This chapter will focus on the development of a consistent, compelling message of need for your organization. While the content of your message will inevitably vary based on your inst.i.tutionas goals and mission, there are still some basic guiding principles for how to construct an effective message.
Foremost, you need to capture the attention of the audience you are soliciting. This can be more difficult than you might imagine. Numerous organizations need money just as badly as you do. Always, be aware that there is significant compet.i.tion even for the thirty seconds of undivided attention you need to deliver your message. a.s.suming that you get your message delivered, expect even more compet.i.tion for those precious philanthropic dollars for which you are asking.
I will begin by providing some general principles for creating the message, for your written, e-mailed, and telephone solicitations. Youall find tips on face-to-face solicitations in Chapter 9. To ill.u.s.trate the principles, in this chapter, Iall provide a telephone script that you will be able to adapt for the use of your own organization. Youall also find useful examples of e-mail and written solicitations in the appendix.
Composing a Message that Moves People.
Your message not only needs to inform people of your mission, but it must also inspire them to take out their wallet and give away their hard-earned money. The former is significantly easier than the latter and this is to the point where I often see appeals where the letter is information-heavy and inspiration-light. You need a balance.
A former colleague from Boston captured this sentiment in a moderately unsophisticated way: Think about it. Can you name one thing that Greenpeace has actually done in terms of helping to pa.s.s legislation for conservation or environmental justice? No, but they throw themselves in front of harpoons, so people give them money.
Also, consider the words of another colleague as they discussed the seemingly incongruent difficulties in raising money for different clients: Save the Children has been such a great client to canva.s.s for. Youare essentially saying to the people you talk to, aYou donat hate children, do you?a And itas like magic. They give.
The point here is that these non-profits have inspiration in abundance, which makes for a powerful message. My colleague, in speaking about Greenpeace, probably exaggerated a bit, but she was revealing a very important truth about philanthropy: it is an affair of the heart just as much as, if not more so, an affair of the head. We want an inspirational story just as much as we want to know the nitty-gritty details of how our money is going to be spent.
In a time where everyone is so busy, we often deal in images: the pelican covered in oil, the starving child in Somalia, a deforested region in the Amazon, a bald young boy in a hospital gown with tubes running in every direction. We try to summarize both our ethos and our mission in a picture.
This is okaya"there is a place for those images: on your companyas website, in newsletters, on supporting material that you leave behind with donors on personal visits, and in selective mailings.
However, that is not to imply you should not spend some amount of time writing appeals. You need to paint that picture. You need to do it in as few words as possible and then you need to make the case for giving.
Elements of a Fundraising Message.
So, where do you start? What should you include in your fundraising message? Letas discuss the key elements that you should include in every appeal.
Identification: Who is your organization? On written appeals, include your logo, website, mailing address, and a phone number. Also, donat a.s.sume that people will remember your organization. Itas best to state your mission again, just for the record.
The problem: What is the problem you are currently addressing? This does not necessarily have to be your core mission, but rather the problem at hand that you want to discuss right now.
The solution: How is your organization addressing the problem? What steps are you taking to improve the situation, or hoping to take, with proper funding?
The urgency: Why do you need the support right now? What are the consequences of a donor sitting idle? Why canat the donor afford to wait?
The ask: Donat forget to ask for money! Yes, itas implicit; the reader has already guessed that this is coming. But deliver on that expectation and ask. Be sure to include all the ways in which people can give, whether by mail, phone, online, PayPal, etc.
Of course, the challenge is to include these elements as clearly and concisely as possible. It is incredibly easy to overdo it; in an attempt to include every single bit of information to make the case for giving, you soon find that you do tend to write too much. It is very difficult, a true challenge, not to indulge this temptation and keep your message to a single typed page: single-s.p.a.ced (with regular margins and a normal-sized font), or to a sixty-second telephone call.
On Consistency.
