With that in mind, we want to offer you 10 ways to keep your donors at the heart of what you do, each and every day… Not for the sake of it, but because they really should be!

10. Read what you are working on – your letter, newsletter piece, email – aloud to someone who doesn’t know what you are working on. Make note of all the words, phrasing and timing that don’t feel write or that you’ll stumble over. You’ll change at least 5 things. Guaranteed.

9. Count the you’s. From the fundraising genius Tom Ahern. Count the number of times you say “you” in your piece. You should have way more references to “you” than to “we”, “us” or “ABC Charity”.

8. Make a promise – and keep it. In your next appeal, tell your donors you’ll report back to them with the outcome of the project you’re raising money for. And do it.

7. Invite personal contact – and mean it. Put your name on a thank-you letter or email. Ask your donors to connect with you directly if they have questions or would like to speak with you. (Please – no more info@charity.org!) Better yet, pick up your phone and call and thank a donor. It’s infectious.

6. Fall in love with Gary. Gary the Donor – the imaginary friend created by Good Works – is great for bouncing things off. Are you connecting with your donors’ mind, heart and soul?

5. Rewrite your thank you letters and thank you call scripts. Find the time. It’s worth it.

4. Use your heart. Your donors deserve your love. Show it.

These last 3 we call the Kimberley MacKenzie trifecta. She does all of them (and some of these others above) every single day. That’s badass.

3. Put a picture of a donor – or a letter from a donor – on your desk or post it on your wall.

2. Put an empty chair in your meeting room and imagine you have a donor in the room with you. It will change lots of what you say and how you say it.

1. Look through your mail every day for 2 weeks. Read the little notes donors write on your coupons – the good, the bad and the ugly. Respect the shaky handwriting. Remind yourself that you are in a conversation with your donors – you’re not just broadcasting.

As a final note – in the header we used the heart from our logo. Most people assume it is a clever way of showing a “o” for “of”. The smarter ones assume it represents our love of the sector, our clients and ultimately the very fact that we are in a industry of sharing and showing love… and they aren’t wrong. But the real reason is to remind us who really matters and is at the heart and core of everything we do. Do I really need to say who?

P.S. This “Top 10″ was inspired by a terrific series by Josh Bowman, 10 things I’ve learned. Thanks Josh!
EDIT: special thanks to Agent Clare McDowall for sending us in this missive from the field! “On the board and highlighted!”

My daughter Sadie spent a few precious minutes (as long as she ever sits still) on the lap of her great grandfather recently. They shared their love of the natural world looking at the bright orange Oriole and the vibrant Indigo Bunting, and whenever she saved a bug from the pool she proudly brought it to him. He beamed.

My other great grandfather, my dad’s dad, (whose name was Gage but we called him Charles) died before Mason was born. And I came to wonder what would happen if Mason sat on his lap with our iPad. Once he got past the magic of the touch screen, I think he would find the real magic in the language of action that technology has given us.

“Favourite” is a verb to my kids. “Mason, can you favourite this video?” asks Sadie when it’s not her turn. “Favourite” is an action.

“Follow” is also active. In my grandfather’s mind, a follower would likely just be someone other than the leader. But following in our language now is half of a relationship. An active, engaging relationship based on mutual interest and an ongoing conversation that happens when you want, where you want.

If Mason talked about his apps, or something viral, Charles would likely would think he was contagious.

As a man who raised four energetic boys, I think my grandfather would plug in to our language of action, and the technology of interaction.

Mason is a digital native – he never knew a world without an infinite amount of information at his fingertips. Would my grandfather have the same struggles with what I am calling “digital imperialist parenting”? Just as history has shown us empires that insist they know better than the indigenous peoples – do I know more about technology than Mason just because I am his mummy?

After about half an hour of tv/iPad/computer my internal alarm goes off and I think “you need to get outside and run around”. But when what the kids are engaging with is actually expanding their horizons, does it make sense to unplug?

So Google Earth is OK but YouTube parodies about poop and farts aren’t?

