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Giving Back E-Tips

• Volume 1, Issue 20 — June 2, 2009
  
  • Managing Your Board
  • Writing On Behalf of Your Board — and Celebrities
• Back to the Archive

Writing On Behalf of Your Board — and Celebrities

Recently, I had the privilege of writing renewal letters on behalf of a founder of a small, highly effective nonprofit.

I tried to emulate her tone as closely as possible by using already-approved language that I found in the group's e-newsletters. The founder really appreciated how the letter I wrote reflected her preferred writing style but had a few objections to the direct marketing techniques I employed. For example …

• The P.S. She felt that the postscript was redundant — and completely unnecessary. When I explained that response rate testing has shown that 79% of all people who open a direct mail letter will read the P.S. first before reading anything else in the letter, she allowed us to retain it.
• All those underlines! Given her preference for clean, elegant design, the founder couldn’t understand why we were mucking things up by underlining so many points. I explained that many people don’t actually read a fundraising appeal, they scan it. So they tend to notice copy that is highlighted with bold type or underlining. While she accepted that logic, she still wasn’t thrilled about the underscores. So we learned to send unadorned copy for her approval and then take a judicious approach to highlighting key messages as part of the design process.
• The repetition! For example, we introduced a matching grant in the introduction — and explained to the reader that the match would double the donor’s impact. The founder felt that her members were highly intelligent and could do the math. And of course, they can. But it doesn't hurt to spell out the benefits of the match so that the donor really gets the importance of responding by the grant deadline. She also objected to the way we closed the letter by repeating the call to donate. So it was important to point out that people often read the end of the letter first — to find out what is being asked of them. It’s a counterintuitive thing that only those who study direct marketing research would know.

Having been through this with clients a few times, I have learned some easy ways to manage the copy approval process with board members who may not understand direct mail (or email fundraising, for that matter):

1. Create an individual style guide for each signer. In your style guide, keep careful track of all the words, phrases, and concepts that each board member likes to use — and those they absolutely hate! Also, reassure board members that you are creating an individual style guide because you want them to be absolutely comfortable with everything that goes out with their signature on it. That keeps their anxiety level low when reviewing copy. Then check the style guide as part of the proofreading process to make sure you don’t inadvertently allow one of their “no-nos” to slip back into the copy.
2. Keep a bunch of statistics in your pocket to make a case for direct marketing techniques. Besides the statistic that says 79% of people read the P.S. first, here’s another one to keep handy: A lot of board members think that putting a Johnson Box at the top of a letter looks cheesy, but the reality is that boxed copy can boost response rates by 40% — and that will have a big impact on donation revenue.
3. Keep the copy approval process focused on the writing. The copy you send to a board member for approval doesn't have to be full of direct marketing “bells and whistles.” Get sign-off on the main message — later you can work with your designer to add in underscores, bold type, and other elements to highlight key points.

These same tips can be applied when writing fundraising letters on behalf of celebrities. Whenever possible, I like to watch videos where the celebrity talks about the issues they are passionate about and then write copy that reflects their speaking style. It's important to remember that most celebrities don’t want to be associated with direct mail (which they often consider junk mail). So when sending copy to a celebrity for approval, be sure to keep it as straightforward as possible — and steer away from anything that looks promotional.

A lift letter from a celebrity doesn't need to have an urgent call to donate and should look like something they would write themselves. All the short note needs to convey is why the celebrity believes the issue is important and why they believe your organization is the best one to solve the problem. Your main fundraising appeal that accompanies the celebrity lift letter can provide more details about the issue and include a strong call to donate.

If you would like to discuss how to write celebrity and board member communications, contact Karen at 718-680-1627 or at kg@karengedney.com.