The Art of Donor-Centric Writing: 5 Ways to Make Your Nonprofit Posts Stand Out
Picture this.
It's Saturday night and you find yourself at a backyard party full of parents from your kid's school.
Some of these people you know, but a lot you don't.
You turn on your most extraverted personality and start a conversation with a stranger.
In the span of five minutes you know:
What they do for work
What neighborhood they live in
Their morning routine
The last book they read
…But not once did this new person ask anything about you, your interests, or your family.
Why?
Because humans are hard-wired to be self-centered.
We are programmed to think: how does this impact ME?
In copywriting, there's a “Golden Rule”: The reader doesn't care about you.
The same applies to fundraising.
Your donors care less about:
Your nonprofit organization
Your mission
Your accomplishments
And they care more about: How they play a role in your success.
It's the difference between:
❌ Here are 3 things we've made happen in the last 6 months
and
✅ Because of donors like you, 3 life-changing improvements have happened in the last 6 months
See the difference?
Recently, a new nonprofit executive director I like and admire posted to LinkedIn about her 8 week experience in her new role.
While it caught my attention, I immediately thought:
Will this capture the attention of her donors and LinkedIn followers?
After all…the post wasn't about them at all.
So I lovingly reached out to ask if I could re-write her post for her.
She agreed (and gave me permission to share!).
Here is what I came up with 👇:
First, you need to capture the reader's attention and fast 💨
Social media scrolling is like driving on the freeway. You are zooming along until you see your exit and then you slow down and come to a stop.
Your opening line of a LinkedIn post, email, etc needs to stop the scroll.
Want some tips?
➡️ Use numbers (8 ways, 41%, $1M, etc)
➡️ Pique curiosity (Did you know…)
➡️ Use “you” language - cannot overstate this one enough!
Second, cut to the chase.
Ditch filler words and get to the point. The longer you take, the quicker someone will have time to click away.
Third, avoid using industry jargon and acronyms.
You do this work all day, every day. So it's easy to think everyone does this work too.
But they don't.
For example, I've worked in the nonprofit sector for the better part of the last 20 years and have specifically worked for organizations with a focus on criminal justice reform.
…and yet I had to Google what a “youth diversion” program was.
✍️ Writing best practice: use the same language you'd use to explain what you do to a 3rd grader.
Fourth, be specific.
Instead of saying something like:
❌ “create healthier communities” which can mean 1 million things to 1 million people
…try writing something people can picture in their brains
✅ “more students will walk across a graduation stage, apply for a summer internship, and hopefully pursue a career they love”.
Finally, have a specific (easy) call-to-action.
Try asking people to do something like takes very little effort. For example, instead of asking people to click a link - ask them to comment with an emoji and then you will DM them the link.
In a nutshell, when you make small changes to your fundraising copywriting - you can make a big impact towards moving people towards an action. 😉
What do you think? Which of the 5 recommendations above can you put into practice in the next 3 days? Comment below and let me know!
🗓️ ONE WEEK UNTIL WWJD BEGINS!
Starting September 23rd all Template Shop Members will be immediately enrolled in the What Would Jess Do? End-of-Year Fundraising Edition.
Every Monday, you'll receive:
(1) Fill-in-the-blank template to immediately put to use to warm up and ask donors for donations.
(1) Action step to keep you organized and on track
(1) Accountability follow up - from me!
Why white-knuckle your way through the busiest fundraising season of the year when you can feel creative, confident and on-track to raise more money than ever for your nonprofit?
The Fundraising Template Membership is $13/month or $156/year. You can cancel at anytime.