In general, design plays a very secondary role in fundraising. When you’re asking for money to support your cause, expensive looking packages may seem wasteful to the reader and convey the wrong impression.

On the whole, most of the same design rules that apply to all direct mail apply to fundraising. One major difference is that the format and the components are not as variable as in other direct mail. You will rarely see self-mailers, postcards, catalogs, magalogs or the like. They don’t work in fundraising because they don’t have the personal feeling and can’t trigger the emotional reaction that only an envelope mailing can provide.

And that’s why in fundraising the format is generally the traditional direct mail package – an outer envelope containing a letter, a reply device and a BRE (business reply envelope – postage paid) or CRE (courtesy reply envelope – postage not paid). Here are a few basic design guidelines for these components that will help maximize response:

White space: How to make your letter look easy to read

As in all direct mail, the letter is by far the most important element. It does the main job of selling. You have to design your letter so that it looks like it will be easy to read. And that means for starters, your letter should have lots of white space. Nothing turns a reader off like staring at a page that is dense with type. It looks like a challenge and hard work so they don’t even begin to read.

To create that spacious look your letter should follow the same basic rules as in other direct mail letters, such as:

• Short sentences and short paragraphs. Long sentences and long paragraphs will give you that dense look you want to avoid. I try to keep my paragraphs no longer than 3 lines, 5 at most. And sometimes for emphasis, the paragraph may be only 1 line.
• Indented paragraphs. Again, this will give you a little more of that vital white space.
• At least a 1.25″ margin on the sides of an 8 ½ x 11 page. Again, more white space
• Double space between paragraphs. This again creates more white space for easier readability.

7 design tips for your fundraising letter

• Use black ink. Blue ink may be pretty but black ink is easier to read and it is what people are used to.
• Use a serif typeface. Designers often like to use a sans-serif face because it is cleaner and more modern. And that may be true but a serif face is more readable. Case closed.
• Underlining is good but don’t use color, especially don’t use red – it’s too much like “junk” mail. And don’t underline whole paragraphs – just key sentences and phrases. Remember, too much emphasis is no emphasis.
• One tactic worth testing is to use handwritten notes in the margin of the letter. Just make sure they’re in the same handwriting and the same ink color as the signature (preferably blue). And as with underlining, be careful not to overdo – use a maximum of 2 or 3 notes in a letter.
• Avoid all caps in the letter. All caps screams your message and screaming is not what you want to do in fundraising.
• Remember that people who give to non-profits are usually older, so keep type sizes a bit larger – no smaller than 11 point Times Roman, better is 12 or 13.
• Be careful not to look too expensive, especially with your choice of paper. Stick with inexpensive bond in white or near white color.

Or do you make the mistake of always writing short copy, regardless of the situation? There’s a knee-jerk reaction by many marketers against long copy and it’s entirely based on personal opinion, not on testing in the market place. The reason given by those against long copy is simply that no one has time to read it. Right. Just like no one has time to watch a 30-minute infomercial on TV. In fact, the success of the 30-minute infomercial is a testament to the strategy of long copy, a strategy that buys into the topic of the last newsletter, the notion of writing to the responder.

Infomercials do get less viewership and long copy does get less readership. But the people who choose to watch and who choose to read long copy are the ones who are interested. They are the responders. They have chosen to read your story. These are people who will respond if you give them sufficient reason. Long copy lets you tell them the whole story. It lets you describe all the key facts and benefits. It gives you a much better chance at making the sale or securing the donation.

There is a very old saying which goes, “the more you tell, the more you sell”. And although that may be a tired worn cliché, it’s also a proven fact. Because when tested, long copy almost always wins: 6 and 8 page letters beat 4 pages, 4 page letters outpull 2 pages, 2 pages outpull 1 page. Just look at the classic direct mail packages over the years. Almost all of the letters have been 4 pagers.

Of course for long copy to work, it has to be good.

It has to be concise and well written with no puffery and no wasted words. It has to be loaded with facts and benefits that are important to the reader. It should be scannable, with subheads and graphic emphasis devices. And it has to flow. One paragraph should lead naturally into the next so that once the reader begins, they’re hooked. In short, it should be a compelling read.

And to create a compelling read in fundraising, nothing works better than a gripping story. But writing a gripping story is hard to do when you must work under the conventional wisdom that says to keep the copy short. An unfortunately there are all too many misguided voices out there to inform you that no one has the time to read all that copy.

