Hoht Rachmones!

I make a habit of reading every solicitation letter that I recieve. Everything from the No. 10 envelope to the reply card makes an impact on the reader, and so I find it fascinating to have look at what other mosdos are trying to capture the donors attention and money.

I recently received a beautifully done direct mail appeal from a prominent, local mosad. Everything was al osar - there was definitely a lot of money dropped on making sure that the envelopes, letter and reply card were professionally and beautifully done. I have no way of knowing what the returns were on this particular campaign, but I suspect they'll be mediocre.  

Why? No rachmones on the donor.

The appeal itself was huge blocks of text written in small font. There was some kind of inspirational story in there, together with some jive about guiding the next generation - I don't know... Well written, pretty, but also very hard on the eyes and a burden upon the reader. 

There are many practices and techniques that help to ensure readability in direct mail and other solicitation materials, but that's not what I'm hokking just now. My real point is that quality communication is more essential than ever, while quantity - especially in the Twitter age - is fast becoming harmful. Here's a few points to remember to have rachmones on your donors:

1. Be Concise : Time is valuable. When you communicate with donors about giving, always get to the point promptly. Long hakdomes do nothing for your presentation, and are almost always tiresome. Contrary to our intuition, lengthy presentations are less convincing that those that are concise and focused.

The Key to a Good Proposal

Read & Repeat. This is the foundation of any proposal. 

A donor should be able to look over your proposal in one sitting. Its message and request should stick so well that the Donor can easily repeat them to Mrs. Donor and explain why he's writing such a large check.

Read & Repeat.

Cutting to the Chase

In my years in PR and fundraising, I have learned one lesson that has stood the test of time and has proven to serve its masters infallibly:  People Need Clarity.

This demands that we communicate in a concise and direct way.


Tact and elegance are helpful, but secondary. After all, you and I know a few too many tactful and elegant fundraisers with outstanding shut-off notices.


Concise. 
Direct.

With apologies to email

I've had a very big change of heart.


I use to be very down on email as a means of reaching out to donors, or for any means of respectful communication for that matter. I have relied on good, old-fashioned letters for "real" communication. I still believe that writing letters to donors and prospects is dignified, effective and -frankly- impressive. 

But lately, I've come to owe a number of breakthroughs to email. Too many to ignore. In many cases, the prospect himself asked that email be the principal method of contact at all stages of the game--even solicitation.

Simple Simon

Years ago I gave a substantial (for me, at least) gift to a charity that I had a long-standing personal relationship with. I was happy and proud to give, and really wasn't expecting anything other than a nice "thank you."

Sure enough, a letter came about six weeks later. I suppose the letter contained nice regards from the organization, but I never really found out. I struggled to read through five lengthy paragraphs (must've been 10 pt. font) that covered everything from the origins of the organization, to its activities and how it makes the world a better place. The large blocks of text, spanning subjects that were (almost) superfluous, made this "thank you" letter burdensome and unreadable.

What would have rekindled that warm, fuzzy feeling I had when I first gave the check? Something much, much more simple. Something like: "Dear Yosef, I can't thank you enough for your gift. I so appreciate your friendship and support." That would've about sold me.

Where's My Check?!

I once had the opportunity to proof a proposal for a friend (and executive director) who was soliciting a certain "Mr. Moneybags."

Clearly, a great deal of time an money had been spent on making this proposal razor sharp. It was beautifully written, tons of pictures and graphics. Detailed reports about all of the programs and activities. Beautiful!

Just one problem.

Nowhere in the proposal was there any mention of a request. Nowhere. I flipped through the whole thing again, just to make sure that I wasn't losing my eyesight. It's as if this organization suddenly had no problems whatsoever, and just wanted to let Mr. M know that everything was a-ok! I found this very eye-opening.

Since then, I encourage all of my clients to mention money first, whether the conversation is initiated via phone, e-mail, letter, whatever. Yes, it's counter-intuitive in our line of work, where tact and ambiguity are our left and right hands. But the "money thing" needs to be out there right away.

"Wait! What?! Then he'll be able to turn me away outright?!" you exclaim franticly.

That's true. And that's his prerogative. And that's why we don't get emotionally involved with new prospects when our "hit rate" is about 1:20. But still, that's called getting off easy, compared to spending time, money and bitter tears on man that has no intentions of coming through for you.