time focusing on our own needs and why our good work requires their donations, which is the mattress, right? Instead, we need to put our donors at the center and say things like, "Because of your gift, this thing was able to happen." "With your support, we can [fill in the blank]." Put them in the center of your story because they are the hero. That’s the good night’s sleep. Remember to give them the good night’s sleep and make sure you make them the hero.

When I talk about being donor-centric, I’m not talking about tending to the needs of your donors over those of your clients. It’s a three-part equation, with the client in the middle. So, there’s your organization with its services, the clients are here, and then the donors are here. You guys are wrapping them in a supportive sandwich or a hug.

A lot of us are under-investing in our individual donor program, yet it’s the most reliable source of income and provides us with the operating funds we need. We all have holes in our budgets, and operating money from our donors allows us to fill them. Individual giving outstrips other forms of giving nine to one. Nine to one! So, you can see where it’s an investment that’s worth making.

Sorry, I think the ragweed is getting to me.

Seven out of every ten people give to charity, and they give to upward of five organizations a year. So, we don’t have to train donors—they already know how to donate. They already know how to do those little envelopes or those QR codes, right? Or those little "Donate Here" buttons. We don’t have to train them—they’ve already got that part down. What we do need to do is convince them to support our cause, right?

So, 85% of the money given away in this country is done by families earning $75,000 or less. Per capita, moderate and lower-income people give away more of their income than the wealthy. We all think we’re supposed to find a way to connect to Bill and Melinda or Jeff—well, Mackenzie’s no longer part of his world—but anyway, we all think that we need to find sugar daddies and sugar mamas. And while I’m not against that, we need to remember that philanthropy is actually carried by regular people like you and me. So, $75,000 or less per year, and per capita, they’re giving away more of their income than the wealthy.

Who gets more than 30% of the giving pie? Well, that would be religious institutions. Yep, they are very good at getting money, right? They may preach that “money is the root of all evil,” but they are really good at raising it. So, we have some lessons we can learn. They ask, and they ask often—it’s part of the culture, right?

So, how do we emulate that at our nonprofits? They provide a range of giving options, and they make it so easy to give.

Sorry about that! I don’t know if you guys have been to religious organizations where they literally pass a basket or a plate in front of your face to collect donations. It does not get easier than that—you don’t even have to get up out of your seat, it’s just right there in front of you. And a donation of any size is valued. That’s really important, especially as boomers are moving out of the marketplace and younger folks, like Gen Z and Gen Y, are moving in. It’s important to think about how we value those smaller gifts because if we don’t cultivate and steward that crew, no one’s going to donate to us when the boomers literally age out of the donor pool.

We’ve got until 2035, and I’m going to do a whole workshop on building your farm team—that’ll be coming probably by the end of the month, maybe in November.

So, how does your organization score on these fronts? Do you ask? Do you ask often? Do you make it part of your culture, or do you have some “money stuff” that might need to be uprooted? I know this is going to sound funny, but when I first started fundraising, I was so nervous to ask people for money. So why did I get into the fundraising field? Well, I’ll tell you—it was completely by accident. It turned out that I was really good at talking to people, which I still am, friendly, gregarious, and I’m a really good writer. So, my bosses just kept giving me fundraising projects. That’s how I got into fundraising—it was a very quirky path.

So, do you provide a range of giving options? Do you make it easy to give? And do you value a donation of any size? Like I said, we’ve got to think about filling out our farm team as boomers start to age out of the donor pool.

The thing is, robust individual donor programs take time, right? And the one thing that all of us are short on is time. This is why you need to get your board involved, because they are people with more time on their hands—not necessarily individually, but as a group, they’re going to have more time on their hands than you do. So, you have to cultivate new relationships and deepen existing relationships, which is really like dating, right? You have to spend time together in order to develop a deeper level of intimacy. You’re never going to ask a donor for $5,000 over coffee—that would be like asking them to marry you, and we all know we’d run screaming from the coffee shop if that were the case! But we have to really engage with people and get to know who they are.

Now that we’ve covered some important issues relating to your individual donors, let’s dive into crafting an appeal that’s going to help you maximize revenue. The first thing is, we have to know our donors. Who are they? What are their preferences? How do they want to hear from you? Do they want to give via mail or email? I was just talking to an organization on Monday, and they had converted to an e-appeal—solely an e-appeal. Then, in speaking with them, we were talking about looking at who’s in their donor database.

