Expert Fundraiser is offering 10 telephone seminars during the last week of May, 2012.Each session is 90 minutes and includes time for questions. You canparticipate from anywhere in the world that has a phone.The presenter is Alan Sharpe, CFRE, direct mail fundraising consultant, author and coach. The cost of each tele-seminar is CDN$49. These tele-seminars will NOT be recorded.
The dial-in number for this telephone seminar is a toll number. You will pay regular long-distance charges. This extra cost has been factored into the price charged for these telephone seminars.
Materials
For each tele-seminar, you will receive a comprehensive handout that includes Alan’s speaking notes. The handout for each session is around 30 pages.
Cancellations
You may cancel at any time for any reason up to the day of the session and receive a refund minus a $25 service fee. We have to pay someone else a fee to register you and to process your credit card payment. The $25 service fee that we levy covers these expenses that we must incur on your behalf.
Lifetime guarantee
Apply the techniques and skills you learn in each tele-seminar. If you’re not 100% satisfied with your results, tell Alan Sharpe in writing and he will refund your entire fee immediately.
Monday, May 28, 2012
11:00 am Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
Anatomy of a Successful Direct Mail Fundraising Letter
One of the best ways to learn the craft of creating, writing and designing successful fundraising letters is to look over the shoulders of professional fundraisers at work. This tele-seminar features a line-by-line analysis of a successful direct mail fundraising package that Habitat for Humanity mailed to prospective donors.
The entire package was written by a professional direct mail fundraising writer and designed by a firm that specializes in creating fundraising packages for the world’s top non-profit organizations. Although this is an acquisition letter (mailed to strangers and designed to secure a first-time donation), it contains the elements of all successful fundraising letters. If you use the mail to raise funds, this handbook will help you discover what to do right—and what to avoid.
Read the letter through. Study the contents of the entire package (every part of the package is illustrated; see what actually went in the mail and generated such a terrific response). Then listen to Alan’s detailed, annotated comments. You’ll learn over 60 practical, effective tactics that you can employ with your next direct mail fundraising appeal letter.
Topics covered
Mailing envelope
- eight tips for getting it right
- logo placement
- how to use teaser copy
- illustrations on envelopes
- addressing
- window or no window?
- postal indicia
Two-page letter
- 25 observations, recommendations and criticisms to help you produce winning letters
- tips for having a professional letterhead
- how to use the headline with the envelope teaser
- the value of a powerful opening line
- how to build rapport quickly
- introducing the need for funds in the right way
- introducing the writer
- when and how to introduce the organization
- the role of facts and evidence in the appeal letter
- the human interest angle, and how to use it
- formatting tips
- features of a winning testimonial
- how to sum up
- how to ask for funds
- the sign off
- what color ink to sign the letter with
- who should sign the letter?
- the P.S. and what to say there
Buckslip, two-sided
- six tips about buckslips
- what the buckslip should accomplish
- what to put on a buckslip
- should you ask for funds?
- a few words about formatting for success
Freemium (a unique one!)
- learn four things to get right with your next freemium
- why include a freemium?
- why is this one excellent?
- how the freemium ties in with the ask and the rest of the package
- one thing this freemium got wrong
Reply coupon, two-sided
- 13 tips on writing and designing an effective reply device
- one-time gift or monthly gift—which should you ask for?
- how to capture email addresses
- a few tips on ask strings
Reply envelope
- four guidelines for effective return envelopes
- one simple phrase that saves your organization money when receiving gifts
- two things that boost response with reply envelopes
- an interesting image to put on the back of the envelope to boost response (worth testing)
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Click Here to Register for “Anatomy of a Successful Direct Mail Fundraising Letter“
Monday, May 28, 2012
03:00 pm Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
How to Write Breakthrough Fundraising Letters
The hardest job in direct mail fundraising, next to grabbing and keeping the attention of distracted donors, is persuading them to make a donation. Your typical direct mail donor already gives to 14 other charities. Why should she give to yours? And why now? Because you’ve written a breakthrough fundraising letter.
Breakthrough fundraising letters state their case for support in terms that resonate with donors, making your cause and the request for funds too irresistible to pass up. Even organizations that have seemingly mundane mandates are finding creative ways to create vivid, captivating letters. Letters that inspire donors to give. You can, too.