Your messages need to be consistent across the different media, especially if you are launching a coordinated campaign of written, phone, and e-mail solicitations. It does you little good to pepper your audience with multiple messages; they will get confused over your actual needs and likely end up throwing their hands up in frustration at the lack of clarity and consistency in what youare asking for. Granted, it is likely that your organization has multiple funding needs. If that is the case, and each one carries equal importance, make sure that each one appears in every single medium in which you solicit money.
This said, you must be wary of overwhelming your audience with too much information.
It takes an audience longer than we care to admit to absorb a message. It takes them even longer to absorb multiple messages.
A former colleague, who had worked in advertising, mentioned to me once that it takes the average consumer twelve times of seeing a commercial to realize they had ever even seen it.
Look at the presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008. Whichever side you were on, I want to call attention to the consistency of the campaign messaging that the winning side displayed. George W. Bush campaigned on the message of aAmerica is safer,a and the very vague, but admittedly effective idea of amoral values.a In 2008, throughout the primaries and the general election, Barack Obama based his message on two words: achangea and ahope.a Both messages were little more than empty plat.i.tudes, but in terms of communication, both presidents got the point across. The point is that you have to choose your message carefully and then you have to blast it forth mercilessly.
You need this kind of consistency to get the message across to your const.i.tuency. But your frontline fundraisers need consistent, constant, and similar messaging as well. If you change the message too often or provide them with too many talking points, you run the risk of confusion, mixed messages, and out-of-date communications.
We tend to dread the thought of our message getting stale so we continuously search for the new, s.e.xy thing to communicate. However, I would make the argument for staying on a given message a bit longer than you think you need to. It might make you feel a bit uncomfortable that youare repeatedly parroting the same words; but you would be surprised at just how long it takes your audience to get the point you were trying to communicate in the first place. You need to keep in mind that whereas you, as a fundraiser, spend your whole day thinking about your organization and its messaging, your audience spends next to no time at all thinking about the work that you doa or the work that any other nonprofit does for that matter. What we see on the inside as repet.i.tive on the outside seems little more than consistency, which is generally a good thing in this field.
In drama, one of the first things you are taught (other than face the audience at all times) is that your motions need to be exaggerated, that each dramatic pause needs to be just a moment longer than what you think is necessary. When youare first starting to act: that exaggeration, that lingering pause, can feel extremely uncomfortable. But, to the audience, it appears normal and that is exactly what you want in order to get your point across. I am making the argument for lingering on a given message in the same way, even if it begins to feel a little stale.
When you launch a big campaign, it takes a while for people to realize it. Remember: Whereas you and your team think about your fundraising efforts, methods of communication, etc., every day: your const.i.tuency does not. Youare lucky if they think about it more than once a week. Or once a month, for that matter.
Hereas an ill.u.s.tration to clarify the point: We had a five-year challenge gift to increase partic.i.p.ation each year for five years straight. If we succeeded, each year we received a very generous sum of money from an anonymous donor. That five-year challenge ended, and I still have people asking if the now well-known apartic.i.p.ation challenge,a was still going on.
Moreover, during the lifetime of this challenge gift, we launched a multi-million dollar comprehensive campaign. It took no small amount of work to distinguish between the partic.i.p.ation challenge and the comprehensive campaign among our donors. Most people, in their daily lives, see the form letter or the e-mail and decide yes or no without reading the majority of the content. It takes a while, so continue with consistent messaging beyond what you think necessary.
Of course, at some point, you do need to change your message; just use restraint in the frequency with which you do so. Yes, there is a place for nuance; however, that is in the face-to-face visit or the lengthier, personal phone call to prospects or volunteers, when you have time to paint a bigger picture. Remember, when it comes to letters, e-mail appeals and telephone solicitations, you have to deal in sound bites. It is all that the audience can realistically digest in a single sitting.
On Stealing.
