By Alan Sharpe, CFRE
The difference between a good donor newsletter and a poor one comes down to donors and dollars. A good newsletter retains donors and makes money. A poor one doesn’t. Here are 12 ways to improve your donor newsletter so that it works harder for you.

1. Make your donor the hero of every story. Take the focus off your institution and put it where it belongs: on the person who pays your salary. Donors want to read about themselves, not your charity.

2. Make each issue a report card to your donor. Prove that you are using donor gifts wisely and as intended. Show how their donations are making a difference. Act as if you won’t get another dime of support unless your donor gives you an A Grade, an A for Accountability.

3. Don’t celebrate another anniversary. Donors don’t care that you’re celebrating your 20th anniversary, or that you did something special in 1968. They give to organizations that look ahead, not backwards.

4. Make your donors reach for the Kleenex. Stir the emotions of your supporters so that they identify even more closely with the people you help. Help them feel at a visceral level that they are touching lives with their support.

5. Give your donors “The Because.” Doctors Without Borders in Australia has a page in its newsletter entitled “Why We Do What We Do.” It doesn’t tell you what they do. It explains why they do it, the “because.” Do likewise and you will retain more donors and raise more money.

6. Fine yourself $1,000 for every cliché photo you publish. No more ribbon-cutting ceremony with the over-size scissors, cheque-passing ceremony with the over-size cheque, ground-breaking ceremony with the people in suits putting shovels into the ground, or the grip-and-grin photo with the awkward-looking host handing over the plaque to the equally awkward-looking recipient. If the photo has been done to death, bury it.

7. Write about people, not programs. People give to people to help people. No more stories about your board retreat, awards your staff have won, or staff promotions. Make sure every story has a strong human-interest angle.

8. Put captions under all photos. No photo is worth a thousand words. Otherwise silent movies would still be silent. And People Magazine wouldn’t need a proofreader.

9. Write photo captions that tell the reader what she can’t see. If the photo is of a child riding a horse, don’t write, “Children in our program ride horses.” Instead, write, “Billy didn’t talk until he rode his first horse, Presidente. Now he speaks in full sentences, thanks to our therapeutic riding program, which is funded by our generous donors.”

10. Put your donor in your headline, subhead or opening paragraph, or all three. Example: “Thanksgiving Dinner at The Mission Beats All Records with 1,865 Homeless Served, Thanks to Our Donors.”

11. Make each newsletter article, column, news story, editorial and profile answer the only question your donors have: “What good have you done with my donation?”

12. Offer your donors many ways to donate. Include a tear-out coupon. Enclose a business reply envelope. Print your website address on every page. Supply a toll-free number for donations.

Learn More

Read Increase Your Income and Boost Donor Loyalty with Donor-Centered Newsletter Stories, 53 Simple Ways to Raise Money with Your Donor Newsletter, and Lucrative Donor Newsletters.

By Alan Sharpe, CFRE
Do you consider yourself a comic? Your donors might. If you are at all typical, you have let these two silly words steal their way into your copy, rendering it ridiculous. But take out your scissors, remove these offending articles, and your writing will become clear, concise and compelling. [Read more...]