It turns out, like most nonprofits, their donors are predominantly women over the age of 50. Well, boomers love paper, and it turns out that many of their donors were giving via those little remittance envelopes. I said, "I want you to look donor-to-donor—how many of those donors who were doing direct mail showed up last year when you eliminated direct mail?" And it turns out they had lost 32, I think it was 32 or 33%, of their direct mail donors. That’s a big, big bunch of people.

So, you have to look at how people prefer to give, and don’t assume that everyone prefers digital giving. Yes, it might be easier for you, but your donors may or may not respond. Plus, I don’t know about you, but I can get 100 emails just in my business inbox a day. So, you can imagine, if I go away for vacation or I’m at a conference, I’m buried! A lot of us have way too much email coming into our inbox, and we can’t manage it. They might actually be missing your email appeals. So, you have to know your donors, and if you don’t, it’s time to investigate. Otherwise, you’re not ever going to be able to create effective, psychologically compelling letters.

The first thing I always do is a donor data dump and use donor segmentation and analysis. What are you looking for? You’re looking for groups of people of certain ages, maybe they’re in a certain geographic range, maybe they have a particular gender identity. You want to get to know who your donors are because then you know, “Okay, these are the characteristics of our existing donor pool, and there are more people like this that we can go chase.” So, wash, rinse, and repeat for your existing donor base first. But you have to know who they are and what characteristics shape them.

The other thing I really encourage people to do is send a survey—ask about your strengths, the areas they see for growth, and why they give. That is a key question. Ask them to list the top five adjectives they would use to describe themselves as a person, and the top five adjectives they would use to describe your organization.

Sorry—I’ve never had allergies before, but now that the goldenrod is coming off the bloom, the back of my throat is constantly tickling, so I apologize.

Why is this important? Well, this goes to donor identity. If I identify as a generous person, and I identify as a nice person, a thoughtful person, someone who’s committed to community, and you use those words with me, it creates a literal resonance. This is why we say, “Speaking the same language.” You literally want to speak the same language as your donors. So, do a word cloud and use all of those words in your fundraising and communications materials. Now, it’s too late to do that for this year’s appeal, but what a great way to follow up with your folks in January.

And like I said, we need to tap into the identity of our donors.

Next, we need to consider the nuts and bolts of our appeal. We want to establish a look and feel, right? It should resonate with your brand—it should be in similar colors, but the design might be a little different. For example, you might think about sending out an odd size. What do we all get in the mail? Number 10 envelopes. When we come home from work at the end of the day, we probably rifle through them, so if there’s nothing eye-catching, I might miss that this is an appeal letter from my favorite organization. That could go right over my head or, worse, end up in the recycling bin. So, you want to have some distinguishing characteristic on the outside, but also on the inside—anything to make it pop.

Then you have to think about the device. Is it going to be a folded card in an envelope? Is it going to be a trifold that fits the size of a number 10 envelope, but maybe you send it out in a see-through envelope? Or maybe it’s a card that unfolds—instead of reading like a letter, it looks more like a brochure. So, think about your design elements. Initially, it might cost a little more, but you know it’s not going to end up in the recycling bin, and it’s going to get read. So, you have to weigh out the pros and cons.

The other thing is, we want to focus on the problem-solution format. Focus on the problem that your clients are experiencing and then position your program or organization as the natural solution. Your organization is the conduit, right? You are selling transformation—a good night’s sleep. What happens to somebody when they come into your organization? I was working with an organization two years ago on their appeal, and it was fine, but it was very vanilla and “meh.” It was about getting women out of a domestic violence situation and into a shelter.

I said, "Isn’t it really high—like one in four women will experience abuse?" She said, "Yeah." I said, "That doesn’t say that anywhere in here. How many women are killed every year in domestic violence situations?" She gave me the number. I said, "Those two facts need to be at the top of your appeal because there’s no sense of urgency." I asked her, "How many phone calls do you get a day?" She said, "Well, it could be as many as 20." I asked, "How many of those people can you place in your shelter?" She said, "Maybe one." I said, "So, 19 women a day have the potential of being sent back to their domestic violence situation, or making another choice that may put them in danger?" She said, "Yeah." I said, "Okay, your readers need to know that." That’s the problem—they don’t have enough beds to meet the demand of the women who are calling, right? You’ve got a bunch of women who are in a terrible, dangerous, potentially life-threatening situation, and there’s nowhere for them to go. That’s terrible, especially if there are kids involved. If I got a letter like that, I’d be like, "Oh my God, here’s my checkbook. I don’t want women to be in those situations."

