This is the 121st Fundraising Writing Newsletter.
If you find value here, please tell your fundraising friends.
​(Your fundraising friends can ​subscribe here for free.)​

In this issue:

✅ Find places for happy faces

✅ VIDEO: 'Win It in a Minute': Upgrading Your "Soft Donors"

✅ Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

​

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

​

Hi Reader,

The other day, Brett and I had some plumbing work done. In the process I noticed this one little detail I don't always think about — but I believe it's important.

Yes, our drain cover has a happy face!

Is it necessary?

No.

Does it make a difference?

Also no — sometimes. Other times, yeah, at least a little.

And: there's got to be a positive version of the expression "the straw that broke the camel's back." This example could point to that. It could be "the happy face that saved the camel's back."

Okay, probably not, but don't underestimate the butterfly effect, right? Every happy face counts.

With that in mind, I want to encourage you to...

Find places for happy faces

Your fundraising writing will always consist of a number of key required items. What's not necessarily required are happy faces.

Not in the literal or figurative senses.

People tend to love happy faces, but they don't always remember to include them.

Drain cover manufacturers, for example, seldom think to add a little happy face in the middle of all the required drain holes. But it works. It's awesome. It's memorable. (And it could even save a camel's life. Metaphor alert: see above.)

Mostly, it's a mindset.

Here's a recent example — an impact story we wrote for a client.

Take a look and notice the not-required-but-still-awesome-and-memorable-and-just-might-make-all-the-difference 😃s, each of them marked with red text.

Each "happy face" moment in the impact piece above was meant to lift the piece — to lift donors' hearts — and to lift response. None of these elements were to be found in the story field notes we were given.

Rather, we found places to add happy faces.

And we hope you'll do the same! 😃

Win It in a Minute: Upgrading "Soft Donors"

​

This video is a snippet taken from January's Tom Ahern fundraising newsletter webinar Q&A session. You'll see Tom and special guest expert Denisa Casement answer an attendee's question about how to upgrade "soft donors" such as those who give a gift in memory of a loved one.

You can (and maybe want to?) subscribe here.

Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

For your brain, heart, and funny bone...

• Fundraisingly Informative — Don’t Let Your DAF Donors Fall through the Cracks of Your Thanking Process! by Sarah Lundberg (a blog post about how DAF donors are more likely to slip through the cracks of your thanking process due to the way they show up in your data)​
  ​
• Aptly Pointed — South Jersey animal shelter wants to help 'neuter your ex' for Valentine's Day by Fox29 Staff (a news article about how one nonprofit combined two unlikely opposites — crummy exes and the benefits of animal shelter neutering — to engage donors with humor; hat tip to the illustrious and inimitable Rachel Muir)​
  ​
• Insidiously Problematic — Pottermouth Radio Stoke Documentary by BBC (a 30-minute radio documentary that plays like a podcast episode; featuring the story of a UK fundraiser who created a comical radio phone-in character that helped inspire his football team to Premier League promotion)

Until next time: May you find all kinds of places for all kinds of happy faces.

Grateful,

PS: We wrote a new (200+ page) book — and it's free! Click here to access Heartable Fundraising Writing.