Prepare to be lectured by a couple of dead, white guys.

First, Dale Carnegie, author of the 1937 (and perennial) best seller, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

He said: "You’ll have more fun and success when you stop trying to get what you want, and start helping other people get what they want."

A life-changing insight.

It has certainly changed MY business...but enough about me. How do Dale Carnegie’s words of wisdom relate to YOUR nonprofit? Here’s my translation:

Your communication efforts will be far more effective and persuasive - in fact, they will become strikingly successful - when you STOP focusing on what your organization wants to say, and START focusing instead on your readers want to hear.

Marketers say the same thing a different way: It’s not what you’re SELLING that matters - what matters is what they’re BUYING.

Hold that thought.

Now let’s meet the second wise man, Howard Luck Gossage (1917-1969). He built an influential ad agency in San Francisco, with clients as disparate as Land Rover and the Sierra Club. One day, the admirable Mr. Gossage had this epiphany:

"The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads," he realized. "People read what interests them...and sometimes it’s an ad."

P.S.: You should have felt the earth just move. Why? Because this is the most basic truth I know about communicating effectively and profitably: It’s ALWAYS about what interests the reader and hardly ever about what interests you.

Howard Luck Gossage’s insight is so important, I’m going to repeat it: "People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad." And sometimes it’s your direct mail solicitation. And sometimes it’s an article in your newsletter. And sometimes it’s your case statement.

The key word is "interest."

People read what interests them. In fact, by and large, they ONLY read what interests them. And Mr. Gossage wasn’t the first to stumble on this brutal truth. Benjamin Franklin came to exactly the same conclusion two centuries earlier. He advised, "If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect."

Which brings us to the rub: How DO you interest people you hardly know?

Well, marketers have their ways.

One way is to speak to all four personality types. If you’ve read the previous four issues of this e-newsletter (collect ‘em all), then you’re now well versed in how each of those four personality types think.

To review:

Say NEW! to the Expressive. Say YOU! to the Amiable. Answer objections early for the Analytical. And give the Bottom-Liner a fast and obvious way to ACT NOW!

Nonprofits, though, have a special obligation. From extensive research (see below), we know that donors are particularly interested in two things:

(1) "What did you accomplish with my gift?"

(2) "How efficient are you?"

This last item requires your special attention.

When was the last time you made a point of telling donors how much (or how little) your organization spends on administration vs. how much you spend on direct services? Donors DESPERATELY want to know.

Leading nonprofit researcher Bruce Campbell (Campbell Rinker) has consistently found with all kinds of charities that "donors want much more financial information than they currently receive." (Reported in the 11/01 issue Mal Warwick’s mega-helpful newsletter, Successful Direct Mail, Telephone & Online Fundraising; 800-217-7377).

If you leave it to donors to guess your administrative costs, they WILL guess wrong - and not in your favor. Consider this eye-opening finding: in surveys, English donors guessed that their favorite charities spent more than 60% on administrative costs, leaving less than 40% to go into direct services.

Donors are seriously interested in your administrative efficiency. Make sure you tell them...future gifts and upgrades will depend on it.