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Inside this site...
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Ahern now on Warwick newsletter board
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Mal Warwick has kindly reprinted a number of my columns in his professional newsletter. In June 2009, he added me to the newsletter's advisory board.
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Ahern designated CASE "Faculty Star"
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Thanks to workshop participant ratings of 4.5 or better (on a 5.0 scale) at the 39th annual CASE/NAIS conference, CASE has designated me a Faculty Star. "It places you in the top echelon of all CASE faculty...." Feb. 24, 2009.
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Upcoming workshops
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To view annual calendar, click.
Read workshop attendee testimonials.
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My mostly photo blog
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Writing for a life. Food crossed with politics? Whatever (and I mean that). Where I go. Who(m) I meet. Jump.
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Dammit, man - you've written a book I wanted to write! Excellent, excellent stuff. Seriously, I'm going to have my staff and as many of my clients as possible read it.
Jeff Brooks
Creative Director
Merkle | Domain Click to order the book direct from the publisher.
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~ WRITE ... powerful, persuasive communications that help you raise more money and improve donor retention.
~ AUDIT ... your current "donor-comm" program through expert eyes and recommend detailed changes that can boost giving and loyalty.
~ TRAIN ... you to do everything we know how to do, via books, workshops, and this website.
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I hope you find this website useful for your work with donors and prospects. Email your comments and suggestions.
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Popular-ish...
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Free Subscription
YES!! Subscribe to our FREE, practical, how-to e-news. It's like an every-so-often micro-seminar in best practices."Your advice works and has made a huge difference...." Peter C., Australia Click. To sample back issues of this all-pro e-news. Click.
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See Critiques
 Read nitpicking critiques of actual donor materials sent to me for comment. Observe best and not-so-best practices at work. Learn from others' mistakes. Profit from others' bright ideas. Downloadable PDFs.
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Sample case statements
Downloadable PDFs from successful campaigns, to help you work out your case.
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Fave how-to books
Click for omniscience. Latest: 4/3/09.
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Wheildon readability research
Australian editor Colin Wheildon did his pioneering research in the 1990s. It's the only research of its kind I know. Reprinted with permission. View selected findings.
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T-shirts with a wordy twist
See the whole cheeky line. For women, men, kids. U get to chewz yr fave style, color, size. Click. When there, click "view all products." ------ The place in FranceWe have a 2nd office in a wine-making village, deep in the south of France. (Note to hopeless Francophiles: we do rent the place.) To take a mental vacation, click. Our village vineyards: 
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Joyaux University
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Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE, author of Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last (2nd edition) is my far-better-known colleague and spousal unit. Visit her vast website, packed with useful information for fundraising and organizational development. Click.
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Reprinting material
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Articles from this website, my books, and the Love Thy Reader e-newsletter are often reprinted: repeatedly in Mal Warwick's newsletter; as a frequent guest on the Texas Nonprofits resource website (txnp.org); once on the SOFII (Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration) website (sofii.org), started by the UK's Ken Burnett; in Canada Fundraiser on occasion; in South Africa, in Fundraising Forum, published as a public service by Downes Murray International; and the Network for Good Learning Center.
It's an honor and a pleasure. If you want to reprint anything on this website, please do. Of course, attribute; it's all copyrighted. Let your readers know, too, that they can sign up free for my e-newsletter by coming to this site. Drop me a line. I'd love to hear from you. |
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Lesson learned: Don't take pride in the wrong thing
A tale of 5 ads
Only 1 got results: See if you can guess
These ads all promote charitable bequests. Four out of 5 are total losers. Learn why they flopped. Read this annotated downloadable PDF comparison. With the kind permission of the New York Community Trust.
Clearly, a 10 out of 10 for execution, as gifts pour in
Newsletter makeover increases donations 10 times
Gillette Children's Foundation: zooms from $5K to $50K in giving to a single issue
How did a donor newsletter from a hospital foundation rise from reaping just $4,470 in gifts from its Fall 2007 issue, to reaping TEN TIMES that much -- $49,600 in gifts -- from an issue just one year later? They stopped doing what they had been doing (a newsletter which insiders loved, by the way) and began doing something completely different. Read the full story here in Andrew Olsen's blog, Nonprofit Strategies. He's Gillette Children's annual giving officer. On his blog, look for "Tips to Energize Your Donor Newsletter."
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But outright copying could be a safer route.
This acquisition letter worked
But its next-of-kin did not
A West Coast colleague writes, "I’m volunteering for a local hospice, helping them with their fundraising. They do two direct mail appeals a year. About a year ago, they used a sample appeal [from your website]. They pretty much picked it up word-for-word, putting their name and facts into your letter. It did better than any appeal they’d ever sent. Next time around, they thought they understood the patterns and principles, so they wrote their own letter in the style and spirit of your letter — so they thought. It bombed."
Fundraisers: Don't judge this book by its title
Next time say the right thing
Meeting with a major gift prospect? Learn how to build trust and close the deal
I'm a big fan of reading outside the bubble of the fundraising industry. Every so often you run across a shockingly helpful business book that seems at first glance to have nothing to do with fundraising -- and yet is profoundly helpful with that difficult enterprise. This is one of those titles: Storyselling for Financial Advisors.
... read more...
Encountered on the front lines...
Smart jock personalization
U. Calgary athletics case scores big in first seconds of the visit!
 This might be the smartest, most relevant bit of personalization I've seen. You're looking at the case for support from the University of Calgary's Dino Athletics. The white part is the case brochure. The bright red panel is a sleeve that slips around that brochure. The sleeve has the prospect's name spelled out in "athlete" type (here, the Wilson family). Imagine when this personalized case is handed over - "Oh, my! Will you look at that!" More Calgary on blog ...
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