So, that’s the good night’s sleep—you could get women out of these dire situations, and you could give them a safe place where their abuser can’t find them. Think about the transformation, think about the good night’s sleep. Because giving these women a bed is just the beginning. They go on to recover from their trauma. Maybe their kids get to recover from their trauma, they can move on with their lives, they can have economic independence, they can have emotional independence, financial independence, right? So, it’s not just giving them a bed—it’s giving them a chance to have a better life, right?

Think about your transformation and a good night’s sleep.

The other thing is, it’s really important to tell stories because so many of the problems that we’re addressing are ginormous, right? Homelessness, domestic violence, hunger. Maybe there’s a building we need to save. So, tell the story, but keep it on a human scale. I don’t feel like I can do anything about homelessness. I mean, I have a spare bed, and someone could sleep on the couch downstairs—okay, that’s two, right? Or maybe we could pitch a couple of tents in my backyard, but that’s not really going to solve the problem. I’m going to give my money to organizations that are tackling that problem effectively.

So, you want to keep it on a human scale. Tell the story about the young mother with two kids who actually got a bed at your shelter, or the cancer patient who received a life-saving bone marrow transplant from a stranger. You want to pinch a little bit—you want to make it hurt, because remember, we are all inundated with information all the time, and our brains can only take in so much. We’ll actually stop and pay attention when there’s an emotional response. That’s the one thing that makes things stick in your brain. Otherwise, things just fall out. So, if there’s an emotional resonance, it makes it more sticky.

The other thing is, you want to demonstrate how the contribution is going to make a difference—a real difference. Remember, they are the hero. One of the ways you figure out how they’re going to make a difference is by determining what I call the “so what.” What’s compelling about the problem you’re trying to solve? How does the work of your organization impact and transform people, animals, the environment, your community? Why should people give you their hard-earned money, and why should they give it to you instead of your competitors?

Now, what I want to say is, I hate that we have this belief that we have to keep our overhead low. And I’m going to tell you the same story I always tell you, which is about my cousin Beth, who I adore. She’s amazing—she’s a couple of years younger than me, and she has Down syndrome. Beth could not function in a regular public school setting. I had to go to a public school—that’s my dog, she’s sneezing too, I guess! So, my cousin had to go to a private school. Well, obviously, if you have people with developmental disabilities, the student-teacher ratio is going to be much higher than it would be in a public school setting. So, of course, their overhead was probably terrible—maybe it was like, oh my God, 32%. But guess what? My cousin Beth learned what she needed to function in society independently.

She’s been living in her own apartment, she’s got a job, she pays her bills, and she has not killed her plants or her cat, right? And my aunt and uncle got to have a life as well. So, who cares what the overhead is? Let’s look at impact, let’s look at transformation, let’s look at the good you’re doing in the world. I’m not saying take your entire staff to Jamaica—although I think you should, and when I’m raking in millions, you can come ask me to fund your retreat—but what is it that you’re doing that’s important and that somebody is going to care about?

So, don’t just think about the clients—think about the client families and the community. I had a really interesting phone call with a donor one time. They gave $10,000, and they had never given to this organization before. We had no idea who they were. I stalked them a little bit on the internet and got a better picture of who they were, but I still had no idea why they gave that huge amount—it was a first-time gift. So, I dug up their phone number and called them. I called them in the evening, and they actually answered—miracles do happen! I told them who I was, and I said, “I just wanted to call you and say thank you so much. This is going to make such a difference for the women in our care.” And they said, “Well, that’s why we gave it. You guys were able to help our sister.”

A family member had died, and they had come into some money, and they turned around and donated it to this organization because they couldn’t get through to their sister. But this organization could. Wow, right? Talk about impact! They could all breathe easier knowing that their sister, who had some mental health issues and was consistently homeless, would land in some place and then fall apart, and then land in a place and fall apart. But they knew that once she was with this organization, which has permanent affordable housing for women who fit in that category, they could breathe easier. It was so meaningful to them that they gave $10,000.

So, think about your “so what,” right? Don’t just think about it for your clients—think about it for their families and your entire community.