Pica.s.so said, Good artists copy. Great artists steal. Recently, at an art showing, graffiti and street artist Banksy had a plaque with that quote on ita"with a slight modification: Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
Pablo Pica.s.so. Banksy.
Banksy understands the importance of this statement and you need to as well. You must receive mail or e-mail soliciting you for money. What messages resonate with you? Which ones donat? What style of writing do you find yourself more likely to read? Encourage your other staff to bring in examples of pieces that they find inspiring.
Oftentimes, at fundraising seminars, there are aappeal tablesa to which attending organizations bring examples of appeals they have been using over the last year or so. Help yourself; be greedy. Take copies of the appeals home and do you own a.n.a.lysis: Does it read well?
Is it too long?
Is there a very clear call to action?
Does it contain the elements mentioned above (identification, problem, solution, urgency, ask)?
Does the giving form capture sufficient amounts of personal information?
Is it inspiring? What do you feel after reading the appeal?
Would you give to this organization?
What changes would you make to the letter?
Iad encourage you to take those printed appeals and use a pen to mark them up. Circle or highlight phrases that you particularly like and then edit them to the point where you find them satisfactory.
Now, to be clear, you canat copy an appeal verbatim and just change the name of the organization to your own. You can imitate the ideas, the style, the tone, and maybe even the gist of the message itself (for example, citing similar problem, how greater cooperation with the government is needed, or how federal programs are being slashed, meaning that the need for private support is even greater)a"those things are not copyrightable. Specifically, you canat copyright an idea, but you can copyright the execution of it. Seriously, donat just Photoshop your logo onto the letter, change the name of the nonprofit, and slap your signature on it. Show some originalitya"you will need to bend the idea or style to your goals. You need to make any piece you use your own. After all, was Pica.s.so really copying from others? Or, was he learning from them and using their ideas?
To call it stealing is a bit gauche, but seriously, it is a time saver to borrow a good idea. While you want to tailor the message youare communicating to your audience to represent your own organization, you can still mimic the tone and style of a message honed through years of practicing the craft of written solicitations, and no small amount of market research.
One great place to begin your research into other inst.i.tutionsa solicitations is the SOFII website, aThe Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration,a at www.sofii.org. The SOFII collectionas goal is ato be the most comprehensive, best organized, and most inspiring collection of fundraising related content from around the world.a Theyare not too far from achieving that goal.
In Hall 4 of their site, you will find samples of mail, e-mail, telephone, and face-to-face solicitations. Itas a great place to begin your search for inspiration.
Composition 101.
Creative writing instructors often implore students to read for inspiration. It is no different for the writing of good appeals. Scan every appeal that comes to your mailbox. Listen to every phone call you get asking you for money. Force yourself to read each e-mail solicitation from start to finish. Then, ask yourself if you would give based solely on the virtue of the strength of the appeal. Now, letas examine each form of solicitation.
The Telephone.
When you get a call from a telephone fundraiser, donat interrupt them. Listen attentively, and let them get all the way through the script to athe ask.a Yes, theyare following a script; or at least they should be. Time the call. How long does it take them to get from the introduction of who they are to the ask? Did you get bored during the call? Did your mind wander or were you listening with rapt attention the whole time?
Hereas a quick advisory on creating telephone appeals: I would advise against the common strategy of beginning the call by confirming a prospectas contact information. Many organizations use this approach to keep the caller on the line, and to use the well-worn sales technique of getting the prospect to say ayes,a early in the conversation. The more a prospect says yes during the dialogue, the more likely the conversation will end in a yes, or so the wisdom goes.
I get a lot of phone calls where they ask if I still live at my current address, is this still the best number at which to reach me, etc. Because I already know whatas coming, I always get a little cranky when the call begins like that. Get to the bottom line. Keep it short; youare probably interrupting dinner.
