Here’s an easy formula for making your fundraising more relevant to donors.
It’s just two words: So That, from the Linked in newsletter, Fundraising Friday.
Here’s an example from the article:
Before
We serve orphaned children in Zimbabwe by providing education, residential care, family reunification, and vocational training. It’s a listing of program activities.
If you’re an organization insider, the value and importance of these things is likely self evident.
But if you’re not an insider or expert — like the large majority of your donors — it’s just a list. No sense of the value or importance of the activities. No reason to donate now.
So you add reasons with the magic words.
With “so that”
We serve orphaned children in Zimbabwe by providing education, residential care, family reunification, and vocational training so that they can experience healing, restoration, and the hope of a bright future.
And you might find you can say a lot less about what you do and how you do it … and say more about why. That’s the part donors care about. They want to make the world better. They’re not in it for funding programs.