So, what are the components of a successful appeal? Well, you want to focus on the ask, and you want to repeat it two to three times. I’ll talk about that in a minute. If it makes sense, use a specific donation amount. One of the things I did for one of my clients very quickly was figure out their cost per bed per night, and it was $35. That is such a reasonable ask. So, we set up our entire appeal around those amounts. We started with $70, and we also did a corporate campaign where we asked them to buy bundles of beds. So, if you have an amount like that, use it. If not, don’t make it up—it’s just going to get weird.

You want to have a package that has an overall look and theme, so you’re staying within your brand, but you’re doing something a little different. You might want to design your donation page to echo the same theme and color scheme as your appeal. Most web pages are pretty easy to change, so think about having them match. Include a deadline—you want to create a sense of urgency. You need the money now—you don’t need it in January, February, or March, you want it now, right? You want to take advantage of the fact that we’re entering the giving season and create that sense of urgency that you need to end 2024 on a high note.

These appeals should be sent to both existing and lapsed donors. I’m working with one organization right now, and we’re doing five different segmentations. I won’t get into the details, but they are being sent to both existing and lapsed donors. Look at the different clusters of people that it might make sense to target. Again, if you have younger donors in your database, you’re going to want to create a slightly separate appeal for them. You’re going to want to lower your donation amounts because most of them don’t have a lot of money right now, but they’re very passionate.

So, look at who’s in your donor database, think about who you want to attract to your appeal, and then create different segmentations. But, at the very least, send it to existing donors. I call existing donors anyone that’s given in the last three years. Lapsed donors are anyone who used to give but hasn’t given in the last three years.

Use donor segmentation to move up the giving ladder, right? You don’t want someone to just give $25, $25—that’s awesome! But, if they have the capacity to give $50, you want them to go to $50. You could say something like, “Last year, you gave $25, which helped us reach this particular goal, and we really appreciate it. This year, we’d love it if you could increase your gift to $50.” Now, what that’s going to do is plant the thought in their head, “Oh, I should increase my giving.” Even if they only give you $35, that’s still more than they would have given you if you hadn’t mentioned that idea at all. So, urge people to move up the giving ladder.

We’re all paying more for everything these days. Health insurance is going up, supplies are going up—nonprofits are experiencing more expenses just like the rest of us. So, urge people to give more when you can. Use the trick of listing the “second one in.” Psychologically, people don’t want to be perceived as cheap, so if your ideal donor amount is $100, you want that listed as the second one in, right? The first one should be like, “Okay, we’ll take this gift if we must,” but ideally, we want $100 or $150—whatever that ideal amount is. List that second, whether it’s on your donations page or on your remittance envelope, because most people will check that number. So, make sure it’s a number you want to receive.

Some people get nervous the first time they do that, but you’ve always got that line at the bottom that says “other,” right? That’s blank, so if they don’t want to give you the ideal donor amount that you’ve just listed second, they’re going to go ahead and give you money—they just have to fill in the “other” blank, and that’s fine. It’s not like people are going to get infuriated. They probably don’t even remember what they gave last year, so I think sometimes we get more hung up on this stuff than our donors ever would.

Other things to think about are timing. It’s really important to get it out in early November—that’s ideal. If not, then get it out as soon as you can. You definitely want to get it out before Thanksgiving, if at all possible, because once Thanksgiving hits, we all get crazy. Work gets crazy, we start thinking about the holidays, celebrations, family, gifts, and all those things. So, try to hit people’s mailboxes and email boxes before Thanksgiving.

You want to mail more often and to more people, and then you have to think about your database. So, how is your data integrity? How often do you update it? Did you do any maintenance? My son is a very sweet boy. He has a different last name than I do. He is 28 years old, and every single year, he gets me a gift membership to an institution that will remain nameless. And at some point, somebody in their development department decided to marry us. So, we started getting things addressed to “Mr. and Mrs. [his name].” I was like, “Oh my God, you just married me to my son—that’s so bad!”

So, I politely called them and let them know, but you can imagine that might not go over so well. I had a client who got an irate phone call from a Mr. Susan Smith because they had written the wrong prefix. So, just be really, really careful about who’s entering your data, how many people are entering your data, and the way that data is getting entered. This is why it’s really good to have database protocols, which are like the rules on how people can enter data. And really limit the number of people who have their fingers on your database—that is precious data. It is gold. It can be mined for gold. So, do not let a bunch of volunteers in there who don’t know what they’re doing. They need to be trained—there need to be protocols and rules about how the data gets handled and entered. And at least once or twice a year, you should be doing some kind of database check, like sending out an email blast or a postcard to make sure that people are still where you have them in terms of their address, and to make sure they’re still alive.