In this 90-minute teleseminar, direct mail fundraising consultant, coach and author Alan Sharpe shares many of the secret techniques revealed in his latest book, Breakthrough Fundraising Letters. Alan shows you proven ways to inspire your donors using paper and postage. You’ll learn tips, techniques and shortcuts that you can use right now.
Tele-Seminar Outline
- learn 14 reasons people respond to direct mail fundraising appeals so you know how to write yours
- discover why every appeal letter you write needs to appeal to your donor’s interests, not yours
- learn how to raise more money by writing about people instead of programs
- see how professional copywriters stir feelings of compassion, mercy, empathy and altruism so that donors identify with your cause on more than a cerebral level
- find the best cure for “donor fatigue,” and how to employ this tactic in your next fundraising letter to motivate donors to give again
- learn how to avoid sounding like an institution (which decreases your response) and how to sound human, warm and friendly
- pick up many practical ways to tell gripping, interesting stories, stories that inspire donors to mail you a check
- discover a little-know device that awakens empathy in readers, making them predisposed to support you with a donation
- overcome skepticism in your readers in a natural way
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Click Here to Register for “How to Write Breakthrough Fundraising Letters“
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
11:00 am Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
How to Raise Funds with Your Website
Online fundraising is more important than ever before. Increasing numbers of charities in your sector are using their websites and email to raise funds. And increasing numbers of donors are making the Internet their primary and preferred way to make donations. You must capitalize on this unique opportunity or get left behind.
You can raise money online regardless of the size of your organization or the age of your donors. A well-planned, well-written and well-designed website reaches your donors and potential donors in every country 24 hours a day. But they will only give if you follow the latest tested tactics for soliciting donations online.
Learn about websites: why donors visit them, what they expect to find, what makes them return, why they donate online, and how you can attract them and their ongoing gifts and loyalty over time. You’ll learn the practical steps you need to take right now to raise funds and raise friends with your website.
How to move your website beyond the Donate Now button
- why you need a donor-centred website right now
- how to capitalize on your website’s most attractive features (global reach, 24-hour availability, interactivity)
- how to create a website that strengthens the friendships you have with your donors
- how to increase donor loyalty and retention with your website
Website content and design
- what visitors look for on a not-for-profit website, and how you can use this knowledge to win their hearts and minds (and purses)
- how to make your web pages “sticky” with content that donors want to read
- dozens of ways to deliver relevant content that brings donors back again and again
- costly mistakes to avoid when designing your web pages
- lessons in web design and content from leading charities
How to attract potential donors
- how to write your web pages so that search engines rank them higher in search results—making you easier to find
- how and where to promote your website offline so that you increase your number of daily visitors
- how to turn your visitors into donors and your donors into visitors
- how to motivate visitors to recommend your website to their friends, family and colleagues
When and how to ask for donations online
- how to link your ask with the content of each page
- how to integrate giving opportunities naturally into the text of each story so that readers are more likely to donate
- how to use involvement and advocacy opportunities as a way to encourage visitors to increase their commitment
- how to ask visitors for donations many times throughout your site without seeming pushy
Donation pages, thank-you pages and follow-up emails
- how to write and design an effective donation page
- what to say, and why, on your donation thank-you page
- how and why you must integrate your online giving page with
email follow-up letters - how to create special campaign web pages that encourage donations
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Click Here to Register for “How to Raise Funds with Your Website“
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
03:00 pm Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
How to Raise Funds with Email Appeal Letters, Donor E-newsletters and Alerts
Email is one of the most important tools at your disposal as a professional fundraiser. It’s fast, cheap and easy to use. You can be sure that just about every single one of your donors has an email address and uses it regularly. Email is an informal but effective way to stay in touch with them.
But using email effectively is tough. You face spam filters for one thing. If you don’t know what you’re doing, a great deal of your email messages will never reach your donors. Then you face the challenge of low open rates. Some donors, unless you are careful, will receive your emails but not open them.
In this tele-seminar, you’ll learn the practical steps you need to take to raise funds and raise friends by being a welcome arrival in your donors’ email inboxes.
