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Final reminder letter for outstanding payment for non-profit organizations

the non-profit podcast powered by donorbox welcome  to the non-profit podcast I'm Kara fundraising   coach donor box we're here each week with  practical actions you can use today to increase   donations and take your non-profit to the next  level tomorrow raising more money especially at   giving season depends on an outbound ask for money  it can strike fear into many non-profit leaders   Founders and fundraisers though and sometimes  it's hard to write copy that converts and   inspires donors to engage with our organizations  but if you're not asking someone else is so it's   time to learn what works and what doesn't Kara  Schmid joins the non-profit podcast today Kara   serves as senior content writer and strategist  for donorbox and has experience in both business   and non-profit communication and marketing she has  several successful fundraising and communication   campaigns under her belt and shares some of  her best practices for writing appeals with   us so welcome Cara so glad you're on the podcast  today so excited to be here thank you so much for   having me I love writing appeals I love talking  about them and I'm so excited to hopefully you   know share some good tidbits today well I'm so  glad you are too I know that we've spent a lot   of time together talking about that lately because  it's what our organizations are asking for appeal   writing is a must do this time of year and why is  that what do you think so appeal writing this time   of year is more crucial than in any other time of  year because 30 percent at least 30 percent of all   giving actually happens in the month of December  and actually more than 10 percent of that happens   in the last day of the year so over the last three  days of the year sorry so I think a lot of people   tend to think that that biggest day might be  giving Tuesday but it's actually those last three   days and also this time of year you know people  are really in the giving spirit it's the holidays   they want to give back and make a difference and  you know kind of on that selfish side of things   a little bit they're starting to think about tax  breaks because the year is coming to a close so   that deadline is getting closer and also everyone  else is talking about it so especially on places   like social media where you can use hashtags it's  a really good time to jump on that and really join   the conversation to spread awareness for your own  organization last week we talked about direct mail   on this podcast and the important of using it  as an anchor in a fundraising campaign and if   you spend all that time writing a good direct mail  piece how else can you ensure that it's not going   to go to waste wow well I fully understand that  because I know sometimes it feels like it can   take weeks to get that Direct Mail just right and  get all the approvals you need so definitely don't   just use it and then forget about it you want  to be able to Syndicate that content and by that   we mean you want to be able to use those bits  and pieces of your direct mail piece take those   best nuggets and find that golden thread message  that really can flow throughout what we call a   multi-channel campaign so you can that means that  you can rework those nuggets into emails social   posts phone scripts event programs and scripts  website copy copy for your giving page ad copy all   of these channels that make up this multi-channel  fundraising campaign um so this is not only going   to save you time because you're reusing that  content and by reused I don't mean copy and paste   you need to still adjust it for you know each  channel in each audience but it actually can take   7 to 12 touch points before a donor even gives so  it's best if they're seeing that same message from   different angles anyway so yeah definitely  take that Direct Mail copy and repurpose it   um just so a you're saving money and or time and  money a little bit and also you're bringing in   more funds because you're reaching those donors in  multiple ways and we shared a stat in um a course   that we're teaching about multi-channel campaigns  and what is it they convert readers to donors   something like 300 times more effectively than  just one channel that's yeah yeah you need to be   repurposing that content for sure exactly because  that message is going to resonate with them if   they're seeing it not only more than once but in  more than one place yeah well we all do right I   think that's how we all function you know if I  see an ad one time you know it's kind of in and   out but usually by the fourth or fifth time I've  seen the ad maybe I go and purchase something or   attend something and it's the same in fundraising  right yeah definitely take take it from those you   know anytime you go on Amazon or I know it happens  to me with Old Navy Target anywhere you go online   and if you have something that you clicked on  and looked at and then all of a sudden it appears   in an email in your inbox or in an ad on your  Facebook yeah that that's happening for a reason   they know they know that that works so why don't  you you should be using it too as a non-profit   yeah not the nonprofit sector can really learn a  lot by watching the retail sector definitely and   they're spending a lot of money in research and  figuring out what works so we might as well learn   from them and use some of those best practices too  for sure so we've talked about email appeals we've   talked about mailed appeals how are they different  from each other because I think sometimes it would   be easy to like you said just copy and paste your  mailed appealed copy into an email but how would   you customize that a little bit for the channel so  that would be way easier wouldn't it and somewhere   when I was first starting with syndicating my  content I actually copy and pasted but but I edit   from there so I remember I would have that meet  of that letter and I could still but then I would   chop chop chop chop and and adjust words so emails  are definitely shorter for one that's a big one   and they're usually a little more casual and then  also been something we didn't really talk about   but you don't really want to put images in your  mail letters because it remember you're writing   like you're writing