Ten Common Mistakes Made in Nonprofit Direct Mail
1. Failure to ask for a gift. Don’t assume that your donors will know what you want them to do. Ask for a gift. And make sure to include a reply envelope to make it easy for your donors to send their...
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Direct Mail Fundraising Basics – Three Important Questions & Answers
The first step in having a successful direct mail fundraising campaign is having an understanding of the fundamentals — what direct mail is, what it is not and what to expect with a direct mail...
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Guide to Writing Fundraising Letters
Fundraising letters sent through the mail are one of the most popular ways to request donations. However, if you’ve never written a fundraising letter before, you may have lots of questions… How do...
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The “Three R’s” of Fundraising Letters
You may have heard of the three R’s of education – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Today we’ll look at what I call the “Three R’s” of Fundraising Letters and hear from one nonprofit who uses all three...
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Personalize Fundraising Letters: 3 Ways for Even Small Nonprofits to Go Pro
Following up on Lori Rice’s article, Customize Communications to Increase Donor Loyalty, I’d like to explore three practical ways that you can personalize your fundraising letters. In other words, the...
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Attention Getting Openings for Fundraising Letters
Fundraising letters communicate a specific message to potential donors and call them to action. Creating an attention getting opening paragraph is important in making a good first impression and in...
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Top 10 Ways to Screw up Your Year-End Fundraising Campaign
Halloween was this past weekend and we turned deep into the dark side. Goulies and ghosties walked the streets in my neighborhood. So let’s turn to the dark side of your year-end fundraising campaign...
View Article8 Things to Admire about Jimmy Wales’ Appeal Letter for Wikipedia
It’s always helpful to study how the big boys do it, even though most of us aren’t in that league. Most of us struggle with small budgets and only a local outreach. However, if we look carefully...
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5 Components of a Well-Written Fundraising Letter
One of the most important tools available to any leader of a non profit organization is the fundraising letter. With a finely-crafted missive, the leader will be able to clarify the mission, excite the...
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10 Reasons to Contact Donors Other Than to Ask for Money
Everybody knows that you should send a thank you note to a donor. Along with the fundraising “ask” letter, these two kinds of letters are the bookends. However these not be the only times you make...
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