You Said What? Write To Inspire Giving

1. You Said What? Write To Inspire Giving Facilitator: Cynthia Foster, Fundraising Copywriter at hjc

2. What we’ll cover in 1 hour and 15 minutes • Introductions • Purpose of this session • Learn from each others’ experiences • Find words and new ideas that will encourage people to give • We want to answer this question: How can we better write to inspire giving? • 6 topics • Power Words • Creating Urgency • Strong call to action • Donor centred-copy • Getting people to read letters (subject lines/teasers) • Evoking emotion • Stories – where you get stories from and what to you do if you can’t find a story?

3. Power Words What are the most important words you can put into a fundraising letter?

4. Adjectives that Boost Response Rates http://www.johnhaydon.com/2013/11/year-end-appeals-messaging/ Kind Caring Compassionate Helpful Friendly Fair Hard-working Generous Honest

5. Are your fundraising letters urgent? What does urgency look like for your organization? How do you create urgency when there isn’t any? What are some things you say to encourage immediate actions? Urgency

7. You vsWe You

8. Question to ask yourself: “Why should we take action today, rather than wait 3 months? Think about what’s at stake? what the gift – regardless of size – will help accomplish?

9. Strong Call to Action What makes a call to action strong?

10. CTA critique Let’s do a little exercise: • For those of you who brought a fundraising letter, can one of you read out the main call to action? • Group: What do you think about it? Can it be stronger? How?

11. Activist to Monthly Donor Conversion In the time it took you to read this email, more than 100 animals were bred, injected, infected, cut open, genetically altered, forced-fed drugs and chemicals in the name of science and testing. You can help stop this by making a monthly gift of just $15 – less than $0.50 a day.

12. Example of a strong, clear, relevant call to action “With your help, a cancer diagnosis doesn't have to be the end. I'm asking you to help us advance research, to find answers, and improve treatments so that we can achieve our vision of a world free from cancer. Donate now. ”

13. Symbolic Giving

14. Let’s take a step back: How do you see donors? What does this mean? Do you think your organization is donor-centred? What’s the alternative to donor-centred? How can we be more donor-centred? Donor-centred fundraising

15. “... when people made the decision to donate to what they felt was a worthy organization, parts of the midbrain lit up -- the same region that controls cravings for food and sex, and the same region that became active when the subjects added money to their personal reward accounts.” – from Hard-Wired for Giving “As a fundraiser, you do a tremendous service to donors. So raise funds like you mean it. You're not only funding your cause -- you're helping your donors make their lives better.” – Jeff Brooks, future fundraising now

18. It's because of your support and the support of people like you that BC Cancer Agency researchers have: We couldn’t have achieved these successes without you. Thank you.

19. Examples of things you’ve done that have worked? Not worked? Getting people to read letters and emails

21. Subject Line Testing One email – exactly the same content Did an A/B test on the subject lines

22. Can you guess what happened? Subject Line A: Don't be a fool, check your stool Subject Line B:  March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

23. Results!

24. Emotional Fundraising Stories or Statistics? Is your organization afraid of emotion? How do you tell if something is emotional? How do you write emotionally?

25. “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

26. “Writing emotionally, with heart is a very personal experience. Of course, when I write, I’m not writing about my life, my struggles, or my successes. But wait, I’m actually doing just that—in a way.” - Cynthia

27. What do you want your reader to feel while they’re reading and afterwards? How do you feel as you sit down to write? Determine if how you feel and how you want your audience to feel are the same. If it isn’t, find a way to feel how you want your readers to feel.

28. Which of brothers need your help? Photo courtesy of Door of Hope Palawan http://www.doorofhopepalawan.org/changed_lives.php

29. Dear %firstname%, I want to arm you with one of the most powerful ways you can help protect the animals you care so deeply about. For whatever reason, the cosmetic and pesticide industries are still testing ingredients and finished products on animals. This is your chance to protect vulnerable and voiceless lab animals—become a Lab Animal Defender today! Lab Animal Defenders help us fight animal testing in all its forms through monthly recurring gifts that we can use to do our life saving work. Do you know what happens in testing labs? Chemicals are dripped into the eyes of animals. Rabbits are a common choice but guinea pigs cats, monkeys and even dogs suffer too. Have you ever got shampoo in your eyes? There’s that horrible burning and itching feeling. Immediately, your eyes start tearing. It helps stop the burning. But rabbits don’t produce tears like us. Strapped down, chemicals dripped into their little eyes, they have no way to stop the pain. They can’t even cry. That’s just ONE of the unbelievably painful experiments that happens… …BUT you can protect these rabbits and other lab animals by becoming a Lab Animal Defender today!

30. How I Write With Emotions

31. Storytelling Fundraising gold! What kinds of stories do you tell? Where do you get your stories? What do you do if you can’t find stories?

33. Quick Activity Take out the letter or appeal that you brought and edit it as quickly as possible. Let’s have 1 or 2 volunteers read out their before and after letters!