Why you need an email fundraising program—today
- how to increase your reach exponentially with email
- how to integrate email fundraising into your fundraising strategy
- how to capitalize on email’s most attractive features (cheap, fast, easy, one-on-one)
- how to use email letters and newsletters to strengthen the friendships you have with your donors
How to build your email list
- how to use each email as a way to attract new subscribers
- dozens of ways to get email addresses from your existing donors
- costly mistakes to avoid when renting or trading email lists
- how to collect email addresses using your website
Email appeals letters
- how to write and design emails that inspire donors to donate
- where in your email to ask for funds, and how often, to boost your chances of securing a gift
- how to turn your donors into advocates and your advocates into donors
- mistakes to avoid in the from and subject fields so that your emails arrive and get read
Donor e-newsletters and alerts
- design secrets that improve email newsletter readability
- how to use email alerts to mobilize your members and raise funds at the same time
- how to persuade your subscribers to get involved (since involved donors are more likely to donate)
- how to ask for donations in email newsletters without seeming pushy
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Click Here to Register for “How to Raise Funds with Email Appeal Letters, Donor E-newsletters and Alerts“
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
11:00 am Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
Million-Dollar Thank-You Letters
The most important letter in direct mail fundraising never asks for a donation. Direct mail fundraising is about relationships, not revenue. The only way to generate sustainable income through the mail is to build relationships with your donors, relationships that are built on trust and are mutually beneficial.
This means that your goal with every letter you mail to donors is not to raise funds but to raise friends. Or, to put it another way, your aim with every fundraising letter is to retain donors first, and to raise revenue second.
The cost of losing a direct mail donor is tremendous. Donors who support your organization by sending you small gifts in the mail can contribute hundreds (even thousands) of dollars over their lifetime as a donor. To lose a steady, faithful donor is to lose a predictable source of income.
The cost of replacing a direct mail donor is also tremendous. With the costs of donor acquisition (writing, design, printing, list rental, postage) rising every year, many organizations do not break even on acquisition mailings until they receive a second or third gift from a first-time donor.
Re-soliciting existing donors is likely to perform five to eight times more profitably than acquiring the same number of equally generous first-time donors.
Your existing donors are always better prospects for gifts than those who have never supported your cause. So you can see how vital it is for your organization to keep the donors you have. Donor retention is all about loyalty. The donor’s loyalty to you, and your loyalty to your donor. And the most effective way to increase donor loyalty is to write heart-felt, personal thank-you letters.
In this telephone seminar, direct mail fundraising consultant and coach Alan Sharpe shows you how, when and why to thank your donors so they gladly give more, and give more often. You’ll learn tips, techniques and shortcuts that you can use right now.
- six lasting benefits of writing great thank-you letters
- how mistakes in thanking your donors will reduce your income, increase your donor attrition rate and harm your reputation
- why thanking your donors on time boosts donor loyalty
- why heartfelt gratitude, communicated in the right way, boosts your net income
- three things that today’s donors demand from you before they will give you another gift
- why you need a gift acknowledgement program, what that program includes, and how to create it
- how (and why) to include your staff and board members in thanking and acknowledging your donors
- the difference between gift acknowledgement and donor recognition, and why today’s donors prefer one over the other
- why you need to thank your different donors in different ways
- how to thank your donors for more than just their money, and why doing so is so vital to keeping them loyal
- how to decide when to visit, when to phone and when to write, and how best to combine two or more ways of thanking your donor
- how to address your envelope so it is as personal as possible
- what type of postage to apply so your thank-you letter is most likely to be read immediately
- when to mail your thank-you letter
- mistakes to avoid in thanking your donors on paper
- one salutation that is guaranteed to extinguish any goodwill your letter may attempt to communicate (and how to avoid it)
- how to start your letter so your donor is compelled to continue reading
- when to include the amount, date and designation of the donor’s gift, and why doing so boosts donor loyalty
- why you need to thank your donor more than once in each letter, note or gift
- when to use handwriting
- how often to change your generic thank-you letter
- the most important word in thank-you letters
- how long your letter should be
- dozens of creative ways to communicate your gratitude
- dozens of creative ways to communicate how your donor’s gift is making a difference
- things to include with your thank-you letters that inspire donors to give again
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Click Here to Register for “Million-Dollar Thank-You Letters“
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
03:00 pm Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
Where to Find Hidden Millionaires in Your Region
If you’re using the same list of wealthy prospects as every other fundraiser, your list has no strategic value. You need a different list. A list comprised of millionaires that no one in your city has discovered. This session shows you how to compile that list.