to a friend and you probably  wouldn't slap a couple of sad puppy images I mean   maybe you would but probably not too just a letter  to a friend it it'll feel a little more corporate   but in email this is the great place where you can  put those images in also I I recommend if you can   do a super powerful video um because that'll speak  really loud a lot of people love to watch and   share videos and you can also include goal meters  and other things that you can't put in a letter   um what I also love about email is it is more  affordable so while you might have the budget to   only send one letter you can send a lot more  emails throughout your campaign I actually   recommend usually usually about three to five  emails in a campaign and you're able to express   more urgency because you know you send a letter it  might take two weeks to get there especially with   the way postal delays are going right now and it's  just gonna get worse towards the end of the year   so get out soon but emails go out they hit the  inbox right you know pretty much right after you   hit send and then for social media how do you  Syndicate it into social media as well oh yes   social media so it's kind of it's kind of like you  start with a letter and you just keep shortening   it and shortening it and shortening it as you go  through so social media is going to be even more   casual it's going to be even shorter and it's  even more visual than emails so we've actually   there's a stat that it's like Facebook posts with  a visual element so whether that's a meme or a gif   or a photo or a video actually get 2.3 times more  engagement and by engagement I mean clicks likes   comments shares all of that so that's 2.3 times  more likely if it includes a visual of some sort   so definitely make sure you're doing that so the  way you can really take that letter and break it   down is I actually like to break a story into  small little tidbits and just kind of build it   across whether it it's you know a giving Tuesday  story so you're telling a story across a day just   kind of build that suspense and people are going  to come back to check you know on that story and   then it also gives you more chances to show more  visuals and also make sure you're including that   call to action again in every single post and you  can really what we said earlier was definitely   make sure you're using hashtags so again remember  I said you can join the conversation this time of   year especially on days like giving Tuesday  or giving season anything like that try to   yes make up a hashtag for your campaign so that  you can apply that to all of your campaigns but   also look up some of those big hashtags that are  what they call trending so are really being used   by a lot of organizations because then you're  going to be able to join that conversation in   your post that algorithm that lovely algorithm  that we love so much in social media is going   to grab those posts a lot quicker okay when we're  talking about appeal writing what are three let's   just start with three what are three must Do's  that you would share for an nonprofit who's   starting the appeal writing process only three  only three okay let's let me think for a minute   oh okay so first of all I would say let's  start at the top of the letter I would say   or any appeal really this can apply to email as  well um personalize your appeals so you want to   make it sound like you're writing to a friend  you don't want to sound super corporate right   you want you want your donors to feel like they're  talking to a trusted contact so one of the best   ways you can do that is use their name what um  definitely in the salutation and maybe even in   a couple places throughout your letter if you  can you know Cara if I was writing a letter to   you I'd probably say hey Cara right I probably  wouldn't say hey friend hey podcast leader um so I would respond better if you use my  name yeah yeah probably so and it's the   same way with your donors and then also you can  take that personalization one step further by   segmenting your target audiences so that can be  by giving history so you know your last year but   unfortunately not this year those live months or  new donors or your bear donors or anything like   that or then you can also look at maybe um you  have a set that you know are parents or you have   sets of people that tend to give to one program  over the other you can actually personalize your   letter for these segments so especially with the  programs you could focus an impact story and you   can focus that on that program because people  are going to be more likely to give if they if   you're targeting them with something they truly  care about and they're going to feel a little   bit more like you actually know them and they're  not just a number on your mailing list or a name   so that brings me to I guess this would be 0.2  so engage your reader this means that you want   to bring them in and make them want to read keep  reading yeah follow follow the letter right yeah   yes exactly so start that with using you use a  balance of you so if I'm gonna give to someone   I'm probably not going to give to the organization  that's like we save the animals and we build this   school and we do this and we do that if I see  something that's more like you saved this dog   from homelessness or you helped build this school  for children I'm probably gonna give more because   I'm feeling like my gift is truly making a  difference um and this is especially coming   down to I know I've seen examples and care I know  you've shared examples in other places where it's   like help us reach our fundraising goal of thirty  thousand dollars and I'm like I don't care about   helping you reach your fundraising goal I want to  help people their animals or places so definitely   make sure you're using that you and we call that  donor centered language remember that people give   to people not organizations right yeah and because  they really want to see that impact that's where   those real stories come in so make sure you're  weaving you find this powerful beneficiary story   and going back to syndicating your content  you might already have a really good one on   your blog that maybe you haven't shared elsewhere  you don't have to start from scratch here either   um so that's way better than sharing data I know  that it