I once had a very upset donor call, actually the daughter of a donor, because the mother had died and they didn’t let the organization know. Also awkward. So, you don’t want those kinds of phone calls.

Anyway, some people ask, "Isn’t direct mail dead?" And I’m going to say, resoundingly, "No." Baby boomers are going to continue to supply two-thirds of U.S. charities' support until 2035. So, for the next 10 and a half years, boomers are going to be the leaders in philanthropy, and they are reliably direct mail responsive. So, get those papers out to those boomers. They may give online, but it’s because they read a letter.

For nonprofits in the U.S., direct mail remains by far the number one best way to find new donors for your cause, as well as the top way to ask your current donors to give again. So, I know a lot of us are focused on digital giving, and I’m not saying don’t do that, but I’m saying if you have boomers in your database, they’re expecting a letter. So, give it to them. Don’t lose a chunk of people who have already let you know that they prefer to give through those remittance envelopes. Don’t lose them as donors.

What about online giving? Well, it rises every year, but slowly. Last year, it set an all-time record, comprising 12% of giving. So, only 12% of people who are making donations are doing so online. Note to selves, right? This goes back to paper, paper. I know we shouldn’t be killing trees, and younger folks don’t want the paper, but the boomers do. So, direct mail continues to do the heavy lifting. And the truth is, direct mail drives what is often then tagged as online giving. So again, somebody might see a URL or a QR code at the bottom of your letter and then go online to make their donation, but it was generated by the letter.

So, don’t give up direct mail yet because you might lose out.

When you’re writing the letter, your mission is to inspire your readers. You want to get that emotional reaction right out of the gate. You only have seven seconds to capture someone’s attention, and these days, they say it’s about three seconds. You need to create a hook that’s going to bring your readers right into your letter—some kind of quote or statistic. Again, like “One out of every four women will experience abuse in her lifetime.” Well, that’s not the world I want to live in. What if I’ve been one of the four? Or I’m worried that my daughter is going to be one of the four, or my friend or my cousin, right? Or my sister-in-law? We don’t want women to be at risk for abuse, right? We all want to sister each other through life, and allowing our sisters to be abused—no, we’re not going to stand for that.

So, you want to create a hook, and you want it to trigger a big emotional reaction. Because again, remember, we have so much noise in our environment. We get home from work, we have to think about dinner, maybe we’re going through the mail, maybe we have children who need our attention, maybe we have a dog that needs to go out. There are a lot of distractions in our lives. So, you have to have a really powerful emotional hook at the outset. Then you want to make sure you keep your readers interested all the way to the P.S.

So here are some attention grabbers that I use frequently. I use short sentences, and I keep my paragraphs short—like two sentences, three sentences max. I’ll explain why in a minute. I use Sans Serif font, which is an open-faced font. If you have something like Times New Roman, that’s called Serif font, and it has those little tails on it, which actually make it harder to read. Especially for people with eyes that are more than 50 years old—you’ll notice I wear glasses—so, you want to make it easy for them to read. You want to leave as much white space as possible.

Use powerful, active language. Don’t use a passive voice. This is where going over your document with tools is really helpful because they’ll let you know when you’re using passive voice. Use graphs, testimonials, pull quotes—which are those quotes that are pulled out into a box (again, it’s an attention grabber)—bullets, so people don’t even have to read full sentences, and photos—we all know a picture says a thousand words. And finally, using bold or italic text—if you’re going to do that, do it strategically and sparingly. You want to draw the reader’s attention to that point, so be judicious in your use of it.

When you’re thinking about the structure of your letter, the first thing to remember is that people do not read—they skim. This is why I want you to use those attention grabbers I just listed. They’re not going to read every word you write. Even if they love you to death, it’s unlikely they’re going to read every word because, again, most of us are overwhelmed and busy. They’re going to pay special attention to typographical cues, which could include headings, boldface and italic type, indenting, and bulleted and numbered lists. All those attention grabbers that I just told you about draw people’s visual attention.

I’m going to show you a little picture. This is how people skim. You see that little pattern—back and forth, back and forth to the P.S. That is how people go over letters. So, they start here at the “Dear,” then they’re going to go over here, down here, down here, and finally to the P.S. So, use those spots strategically.