I argue against initiating a phone call with a request to confirm contact information for two main reasons: 1) itas somewhat disingenuous to disguise your call as anything less than what it actually is (a solicitation), and 2) from an efficiency standpoint, it takes longer to get to a anoa if you frontload the call with data collection. You should save the data collection for the end of the call, once youave confirmed that youare going to get a gift.
If the ultimate purpose of the phone call is to ask for money: front load that information. Donat cover it up by asking for information, or disguise it as a survey. You really undermine the donoras confidence in you and the organization when you do that. If a donor interrupts you during your pitch to say, aAre you asking me for money,a do not back down; if asked, be transparent about your motives. Your response should be honest and enthusiastic. Yes. You are. Because your organization is in dire need and this donor has been helpful in the past, you need them to be helpful again now.
The Telephone Script.
Here is an operating template for you to use when creating your telephone appeals. Make the following a.s.sumptions: The segment of the population that you are calling has given in the past.
The organization is a state-based environmental advocacy group.
GREETING: h.e.l.lo, may I please speak to Mr./Mrs. [Donor last name]?
INTRODUCTION: Good evening, Mr./Mrs. [Donor last name]. My name is [Your name] and I am calling from Green Means Go.1 THANK: First, I would like to thank you for your past support. It means a lot to our organization. Over the last year, it has allowed us to make huge strides in accomplishing our goal of making clean energy accessible to Connecticut residents.
PURPOSE: I am calling today to expand support for Green Means Go.
__________.
1 Certain states have different disclosure requirements as to what information is required at the beginning of a telephone solicitation. Sometimes, callers are required to indicate if they are paid fundraisers. Be sure to check the laws in your area.
PROBLEM: While we have been making progress at the local levels, we still face numerous obstacles. Despite gains in certain parts of the state, Connecticut is still largely dependent on nuclear power and coal. As Iam sure youave been reading, the Bridgewater Power Plant has failed safety inspection after safety inspection and the state legislature is likely to permit it to continue operating. The consequences of doing so are dire. Because of the faulty cooling system, the water temperature of the nearby Gerety River is rising, causing the number of fish species to plummet. This could have disastrous consequences for our ecosystem.
SOLUTION: We here at Green Means Go are taking this one straight to the legislature and demanding that they recognize the dangers in allowing the Bridgewater plant to continue its operations. We are reaching out to citizens and asking them to phone their representatives and we are sending our activists directly to the capitol to put pressure on the government.
This kind of direct action relies upon the financial support of our donors. Without the continued generosity of our members, we cannot take this fight to the house floor nor to the courts if it comes to that.
URGENCY: The house is going to be voting on the fate of the Bridgewater Power Plant at the end of the month; so, we really need to build as much support as we can now in order to win this battle.
ASK #1: With this in mind, Mr./Mrs. [Donor last name], we are asking all of our members to renew their support tonight. I am hoping that you will support Green Means Go with a gift of $[twice their largest gift].
IF NO, ASK #2: I understand. Are you still in support of the work of Green Means Go? Thatas great, and Iam grateful that you still believe in what we do. Itas just that, in addition to fighting the nuclear power advocates in Hartford, weare also working hard at raising awareness statewide about alternative fuel sources such as bioma.s.s and biomethane. With this in mind, can I ask you to consider a gift of $[one and a half times largest gift]?
IF NO, ASK #3: Thatas fine, Mr./Mrs. [Donor last name]. Our aim tonight is really about building up as much support as possible from as many of our most consistent donors as possible. Your last gift to Green Means Go was $[last gift]. Would you consider renewing your support of our work tonight at that level?
IF NO, END CALL: Not a problem, Mr./Mrs. [Donor last name]. Thanks so much for your past support and for taking the time to speak with me tonight. Have a wonderful evening!
IF YES: Wonderful! Thank you so much. I am delighted to count on you for such a generous amount.
DATA CONFIRMATION: May I confirm that you still live at [address], and that your email address is still [email address].
CREDIT CARD ASK #1: Will that gift be made via Visa, Master Card, American Express, or Discover?