After I put the kids to bed last night, I revisited this site done by Arcade Fire: www.thewildernessdowntown.com

And I imagined Charles sitting with Mason on his lap, watching Mason enter our address. They would share a few precious minutes together, and Charles would point out where they play ball hockey together on our driveway, and where they hold hands when they cross the street on the way home from school.

Our language changes us. And we change our language. But love and action (and interaction) endure.

Recently I sat on an awards committee where part of my role was to review the all of the applications… but I realized (especially after having to read 1 paragraph like 6 times) that somewhere we have lost our way.

I’ve sat in boardrooms, I’ve read blogs and have been part of webinars where I’ve had to ask people to repeat what ever bullcrap they just spewed because I just didn’t understand what they were trying to say.

Now I’m no genius by any measure, and I also realize that my work depends on the ability to write and speak at a level that almost any one of any type of education can understand…

But what is this fear of being clear?

As always, Seth Godin nails it is his blog post today “Writing naked (nakeder than Orwell)“.

Here are Orwell’s rules, edited:

If the goal is to communicate, then say what you mean.

Preach on Brother Godin.

Successful projects rock. And while it does feel a bit like beeping our own horn, when we celebrate our success here at Agents of Good, it is all the more awesome because in our work, it also means that the world is a little bit of a better place.

And in the case of this project, more fresh food will be rescued from being thrown in the garbage and delivered to hungry people in Toronto. Second Harvest is an amazing and inspiring charity that we have the pleasure of working with. Our Spring Campaign was focused on buying a new truck for their fleet, and it has been a smashing success.

We raised twice as much money as the Spring Appeal last year. Average gift is up 40%. Beep! Beep!

Here’s just some of what we love about this campaign:

1. Surprise and Delight. The letter comes from the truck, and he starts his letter saying “I have a dream…” You KNOW you want to keep reading!



2. The illustrated truck is just so darn cute. You KNOW you’re going to open that envelope!
3. Engaging and involving the donor – the donor uses the keys (sticker) and moves it on to the coupon.



4. The matching gift. Donors “only” have to pay for half. A matching gift (secured with passion and energy by Second Harvest) secures the other half.
5. The last option on the gift array is for $65,000 and a note “I’ll buy the other half of the truck”. Yes, we were secretly hoping someone would send in a cheque or $65,000. But even though they didn’t, we wanted it to make every donor think about giving a little more. It worked.
6. It’s genuine. The match did come in at the 11^th hour, and we used the P.S. and the buckslip.
7. It flowed. We did a reminder pack, with a message of encouragement from the matching donor.
8. It rocked. And we stopped. We had planned to do a follow-up blast. But by the time it was due to deploy, we knew it exceeded the goal. So we did a thank-you email and letter instead. From the truck, of course.

Beep Beep!

Let us know if any of this information and thinking is useful and applicable… or please feel free to add your own small shop challenges and we can help you in a future post! Cheers. John

Recent estimates put the number of non-profits and charities in Canada at over 160,000. That’s a lot of organizations, and a very large and important part of Canada’s economy. But did you know that more than half are run entirely by volunteers? In other words, they don’t have a single paid staff person.

Collectively, we’ve worked with a wide range of non-profits, with databases ranging from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand active donors. What we’ve learned over the years is that ‘small shops’ can learn a lot from ‘big shops’… and vice versa.

Let’s start with some definitions. How do you know if you’re a small or big shop? We couldn’t find an official definition, so have come up with our own. A small shop has:

• Annual gross revenue of less than $500,000 (according to Imagine Canada, that applies to 87% of non-profits and charities);

• Two or fewer full-time fundraisers;

• Staff who are experts at multi-tasking (small shop fundraisers often leap from major donor calls to special events menu planning to counting pennies from coin boxes within the same hour).; and

• A donor file size of 2,500 or less.

With a file size of 2,500 or less, it becomes very difficult to conduct statistically valid testing within your direct mail program. But that doesn’t mean that small shops can’t learn from testing: they just have to look at what big shops have done and adopt some of the lessons learned.