You will learn . . .
- how to use your library (and librarian) to uncover hidden millionaires
- how to read your local newspaper classifieds in a new way, searching in unconventional places for the clues that undiscovered millionaires leave in their path
- how to read stories in your local newspaper with new eyes, looking for the events in people’s lives that indicate considerable wealth
- how to search trade publications for wealthy people in your city
- how to spot millionaire business owners from your car while driving around your city’s industrial and retail areas
- how to find millionaires in the Yellow Pages
- how to search the eight most popular directories of the wealthy, most of them likely unknown by other non-profits in your city
By the end of this session, you’ll know where to find the undiscovered people in your city who have wealth to give away.
Click Here to Register for “Where to Find Hidden Millionaires in Your Region“
Thursday, May 31, 2012
11:00 am Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
How to Convert Your Once Only Direct Mail Donors into Repeat Givers
Only 35 percent of new donors ever make a second gift. Which is to say, a whopping 65 percent of donors acquired by direct mail give once and never give again.
Confronting this sobering statistic takes courage but is worth the effort. Here’s why.
1. Donors acquired through direct mail usually generate net income only after making a second donation, because acquisition mailings usually lose money (you must lose money to gain a donor).
2. Re-soliciting existing donors is likely to perform five to eight times more profitably than acquiring the same number of equally generous first-time donors.
3. Today’s new donor is tomorrow’s major donor and legacy gift prospect.
What all of this means is that the most important gift in direct mail fundraising isn’t the first gift but the second one. What’s most important isn’t the first mailing that acquires the donor, although that’s vital, obviously, but the second mailing (or third or fourth) that keeps the donor. So the place to concentrate your scarce financial resources is not more and more donor acquisition but better donor conversion. Donor conversion is the process of turning a first-time donor into a repeat donor. Some people call it donor renewal, which is also the act of persuading donors and members to renew their support year after year. This tele-seminarteaches you proven direct mail fundraising techniques for renewing your new members and first-time donors—year after year.
Avoid costly mistakes
- avoid acquisition methods that tend to attract more once-only donors than you care to process
- learn why front-end premiums can attract new donors but still not deliver the results you need
- discover the long-term drawbacks of using emergency appeals to attract new donors
Master how to use thank-you letters as renewal devices
- when to mail them
- what to show your thanks for
- one alternative more powerful than the mail
- what to mention in particular to encourage a second gift
- how to sign the letter
- one thing you must never say in your thank-you letter (53 percent of donors dislike it, and 8% will never give you another donation if you make this blunder)
- what kind of envelope to use
- what kind of postage to use
- what never to do with the outside of the envelope
What you must do between the 1st ask and the 2nd ask to get the 2nd gift
- what donors expect from you after they’ve made their first gift
- why you cannot expect the second gift to come automatically
- 19 things you can mail to first-time donors before making the second ask, each of them likely to increase your chances of securing long-term donor loyalty
- why you should involve your donors before soliciting them again
- two things you must do to transform once-only donors into long-term, loyal supporters
- nine things you can do to keep your new donors interested in your cause
Improve your renewal series, improve your renewal rates
- when should you start your renewal campaign?
- how many times, minimum, should you ask for a second gift?
- what should you do with donors who give once and never again?
- what’s so deadly about addressing your letter to “Dear Friend”?
- how much money should you ask for the second time around?
- what must you say in your appeal letter to increase your chances of securing a second gift?
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Click Here to Register for “Convert Your Once Only Direct Mail Donors into Repeat Givers“
Thursday, May 31, 2012
03:00 pm Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
How to Recover Your Lapsed Direct Mail Donors
Your lapsed donors and lapsed members are a gold mine. You’ll find hidden nuggets among this group if you take the time and expend the effort (and money) required to uncover them.
