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| Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article |
Your nonprofit donor newsletter has just one reader
By Alan Sharpe
October 14, 2008
When you write your donor newsletter stories, do you write to one reader at a time? One person writing to another? Or do you make the common newsletter mistake of writing from "us" to "them"?
Direct mail donors are individuals. They donate as individuals. And they read your newsletters as individuals. If you want your newsletter stories to inspire them to donate again, you must write to them as individuals. And write as a human being.
For example, does the following paragraph sound like it was written by a human being or a committee?
The new Rehabilitation and Geriatric Research Centre will enable fulfillment of the existing potential of the research groups to be local, provincial and national leaders in the areas of rehabilitation and geriatric medicine.
When your donor reads a sentence like that, she expects to hear a voice saying, "Your call is important to us. Please wait for the next available agent." Writing like that lacks warmth, lacks colour, lacks humanity. That's why your donor won't read it. Not for long, anyway.
Give your donor the choice between deciphering what "enable fulfillment of the existing potential" means, or watching Coronation Street to see if Vera and Jack Duckworth have another row, and I know which choice will prevail for your donor.
I'm not saying your newsletters need to read like a scene from a soap opera. I'm just saying your newsletters need to speak to your readers one at a time. Here are some tips on making your articles, columns and reports speak to each reader (each donor, that is) as an individual.
1. Avoid formal language. Avoid bureaucratese and institutionalese. Don't say "the species under investigation exhibited a one-hundred percent positive mortality response" when you can instead say, "the seals died".
Alan Sharpe publishes Direct Mail Fundraising Today, the free, weekly email newsletter that helps nonprofit organizations raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors. Alan is the author of Breakthrough Fundraising Letters and 25 handbooks on direct mail fundraising. Alan is also a speaker and workshop leader who delivers public seminars and teleseminars on direct mail fundraising. Sign up for Alan's newsletter at www.RaiserSharpe.com.2. Write in a colloquial style. Don't talk about your leadership as "the hospital management". Talk instead of "Hospital Chairman Brad Phillips and his team".
3. Write about people using their first names. Don't call a client of yours Mrs. Yamadija when you can call her Sonjay. First names are informal. Last names and titles are formal.
4. Avoid high-falutin' mumbo-jumbo. Consider this phrase from a donor newsletter: "This new environment will facilitate synergy." What does this mean? The writer knows. Maybe. Your typical donor does not. Enough said.
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