So, for all the small shops out there, here’s what we’ve learned through the dozens of tests we’ve done within big shop direct mail programs:

• Four-page letters often get better response than two-page letters;

• Incorporate a sense of urgency and/or a timeframe (for example, adding ‘please reply by April 5th’ to your response device, or on your O/E, will likely increase your response rates);

• Stick to one simple straightforward offer (for example, including a an invitation to a special event within an appeal for an annual gift will likely confuse donors and reduce response);

• Larger envelopes almost always pull a higher response rate than smaller envelopes;

• Have a matching gift opportunity? Let your donors know about it and challenge them to participate;

• Use an ascending gift array (i.e., $35, $45, $60) rather than a descending one (i.e., $60, $45, $35);

• If possible, match your gift array to the donor’s last gift (if their last gift was $35, start the gift array slightly higher – 1.25x their last gift is a good rule of thumb);

• Larger response coupons often lead to higher response;

• Here’s a big one: handwriting rules! Have the signatory hand-sign the letters (this is something that’s virtually impossible for big shops to do, but is very possible for you to do), add a hand-written and personalized P.S., and hand-address your envelope. (you can get the help of volunteers for some of this). You can even get your President or Executive Director’s handwriting made into a font;

• Use a live stamp on your mailings (yes, it’s more expensive than third class postage, but we suspect you’d make that up in higher response rates and average gifts);

• You will get your highest response from donors who have most recently given to you (i.e., for a mailing you send in 2011, your highest response will be from donors who have given in 2011, next highest will be 2010, then 2009). If you’re instinct is to give you recent donors a break from giving, don’t do it!; and

• Stick to black text on a white background and use a minimum of 13pt font.

So, why not incorporate a few of these big shop learnings into your own small shop program? Try them out for a while and see how your response rates and average gifts compare to prior years.

Stay tuned for an upcoming article on what big shops can learn from small shops (this is a two-way street).

Leah Eustace, John Lepp, Jen Love

Everyone says they want to be but are afraid to do so when they get the chance.

As someone who is creative, I see opportunities to be innovative all the time but have had clients who swear they want it – and then at the last minute chicken out.

As I type this is see a few posts on twitter about innovation. This from @pamelagrow: Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Steve Jobs

This from @donna_raetsen: Think differently & spark creativity http://ow.ly/3azIB

I remember sitting down with Jen and Mark and telling them – we will not use the word “innovative” in any of our marketing or mission statements. I had learned through the years that “innovation” had become a scary and bad word. Our clients largely want us to help them do just a bit better than last year.

Everyone wants it but is afraid to be it when the time comes.

Even Jeff Brooks admits in a comment on a recent post: Fundraisers aren’t artists; we don’t get points for originality. The best among us are constantly balancing tried-and-true old techniques with new and original ideas. Tried-and-true usually works — until it wears out. New and original usually doesn’t work — except when we get a winner. (Of course, that winner eventually gets copied and adapted and spreads until it’s old hat.)

My old mentor Steve Thomas was always telling me – don’t be too clever. Clever doesn’t work…

Do we want to be innovative or not?

Innovation:
- gets us fired
- fails miserably
- keeps you awake at night

But, innovation:
- gets us hired
- changes ‘the game’
- succeeds amazingly
- gets copied endlessly

Innovation takes courage and guts. It takes trust, time and plenty of headaches.

We don’t strive to torture our clients by pushing the innovation envelope at them constantly, but we do challenge them to think differently about how they communicate and fundraise to their donors. And in return, they challenge us and push us to be innovative in how we do what we do.

The people who are innovative will win. It’s that simple. Be innovative in small ways everyday and for heaven’s sake, don’t be afraid of it.

Also – coincidentally enough, I also got my fall newsletter from my pal Bob Knight… and he had this to day on the same subject:

THE FAVOUR OF ORIGINALITY IS REQUESTED
A couple of weeks ago, on one day, I received direct mail solicitations from two charities. But you’d hardly know at a glance that they were different. That’s because both outer envelopes bore the very same teaser: “The favour of your reply is requested.”

As a result of the aforementioned, I don’t expect to do any of them the favour of replying.

If I’m asked to design a direct mail piece, I often know the rough total cost and how long it will take me because I’ve been doing it for a long time. But I also know the design is reactionary. We develop the creative brief and offer, Jen and I discuss the tone of the copy and i go over her first draft, then I design the pack based on audience, tone, ask, etc.