You may be tempted to drop lapsed donors from your mailings, maybe even delete them from your database. But that is a strategic blunder. Your lapsed donors are worth pursuing for a number of reasons:
- you know that they donate to worthy charities
- you know that they respond to direct mail appeals for funds
- they likely comprise over half of the donors in your house file—you literally cannot afford to overlook them
- once recovered, they tend to make larger donations than new donors do
Your repeated mailings to reactivate lapsed donors will pay off if done properly. The secret is to continue mailing to this group until the results drop below what you’d achieve (in response rate and average gift) by mailing to cold lists.
This tele-seminar teaches you the financial rewards, savings and long-term benefits of wooing and winning your donors all over again using direct mail.
Learn how to win back old friends
- learn nine excellent reasons for pursuing your lapsed donors
- learn how to tell when a donor has lapsed so you can take immediate action
- discover the vital difference between lapsed donors and former donors, and why you must treat each group differently
- learn the 12 common reasons that donors lapse
- understand the primary reason that donors stop giving (it’s not what most people think it is)
- discover the causes of lapsing that you can control—and those that you can’t
- learn the simple step you can take to avoid mistaking moved donors for lapsed donors
Discover how to mine the gold in your lapsed donor file
- why you should not drop lapsed donors from your mailings
- when to mail your first lapsed donor reactivation mailing
- how often to mail donors who have not given in years
- why recovering your lapsed donors is more important than acquiring new donors
- why asking for a gift alone is insufficient to reactivate most lapsed donors
- the single thing you must do to win back a lapsed donor
- how to use surveys to re-inspire donors who have fallen off
- when to use a hand-written note—and why this works so well
- a simple postage tactic to boost response
- why and how you must treat reactivated donors differently after they come back on board
Learn from a real-world example of a lapsed donor recovery letter
This tele-seminar features a lapsed donor recovery letter mailed by an international non-profit organization. The letter consists of:
- a base letter mailed to all active donors
- a version of the base letter customized for donors who had not given a gift for 12 months
- a version of the base letter customized for donors who had not given a gift for 24 months or longer
- highlighted text so you can see how each letter differs from the base letter, and how it is customized to match the length of the donors lapse in giving
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Click Here to Register for “How to Recover Your Lapsed Direct Mail Donors“
Friday, June 1, 2012
11:00 am Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
How to Raise Funds with your Donor Newsletter
The secret to raising funds with a donor newsletter is to strike a balance between informing and asking. After all, it is a newsletter, not an appeal letter.
This practical, hands-on tele-seminar describes dozens of simple steps that you can take today to make your donor newsletter more productive at generating gifts.
You will . . .
- learn what to put at the bottom of every page to encourage donations
- discover a simple invitation that can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars over time
- uncover a simple way to help donors fund your vital projects
- find what your newsletter should focus on to raise funds (hint: it’s not your organization)
- learn how to coordinate your printed newsletter with your website to increase online gifts
- find out when you should include an appeal letter with your newsletter
- learn which photos play a role in encouraging readers to give (and what to avoid)
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Click Here to Register for “How to Raise Funds with your Donor Newsletter“
Friday, June 1, 2012
03:00 pm Eastern Standard Time | 90 minutes | $49
How to Acquire New Donors with Direct Mail Fundraising Letters
How can you attract new donors with direct mail when you never seem to have enough hours in your day—or money in your budget—to do the job properly? You need a plan. A step-by-step plan that helps you save time, reduce costs and still meet your fundraising goals.
During this eye-opening tele-seminar you’ll learn the tested methods that leading charities use to raise new friends through the mail. You’ll learn the mistakes to avoid, the best practices to implement today, and the tips, techniques and shortcuts that you can use for years to come. See you at the workshop! Register now.
- why you likely lose more than 15% of your donors each year
- why you need an annual plan for attracting new supporters and members
- how to decide if direct mail donor acquisition is for you
- why you should not use direct mail to raise start-up funds
- why direct mail donor acquisition is different from other methods
- how direct mail should integrate with your annual campaign
- three goals of your direct mail program
- how direct mail donor acquisition works
- results you can expect with direct mail donor acquisition
- main reasons people respond to direct mail
- how to save money on acquisition mailings through testing
- Easy ways to reduce your donor attrition rates
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