Pop quiz, hotshot…

What starts with “s”, ends with “n” and can immediately improve your fundraising results and your donor/prospect/community engagement? Nope, it’s not seclusion. Or seduction, secretion, sexualisation, sanitization, sentimentialization, septuagenarian or sesquipedalian. Gold star for anyone who got it. Segmentation. Seriously – I’m starting to wonder whether some charities think the $70,000 database whirring away in the corner of [...]

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Dear Mr. Fancypants

(With some apologies to the Norweigian Curling Team-jl) This is an open letter to Executive Directors, Board Chairs and anyone in leadership positions in charities who sign fundraising appeals. It’s not my job to write appeals that sound like you. It’s my job to write appeals that engage your donors and raise you money. So here [...]

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Add some positive value

For those of you who follow me or Agents of Good on twitter, you may have noticed an increase in frustration with people who don’t add positive value to our daily working lives. And, strangely enough, those who seem to add the most negative value, seem to be the most popular. And that’s fine. Anyone [...]

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Direct Mail Tips from @johnbethel

One (just one of many!) cool things about twitter is following people who provide constant inspiration to the work we do every day. Inspiration can come in many forms of course but when it arrives in bits of useful tips – well – it can be priceless. I’ve been following John Bethel for some time now [...]

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Interval House Gratitude Report

“Your mission, Agents of Good, is to create a thoughtful and inspiring donor-centred report.” – Interval House, September 2009 Agent Jen, Mark and John reporting for duty. Debrief and disclosure on a successful mission. About You Interval House’s 2009 Report is so donor-centred that it isn’t even an Annual Report: it’s a Gratitude Report. Our vision was donors [...]

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Your Fundraising Trifecta!

What’s not to love about a match package? If you don’t know what I’m talking about you are missing a classic in your direct marketing program. As traditional as grandmother’s pearls, yes. But you can make it modern and effective with a few simple twists. So what’s a match package? Simple. You tell your donors that every [...]

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5 Direct Mail Tips

#1: I’m not actually sure that this is the first time I’ve published a tip about direct mail – but it IS the first time I used a video to do it… This is a quick video showing how you need to think about what you are mailing your donors from the very get go. #2: [...]

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You and Your Subjects

You live in a 140 character world. Even if you’re not on Twitter (Why is that again? Because you “don’t get it”? Ya, maybe millions of people ARE wrong.) you have to acknowledge that the pace of our world has changed. When I started my career we had one email account, and the office manager would print [...]

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Lessons learned in Kindergarten

My three and a half year old son registered for Junior Kindergarten. Inspired by the earnest communication style of Mason’s new teacher, here are some simple rules about creating engaging, dynamic and meaningful direct response copy. #5: Show AND tell. Use stories, testimonials and eye contact to illustrate your message. Stories connect us to each other [...]

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