People skim over long paragraphs—they won’t even read them if they’re too long. Their brain just goes, "Nope, too much work." People decide how much effort to invest in your letter based on your opening line. This goes back to what I was saying about grabbing people’s attention. The opening line of each paragraph should be emotionally compelling—it should stir an emotional reaction. Maybe it’s a story of a woman who shares a little bit about her abuse. We don’t want to traumatize people, but you could say something like, “Jenny had been abused by her husband for eight years before she decided to have enough. Maybe it was when he started hitting the kids.” Or whatever the trigger was. You want to invest time and energy thinking about the opening line of each paragraph—does it grab our reader?

So, short paragraphs, invest in those opening lines, and people pay attention to the first few words. Again, think about the first few words of that sentence. Sometimes, I will use this tool called the “Wheel of Emotion.” If you want a copy of that, I can send it to you. You can either drop your email in the chat or send us an email—I’ll talk about that more at the end.

The thing is, you can’t be in the room, right? You are trying to connect with your donors and their hearts through your writing. They are going to be more likely to make that connection when you write from a heart-centered, authentic, honest place. This goes back to the conversation I had with that woman a couple of years ago. She was afraid that sharing the reality of their domestic violence shelter—where they could only place one woman out of 20 callers—was going to anger their donors, like, “What the heck are you doing?” But what I shared with her was, “No, you’re creating a gap. This is the reality. Here’s what we can do. Here’s how you can help. Here’s a gap you can help us fill.”

I asked her, “How much would it take for you to get another shelter up and running?” She gave me the number. I said, “Tell them that. Tell them that.” Because until that next building is in place and ready to be occupied, you are going to continue to have to say no to a lot of women every single day. Nobody wants that. We want that building to be up and running as soon as possible. If they know that’s going to cost, say, $400,000—although in Massachusetts, you’re lucky if you can get a building for even double that—but let’s just say $400,000. Some miracle happens, somebody leaves you their house—awesome! You still have to worry about ADA ramps, enough bathrooms, sprinklers, and all sorts of rules you have to follow. But you want to create that sense of urgency, that authentic need. Don’t just skim the surface—people want to be involved, especially boomers, and post-COVID.

Boomers are the generation who were the architects of social change. If you had civil rights, women’s rights, they were marching against the war in Vietnam. There was also sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, which opened up society. They don’t just want to engage in donating—they want to have an impact, right? So, a lot of boomers are setting up donor-advised funds, and you want to position yourself so that you get a piece of that pie every year. Or they could even set up a fund, say, in a local community foundation just for your organization, right? There are ways to engage boomers, but they don’t want to just give $50. I mean, if they’re a lower-income boomer, and that’s a gift they can give, that’s awesome, and we need to value that. But there are a lot of boomers—they’re the wealthiest generation this country has ever seen. So, we want to tap into that wealth, which, by the way, we’re having the biggest transition of wealth—$69 trillion—in the next 25 to 30 years. So, there’s that.

We want to get people engaged and concerned, right? We’re not sitting at our desks twiddling our thumbs. We are working really hard, and for a lot of us, we feel like we’re fighting an uphill battle. So, engage those people. Get them emotionally connected with you and the cause because philanthropy is a heart-centered activity. You want to be writing from your heart, not your head. You want to be authentic and honest. You want to help them feel the pain of the problem, but then also tell them how they can solve it. Create that gap that they can fill. Tap into their heart.

I know we’ve just covered a lot, but I would really encourage you to use these techniques to spice up your appeal this fall. I’d love to hear which techniques you end up using and how your results turn out. So, thanks for joining me today!

If you’ve got questions, or if you want that Wheel of Emotion, drop me an email at [email protected]. Jesse, could you throw that into the chat for folks? And so good to see you. Good luck with your appeal. Go get those dollars—there are billions of them out there, right? And I’m going to be back on October 30th. I’ll have a guest, Michelle Knox, who’s going to teach us how marketing and branding can revolutionize our fundraising.

So, take it easy, and I will see you all on the 30th. If you need help with your appeal and/or a social media follow-up campaign, let me know—I’m here to help.

All right, bye guys!

Thanks for tuning in, I’ll be back in two weeks with another episode. Got topics you want me to cover? Organizations you want me to showcase? Let me know. Also, I’m here to help you revolutionize philanthropy at your nonprofit. If you want to talk about what that looks like, drop me an email.