may be tempting to put in the percentage   of people that improved because of your program  or the number of animals you saved last year   but those numbers are better for your annual  report or a newsletter here's where you really   just want to show impact with a true story  and then also to keep those readers engaged   um Beyond just the story so kind of getting into  more of the science of the fundraising appeal a   little bit you actually want to use super concise  language so don't and don't use jargon you're not   writing to your staff right you're you're writing  to someone that might not know a ton about your   organization so you need to write like that  and make it easy to read and also one of my   very favorite and I know I'm bunching a bunch  into my three must Do's but that's okay right   make sure that you're Bolding and underlining  or using italics to move a Reader through the   appeal so I like to say my personal favorite is  bold but again underlining and italics works as   well you bold certain parts of the letter that  still tell a story by themselves by those pieces   so that those skimmers still get exactly what  they need and make sure your call to action   is also in bold too which that brings me to my  third Point make the ask so many organizations   I've seen just kind of tiptoe around the ass and I  know it can be really you know it's hard to build   that confidence to make the ask and it can feel  a little uncomfortable sometimes because you are   asking for money but your donors don't know what  you want from them unless you tell them so make   sure you make the ask and actually include it  you know two to three times in your appeal or   in your emails or wherever you're writing it and I  think as fundraisers sometimes we're uncomfortable   making that ask and I know I've received a letter  that I've used in an example sometimes in in the   class and it's a beautifully Written Letter but  nowhere does it ask me to give now it gives me   some suggested dollar amounts and it's a very  very soft ask but I think I would have preferred   to have seen you know would you give fifty  dollars at this time because this will happen   um just a really clear ask so let me just recap  kind of what you were talking about so the first   one kind of top of the letter down personalize it  personalize uh the two you know dear friend that's   never really acceptable so dear Joe something  like that write like you're writing to a friend   and letters that do that and emails that do  that usually have a better performance rate   and then you were talking about engaging the  readers so using some donor-centered language   concise language and then using some bold some  highlights and things like that to allow the   skimmer to quickly get the big points of the the  letter or the email and then clearly make the ask   right so here's a question we we sometimes get  in fact we've gotten it a couple times this week   organizations sometimes send an appeal letter with  their impact report or their annual report and   a few organizations have asked us hey is this  a good idea um short answer is no um yeah but   it's really best to focus on the impact of but  in an emotional way so tell that story whereas   your numbers it kind of draws a different call  to action a little bit and you want to keep the   focus on in one area if you if someone has too  many call to actions or too many places to look   so if you if they can't tell if you want them to  read about your your impact you know your numbers   um or if you want them to give they're probably  going to do the thing that doesn't make them   give money right they don't want to do anything  that costs them anything and I've actually from   personal experience we tried putting in the  percentage I think it was some percentages of   how well our programs were performing you know 98  of of people saw increase something or other and   um and that actually performed out of the several  years I was with that organization that was the   uh that was the direct mail piece that performed  the worst was the one that had all those stats in   it have all the numbers it's distracting yeah  yeah it was kind of similar to that was like   another report in there I mean the purpose of the  fundraising appeal letter or email is to ask for   money um I wonder if that's somehow rooted in  our fear of asking for money so we soften it   up a little bit I don't know maybe something to  explore we try to say look how awesome we are   we promise we're so great but you really want  to make that ask and remember there's other   organizations that are going to be making that  straightforward ask that are you know you're kind   of they're your competitors right now you're kind  of fighting for their fun for your donors funds so   you don't want to be the org that's not making  the ask because then the donor might not give   to you they might get the other one excellent  point okay so organizations are asking donors   for support all the time the question we often  get is how do I communicate to younger donors   you know we're talking about mailed appeals and  email appeals our younger donors engaging this   way do we communicate with them differently as  opposed to somebody who has been sending in a   check for 20 years to the organization sure so I  definitely think that you really want to look at   each of these segments in a little bit different  light so I do think that you can still send a   physical letter to Young donors it's definitely  the older demographics that are getting hit hard   um with those so you might actually slip in  there because not everyone's sending letters   to younger donors but what you want to make sure  you're doing is offering multiple ways to give so   while a younger donor might still be interested  in reading a letter they're probably not going   to set a check I know that every time at the like  twice a year I have to write a check I have to go   tear my house apart to find my checkbooks I don't  know where it is um and I'm sure that that's the   same for a lot of people cross age ranges now so  make sure that you're you know you're including a   QR code as well as a link to your giving form that  you can even create a unique giving form for the   specific campaign so you can track those gifts  and also you can add utms which are trackable   links and Google Builder has a UTM Builder