Also, a lot of the time, there is no budget or time to sit around pontificating about things. Read, react, design. That doesn’t mean I don’t think about things – I do. Is the type big enough and clear enough, does it suit the subject matter or audience, does it say something clearly, do we need a visual, one colour or four, is the logo big enough, will there be room for all of that copy, what are we saying, what do we want the donor to do, does this have impact, will the donor open the envelope, etc.

You may be only paying $1000 for the design of direct mail pack, but you are getting well almost 15 years of doing, testing, looking, asking… experience.

Logos on the other hand – are totally different.

It’s the challenge of creating something that is memorable, communicates an idea or USP, visually defines and sums up what a charity does or who they do it for, gets across the theme of an event… you get the idea.

It’s the challenge of finding the right sort of font that is appropriate to the charity and it’s donors, or the right type of visual that distills everything your charity stands for.

It’s not easy and it’s a lot of work. It takes time, talent, patience and concentration.

Can you get a logo for $25? Of course you can. Just take a look right here.

But I can’t do it for you. Most other professional designers can’t either.

My first step is brainstorming all of the sorts of words or visuals that might be associated with your charity or event. I can easily spend a few hours – as all of these words help define the sorts of visuals that might work. I look at the name of your organization. What does it say, what do we want it to mean. Who is your audience? Who are your donors? What do we want the name to say to them.

I scribble any shapes or visuals that come to mind as I continue to write all the things i can think of that have to do with your charity and cause.

I also start to make a list of all of the visual clichés that are associated with your cause – you all have them. (By the way, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a visual cliché – so long – as a old creative director once told me – you use it differently).

I start to think about type and fonts.

I typeset the name of your organization over and over, in typefaces that may be suitable. Some fonts have a lot of personality – or the good ones do. All the while remembering, what does it say? What do we want it to mean? I would love each of my clients to have custom fonts that they could use for their logo and marketing – but at the very least, when using an off-the-shelf font, I find ways to make it unique by tweaking some of the characters.

Next comes the visual brainstorm. I go back to my list of words and start to use them to discover ways I can visually express them. Again I may make another list of words or just quick thumbnail drawings of ideas. This is the real time of discovery. And often there is no end. I just keep pumping out idea after idea, all very quick, not stopping to censor myself or my ideas. If I see something I like, I may try to approach it from different angles – “How can I express time? What are the visual clichés to express time? How many different ways can I show or communicate a clock?” Over and over. There is no perfect idea here.

Once I’ve completed this process, it’s time to start putting some of these elements together. Most designers use a program called Adobe Illustrator to design logos. Illustrator is a vector based program (as opposed to a raster based program like Adobe Photoshop) which allows us to control the number of colours and most importantly, makes what we design scalable. As I start to marry visuals and typefaces, the logo starts to come together – but it is also another period of discovery as you try to make the type fit into and with the visual. Maybe the type is the visual. Maybe the visual is the name of the charity. Maybe you need both. Again, I just want to keep circulating the ideas. This is not the time for tweaking and art directing – making sure everything is perfect. And as I work, I find new ideas forming and as I put one concept together, I move onto another. This process can be endless. There is no ONE solution. And it usually ends when your time is up and actually have to present some concepts to the client.

I select 2-4 ideas that I feel work the best and present them to you, the client, as “black only” files.

Why? Because I want you to focus on the concept I am presenting. I don’t want to talk about how you don’t like blue I’ve chosen.

If I’ve done my job right, after I present them to you, you will say – “this is going to be a difficult choice”. And it so it may seem once you first see them, but once we talk them through a bit more, and get a chance to sleep on it – there tends to be a clear winner. One that really stands out to you.

My absolute worse case scenerio are the words “let me show this to my board.” Then I know I am in deep trouble.

At the risk of going into a side rant about boards of directors, there is a reason why some of my colleagues offer discounts to their discounts to NOT involve your board. Simply, if you have a board of 3 people or more, that is 3 or more totally different needs, perspectives, bias’s, ideas, etc that are now going to weight in on these poor little logos – and they will not stand a chance. “Can we…?, Can you…? What if ‘we’…? Why don’t you…?” etc, etc. Bye bye all those hours of time, effort and money – welcome to Compromiseville, second stop, Dullsville… Ok, ok… maybe I’m being a little tough. Bottom line is – you know what they say about opinions – everyone has one and every one will be different.

