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"You gave a wonderful presentation yesterday. Multi layered: outrageous, funny, intellectual, provocative, perfectly paced, perfectly timed. You made me love it!" ... read more testimonials
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Newsletters  2010 |
 | The perfect "eventless" fundraising event
Issue 7.10: Arts charity raises money year round: Pick a day, any day. And fund it. |
| Are you a funds-raiser or a funds-depleter?
Issue 7.11: Basing your metrics on acquisition is like trying to bail a boat with a sieve. You work hard, but you still sink. |
| Release your inner archer: Learn to shoot message arrows
Issue 7.13: Targets? The vulnerable hearts and curious minds of your donors |
| Valuable direct mail concept absolutely free
Issue 7.14: Do you have the guts to try something different? My client didn't. |
| Deciding what goes into your donor newsletter
Issue 7.15: Here's the easiest explanation I've ever come up with |
| Qualityspotting
Issue 7.16: How do you know when your donor materials are strong enough for the outside world? |
| Idiot's guide to time management
Issue 8.1: I fidget, you fidget, we all fidget. |
| Donor profiles in your newsletters: Worth the trouble?
Issue 8.2: They can lead to bigger things ... or nowhere. You decide. |
| Young heads are different heads
Issue 8.3: Are younger donors alive ... or dead to you? |
| Is direct mail dead? (No, it's just dull.)
Issue 8.4: My goal? Entertain the heck out of the reader. |
| "I'll never give you a penny again!" Music to my ears.
Issue 8.5: Here's a terrific direct mail concept the client refused to try. Take it if you want ... and if you dare. |
| Your strategic plan = your case for support?
Issue 8.6: No! Don't! "The bridge is out"!!! |
| 2009 |
| Writing a fabulous case is easy
Issue 7.7: You're just answering questions |
| Take the Donor-Centered Pledge (or die)
Issue 7.5: 23 rules to live by (instead) |
| "Deserving charity"? There's no such thing.
Issue 7.4: No one owes you a gift, as this "inside a donor's mind" report makes clear. |
| Bill's amazing "Warm Words" campaign
Issue 7.8: Bill Pratt decided to raise something other than money for once, and joyous response flooded in |
| 2008 |
| Can direct mail be a cash cow for smaller nonprofits? Think "cash calves" instead.
Issue 6.13: Mass-market expectations yield disappointing results at local levels. Take heart, though: direct mail is about far more than instant cash. |
| Why won't paper die?
Issue 6.12: Everyone's drumming their fingers, waiting for paper to expire as a communications medium. Sorry. |
| The dirty truth about cases
Issue 6.11: Bitter truth? Maybe a quarter of the cases I'm hired to write never reach the finish line. Interesting tale, that. |
| When you're feeling a little irrelevant...
Issue 6.10: Do you know the real you? The one donors really care about? Likely not, thanks to the "curse of knowledge." But there's an easy way (fun, too) to see yourself anew. Read on. |
| Richard Radcliffe has your back
Issue 6.9: Are you marketing bequests? (Right.) Or "planned gifts"? (Wrongo.) |
| What is news?
Issue 6.7: Making donor news the right way |
| Does your stuff suffer from jargon breath?
Issue 6.6: Adopt a zero-jargon policy and you'll raise more money |
| 2007 |
| How to make your billion-dollar goal?
Issue 5.9: No Ph.D. OK needed for your case |
| What do we call it?
Issue 5.6: Case themes |
| Make your case and write the donor into the story
Issue 5.1: Donor = solution. It's your job to mention that more than once. |
| 2006 |
| Trust = Giving + Retention
Issue 4.5: What are donor newsletters for? |
| 2005 |
| 2004 |
| 2003 |
| A surefire story formula
Issue 1.7: Case basics... |
| Expressives crave the new
Issue 1.3: Part three of four personality types... |
| Amiables: Smile and say "Howdy!"
Issue 1.2: Part two of four personality types... |
| Analytical types: Good to the last objection
Issue 1.1: Part one of four personality types... |
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"Deserving charity"? There's no such thing.
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Issue 7.4: No one owes you a gift, as this "inside a donor's mind" report makes clear.
Dianna Huff wrote me a note about her experiences with two local charities.
Dianna is a gifted, results-driven sales copywriter; a "getting you noticed on the web" specialist; and a terrific mom.
Today, though, meet her as (1) delighted donor and (2) disgusted donor.
Her note (reproduced below and only slightly tweaked to disguise the guilty) is a tale of two charities: one thriving, one dying.
The thriving charity thinks carefully about warming its donors' hearts. The dying charity takes donations utterly for granted.
Seven Reasons Why I Love Giving Money to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA)
1. They send out a well-written, full color newsletter giving me real stories about animals that have been rescued/saved by them.
2. I can go to the Nevins Farm facility a few towns over from where I live and see their rescue efforts in action. I also can see where the money is going because Nevins is a new state-of-the-art facility. I was also the benefactor of the MSPCA's "Pet Care Fund" when Sparky [Dianna's dog] needed his operation.
3. They send me thank you notes each time I give money. They sent my son a personalized note when he cleaned out his piggy bank and gave them $10 in rolled quarters.
4. They send me well written letters that tell me why they need my money.
5. In their letters they include little notes that read, "Your generosity already in 2009 is greatly appreciated. Thank you for continuing to help animals in need." This shows me that 1) I'm not an anonymous donor; 2) that they know I've given before; and 3) that they appreciate my previous gifts.
6. In one of their letters I received a "Certificate of Kindness" and was told to "post it with pride." Cheesy? Yes. Effective? Yes. Made me give more? Yes.
7. I feel valued for my contributions. And it shows, every time I receive a piece of information from them.
Seven Reasons Why I Refuse to Give Money to My Son's School
1. They send out Friday notices to the parents (donors and potential donors) that say things like: "We are very disappointed in the parents who did not participate in the Yankee Candle Fundraiser. The parent handbook states, 'All parents must fundraise.'" This ticked me off. As a donor, it is my prerogative to give when and how I want. The $300 I had earmarked for them is now going elsewhere.
2. They don't tell me where the money is going.
3. I can't see where the money is going. The facility is run down and families are leaving the school in droves.
4. As a business person, I can't in good conscience give money to a non-profit that appears to be ill managed.
5. They don't use real stories about the children at the school in any of their materials.
6. They don't address the real reason why people aren't coming to the school. They cast blame on "parents who make the wrong choice" but the problem is really the school and the people who run it.
7. I don't feel valued for my contributions.
Takeaway: Donors owe us nothing, not even a hearing. We owe them something, though: as many moments of joy as we can cram into a year.
Making a contribution, being a benefactor, feels good, neuroscience tells us. There's a pleasure center in your brain that fires up when you make a gift. When a charity enhances that joy by celebrating the contribution, one-time donors tend to become many-time donors.
When a charity ignores the joy, donors find someone else to play with. Charities that think they "deserve" support (as Dianna's school did) are deeply ignorant of the basic emotional underpinnings behind lasting philanthropy.
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Tom Ahern, tagline judge
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Nancy Schwartz has asked me to help judge her wildly popular Tagline Awards Program in the summer of 2010. Of course, I said yes. And I am advertising that fact because, of course, I am unbribable. Although some judges like homemade fudges; just saying. Download her 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Report.
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Copyright © 2009 by Tom Ahern and Ahern Communications, Ink. All rights reserved. 401-397-8104.
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