so  that you can track even you can use a different   tracking code for each letter so you can see if  those younger donors are giving via letters also   with young donors that more casual language I also  recommend smaller ask amounts just because they   tend to not not have as much disposable income as  others and you can also consider telling stories   I would tell stories about people the same age  or younger that'll resonate if you're telling   those impact stories and then younger donors will  probably also be better reached as well with those   email follow-ups as well as social media so you  can definitely still reach them like I said just   make sure you're offering them more ways to give  other than just a check but it's still important   to include that check option because you do still  have donors that are giving that way um No One's   Gonna fault you for having you know two or three  ways they can give they're just gonna fault you   if you don't ask them to do it yeah absolutely  I would not include those ways to give in the   copy of the letter though right so it's a separate  response device or yes exactly excellent and then   returning donors you would want to communicate  to in a different way as well as opposed to a   prospective donor or non-donor exactly yeah so new  donors you're probably in that letter copy you're   probably going to have to tell them a little bit  more about what you do again make sure you're   trying to use that that you versus the Wii you  can do a balance we some ways are fine that's fine   um you're probably going to have to describe  your mission a little more and focus on what   a new donor could do for your organization and  you'll probably need to start with smaller ask   amounts there too just because they haven't  given to your organization before you know   if you're asking for five thousand dollars they  might be a little oh what but um for returning   donors you can definitely speak to them and more  definitely use that donor-centered language there   because you can really tell show them how much  of an impact they've already made and how much   more they can do again you don't really have to  spell your mission out quite as clearly in these   because they should already know what you do you  can focus more on that impact and I also suggest   upping the ask amounts a bit here especially if  you can access gift history and that's somewhere   else you can personalize the letters you can use  those variable fields and you know ask that lowest   amount should be their average gift amount and  then include some stretch gift asks in there as   well and that just means some higher amounts that  they might have to stretch to give but again if   you don't ask they probably won't give it to you  but just be yourself and be authentic be confident   remember your work matters and you're passionate  about it and this will naturally come through   in your writing as long as you keep writing  like you're writing to a friend and telling a   story it'll be good be authentic be confident and  believe in your mission and it will come through   well that's really helpful um you know I  think moving into giving season we need to   think Beyond just a direct mail letter and how to  Syndicate that into a conversation with our donor   and still make it seem very personal and relevant  um to that people and that'll help organizations   stand out that's the number one thing that  we hear especially this time of year is how   can I Stand Out Among the noise and it sounds  like it's authenticity telling a good story and   being very personal as personal as can be you know  depending on the media so thank you I appreciate   your feedback and expertise on that I think it's  going to help a lot of organizations this year end oh thank you yeah I I love talking about it I  love writing appeals and um I'm so excited to   start seeing um some of your work and all these  organizations it's I I'm really excited and I hope   that what I shared can help even just a little  bit absolutely yeah well it helps me too so thank   you and like Kara said writing good fundraising  appeals is a little bit art and it's a little bit   science and there's a lot of data out there on  what works and what doesn't and so um sometimes   they're not logical they don't make a lot of  sense but Cara helped break some of these down and   together we created a course that helps explain  these a little bit better and we're excited to   invite you into joining us for a deeper dive  into appeal writing and like I mentioned we just   launched a course called asks that engage and it's  an appeal writing course that you can instantly   apply to your year-end appeal writing strategy  or all year long and what it is is we guide   you step by step through the process of writing  powerful fundraising appeals you receive on-demand   bite-sized instruction to help keep you from being  too overwhelmed and then you get best practices   checklists some of the things that Kara shared  with us about personalization and storytelling   but then we walk through some real life examples  to show you what works and what doesn't and you   also get an appeal writing workbook where you  will work through your core message in a direct   mail letter and then Syndicate that con that  content into some follow-up email and social   media posts and you also will work with us on a  structured content calendar and Cara will help   explain how we can write these things in advance  and schedule and send them so that we don't forget   those last couple days of the year and the course  is only 49 so we'll share that link in today's   show notes go ahead and click that and visit us  at academy.onorbox.org and you can get access to   that immediately and it doesn't expire and it's a  really great course if I do say so myself so you   did a great job thank you you did and thank you  for choosing to spend time with the non-profit   podcast I hope you've left with confidence to take  a small step today that will make a big difference   tomorrow and don't forget to download and review  the podcast or give it a thumbs up if you're   listening to the non-profit podcast on YouTube  your review is a great way to help others find   us you're here to help others and we're here  to help you so until next time stay inspired   the non-profit podcast powered by  donor box helping you help others