So, hopefully we’ve declared a clear winner in our concepts! Hoorary!

The next challenge comes with some final art direction and looking at colour combinations.

Usually when developing concepts, I am just trying to get an idea to work. I’m not worrying about the spaces between the type (the kerning), how the ascenders look, is the leading too tight. I just want the idea to come through.

But now – now – is the chance and time to art direct the logo to visual perfection.

Type is a funny thing. In the old days they used to use wood or metal type (some places still do!) and they could control the amount of space between the letters (kerning) or between the lines (leading). The type or fonts we use on our computer are set at a typeface default and a professional will take the type to correct these defaults to make sure each letter dances well with the letters next to it. This kind of teaking can make a massive difference in how the logo looks.

Once the type is cleaned up and looks just the way I want it, I might look at cleaning up any visual I might have used. I try to keep visuals very simple in their shapes and level of detail. Anything can look good when it blown up to fit on your monitor but how does it look when it is printed 0.25″ x 0.25″ in a local newspaper that is using a LPI (lines per inch) of 75? You need to remember that as you work through the logo. That skinny serif or gorgeously detailed illustration is NOT going to cut it and the print guys will want some blood – especially if you try to use it reversed out of a solid tone.

So the type is great, the visual is all cleaned up – it all works. Do a double check and print it off very tiny and very large. Put it up on the wall and look at it from 15 feet away. Turn it upside down and backwards – are there any spaces that don’t look right? Some part of the the type which just stands up like a piece of hair that won’t lay flat? Does it look like a black blob? Make sure it works. And if it does, then we can start to think about and work with – hoorary! – colour.

As I mentioned, I present the final logo as a black only version. If this logo looks amazing in black – then adding colour will be like adding a piece of parsley to a plate. It’s a garnish. Important but not necessary.

I present a black version, a one colour version, a two colour version and a four colour version (a cmyk variation using the spot colours for reference). I also design some reversed out logos using the same spot colours.

I have mentioned this before. For your one colour and two colour versions, please make sure that the designer, or you- if you are the designer, have used a dominant spot colour. Because if I have to work with your gorgeously designed logo and you used PMS 1215 and 7486 – someone is going to pay. Use at least one dominant colour. Always and forever.

I present final logo ideas to the client and upon the approving nod of the head, send all versions that the client will ever need in a electronic file. As a client, you should be asking for your logo saved in a few formats and for both platforms. An Illustrator eps file with all type concerted to outlines – a black version, one colour and two colour variations (and cmyk), as well as any reversed out options. You should be getting all of those versions saved a rgb jpgs and tifs as well. You should know the name of the font that was used and should get a final pdf of the final variations. I include my name, font and pms information on my illustrator files so the next designer will not have to guess if the client does not know.

If you, the client has asked for it, I may even design you a styleguide that shows you all of the ways a designer can use your logo (and also the ways they cannot), but may design up some templates for you to use as reference for business cards, letterhead, envelopes, powerpoint presentations, advertisements, websites and so on.

I am hoping that if I’ve been hired to do this very important job with you, that we can discuss managing and designing the other sorts of brand support materials you will want and need.

I hope this explains why a logo (designed by any professional) will not cost you $25 or less.

Our processes may differ, but most designers are following a similar route to give you a clean, professional, creative and thoughtful logo to represent your organization.

I know what you are thinking – ‘so what does a professional logo cost’?

And my first question back to you is – what is your budget?

I won’t speak for all designers, but please don’t call us if your answer is “$50!”.

If you are interested – a year ago (via Idea Design) I did 5 really quick video’s about my biggest tips here. Share your own tips and tricks in the comments.