There are definitely situations in which short copy will do better. For example, if your goal is to generate a lead, then usually the less you tell the better. Or if you are raising funds for an emergency, why complicate things? Let the KISS principle apply and keep your copy short. Or if your target audience is very young, shorter copy may work better because today’s young people don’t read as much.

According to a study recently published in The Guardian, people over 60 are twice as likely to donate to a charity than people under 30. And people over 60 are more inclined to read long copy than people under 30. That means if you think your audience tends toward the 50′s and 60′s or older, you should definitely use a long copy approach.

Many marketers believe that if you’re writing for the web or email, you should keep your copy shorter than for print. Maybe. On the other hand, some of the longest sales letters you’ll ever see are on the web. And they seem to be working. Agora Publishing is one of the most successful marketers on the web – with hundreds of books and dozens of paid newsletters – and they are masters of the art of long copy. Some of their web sales letters run dozens of pages.

Discover more about why long copy works better . . .

There’s just not enough room here to properly extol the virtues of long copy. So here’s an offer. Send me an email – publisher@expertfundraiser.org – with the subject line “long copy please” and I’ll send you a great article on long copy by BC copywriter George Demmer. He wrote it years ago because he was tired of explaining the merits of long copy to his clients. To build his case he quotes DM notables like David Ogilvy, John Caples, Claude Hopkins, Bob Stone, Robert W. Bly, Gary C. Halbert, Jay Abraham and others. The best thinkers and writers in the business. If these marketing legends don’t convince you that long copy works, nothing will.

I tried googling ‘write to responders’ and ‘writing to responders’ but got no relevant results, which is surprising considering the importance of this notion.

The idea of writing to responders is a nugget of advice I was given many years ago by a true wizard in direct mail. He told me that when writing copy for response, I should not write to everyone in the audience but rather I should write to responders.

So what does it mean to write to responders?

It means you should write your copy for those in your audience who have a propensity to respond. Your copy should not try to convince everyone in your audience. It should be aimed at those most likely to respond.

Before we look at how to do this, let’s first consider why you should do this because you may rightly be thinking: “Why not try to convince everyone?” The answer is very simple. It’s because the printed word – direct mail or any kind of direct response copy – has a limited power to persuade.

Let’s take an example.

Let’s say you want to solicit support for a political party. If you could speak to your prospects in person or even over the phone, you could be forceful and control the conversation. You could deal with objections and use your personal charisma. And you might be able to change a few minds and persuade some people from other parties to switch. But you can’t do that with direct mail copy. You can’t deal with objections. You can’t use your charisma. In fact you can’t even be sure that anyone will even read your copy.

People will only read your message if they want to. And they will want to only if they have an interest in your message. In just about any audience, there will be many who will be indifferent or even hostile to your message and copy will not do well at turning these people around.

The bottom line – written copy doesn’t have the persuasive power to change minds.

But it does have the power to tickle the interest that is already there. If there’s a tiny spark, copy can kindle it into a flame. Back to the political fundraising example. Copy is great for getting people who are already members or supporters to continue their support but would not do well at getting people to switch parties. In short, the best use of DM copy is to preach to the converted.

So how do you ensure that you are preaching to the converted? Just make sure that you choose the right lists. The better the list, the stronger the predisposition to your offer. With the right list, you don’t so much have to create interest as to arouse and capitalize on the latent interest that is already there. As in all direct mail, the list is the most important determinant of response.

There are several ways to aim your efforts at those who might have a propensity to respond.

For one thing, you have to get to the point early in your copy. Your message is competing with many other messages. Plus people don’t have time to waste. If you believe your audience will want to know about your mesage, don’t hide it. Put a strong statement on the envelope or in the headline. This will allow people to quickly recognize: “This is something I’m interested in. I should read this”.

Another way to write to responders is to take a more assumptive attitude. Use a more forceful tone in your copy as opposed to less forceful. Some copywriters take a lowest common denominator approach and weaken their copy down for all readers.

And another example of writing to responders is to use long copy.

If you want everyone to read your copy you could write very short copy. You will get higher readership but less response. The length of copy – why long copy usually works best – is the subject a future newsletter. For now, please accept the notion that long copy works better. It will get less readership but higher response.

So quick recap:

For best response get to the point quickly, be forceful in your tone, don’t be afraid of longer copy and last and most important, use the right lists.