Direct Mail Fundraising Letter Tip: Write about a real live person – NOT just your mission statement or programs

Direct Mail Tip: Sell only 1 thing at a time. If seeking donations for summer kids’ camp, don’t shift to estate planning

Spend extra effort to ensure that a 1-time donor becomes a 2-time donor – it’s KEY to long-term donor relationship #fundraising

Copywriting tip: Read your draft copy ALOUD; anywhere u stumble, revise; smooth it out

Direct mail fundraising ltr tip: Try using “handwritten” marginal notes in blue or red ink

Hook your paragraphs together with “connective” words – ex: And But Then Why – to build; keep reader moving

Longer letters DONE RIGHT kick butt

If using 2 letters in your direct mail package, use a P.S. on only 1 of them

Lift letter should be signed by a different person from the main letter in your direct mail package

Lift letter should use a different typeface from the main letter in your direct mail package

Lift letter should be a different color paper from the main letter in your direct mail package

Lift letter should be a different size from the main letter in your direct mail package

Direct mail tip: Mixing typeset w/handwritten teasers on outer envelope can boost response

Direct marketing letter tip: Occasionally use 1-sentence paragraphs for emphasis. Even 1-word paragraphs are great.

Write to one person, not thousands or millions.

Our first SOFII Star of the month is… John Lepp, Agents of Good

The SOFII team were unanimous – the first SOFII star of the month had to be awarded to John Lepp. Over the past year, John has shown such dedication, patience and expertise in building the new SOFII site. All of us from SOFII are very grateful to all of his hard work and we are really pleased with our new website!

John has long been an admirer of SOFII. He loved the idea that there was an online, ever-evolving museum of fundraising which he could access, at anytime. However, John freely admits that he found SOFII difficult to use because of the overload of links and images. Instead of merely complaining about the problem, John decided to do something about it. Realising he and his business partner Mark Haak had the skills to completely redesign SOFII and improve its functionality; he got in touch with SOFII’s founder Ken Burnett and offered his services.

Ever since, John and the team at Agents of Good have undertaken a massive project (bigger than any of us realised) involving sweat, blood and tears and undoubtedly a good few curses along the way. Despite this, John has approached the project with superhero-like patience, commitment and determination. His light hearted approach and acceptance of our technical limitations made him a joy to work with.
So, thank you John for believing in SOFII and for playing such an important role in shaping the future of fundraising. We really needed your talents and are very lucky that you decided to share them with us.
And special thanks to….

Dean Reeds for all of his hard work and patience with the new website – we couldn’t have done it without you.

Truth be known, there are many others who deserve to be acknowledged who have done more than their fair share of work to get to this point.

Dean Reeds, programmer and great guy, has had the patience of 1000 saints as we have changed our minds over and over on every little detail you can think of. And totally hasn’t freaked out. Not publically anyhow.

Kimberley Mackenzie, SOFII’s unofficial cheerleader, supporter, fundraiser… every time I needed a brain to pick, she was there. Every time I needed some insight or support, she was there. Every time I wondered if we would ever get through this, she reminded me we would.

Mark Haak, partner and designer. Helped greatly to create the look and feel as it is/and will be when we launch next week. He had no idea what I was talking him into well over a year ago. And he never complained when he found out.

Carolina Herrera, SOFII octopus. She has had her hands on everything, since the beginning. She has helped, supported and keep us all moving along regardless of what else was going on around her.

Ken Burnett. Ah, Ken Burnett. Ken and I need to share a pint or two, (you buy mine Ken and I’ll buy yours). Without Ken’s vision of a online showcase of fundraising that people from all over the world can learn and steal from, we wouldn’t be here. His leadership, patience, guidance, persistence and humour has made this journey worth it. I thank you Ken.

And finally, you. Thank you “YOU”. You are what we do this for. YOU are not only the star of the month, but the stars of SOFII. It exists for YOU because regardless of what we have done, you are the ones who have created it with your thoughts, successes, failures and knowledge. We are creating a legacy that (hopefully) generations of fundraisers will find insightful, useful, inspiring and world changing for many, many years to come.

We are soft launching this week for a last sneak peak for a few folks with a full on launch the week following (baring some major mishap) and we look forward to your thoughts.

Extra thanks and love to whoever photoshopped the poster.

A QUICK UPDATE: The New Sofii is now live… Head on over and let us know what you think.