Your mission is powered by people. Give them a reason to stay. Most nonprofit comms feel like a series of transactions instead of a genuine connection. I’m here to help you build a relationship engine instead. Every month, The Supporter Connection delivers practical, high-ROI strategies to help you:💪 STRENGTHEN LOYALTY: Build deeper connections with donors, members, and volunteers through consistent, meaningful communication.🎭 TELL BETTER STORIES: Borrow tips from my background as an Actor + Fundraiser to find the emotional hook that inspires long-term commitment.⚙️ FOCUS ON WHAT WORKS: Get result-driven insights designed for small-to-midsize teams who need their comms to work as hard as they do. Join a community of mission-driven leaders moving from transactions to true connection.
A sad truth for fundraisers
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Donors don’t care about your _____ fund I recently received an appeal letter from an advocacy organization I participate in. Right away, I noticed a huge problem. In bold, red letters, the opening sentence declared: "Please take a moment to renew your annual membership to the [Name of Fund] Fund!" To be clear, this isn't something like a museum membership with a clear set of benefits. I donate to this organization sporadically, but that doesn't change my ability to sign emails and petitions. They were asking for an annual fund donation but had tweaked the language slightly. Unfortunately, this organization didn't realize a sad truth—one that will wound the pride of many fundraisers (myself included): your donors do not care about your annual fund. That's not to say they don't care about the work of your organization or the things your annual fund makes possible. What I am saying is that they probably don't even know what your annual fund means. And giving it a vague name doesn't help. "Annual fund" is prime nonprofit speak—it's a term that means very little outside of an organization. It can even mean very little outside of your fundraising team. I once told a fellow nonprofit professional that my background was in annual funds, and he didn't know what I was talking about. He wasn't a development person. It wasn't part of his world. The term meant nothing to him. Your donors absolutely care about how you're using their donations, but they don't care so much about the name of the bucket you put the money into. What they want to know is the impact their dollars will have. So, when you ask a donor to support your annual fund, don't talk about the name. Talk about what annual fund donations make possible. Remove your nonprofit as a conduit for change and focus directly on donor results. Instead of saying, "Support our annual fund," try phrases like:
Ask them for the things they care about: changing lives, making a difference, making the world a bit better. Ask them to support the work, don't ask them to support your annual fund. I'm sure you'll see a huge difference in the results you get. Interesting Nonprofit LinkUnless you've been hiding under a digital rock, I'm sure you've seen fierce debates online about AI and its potential impacts. Brett Cooper did an amazing job of exploring the implications of AI specifically for nonprofits in his newsletter. He made predictions a year ago, then followed up to evaluate his original predictions and make new ones. Nonprofit Good NewsI get seriously stressed out about climate change and the rapid deterioration of our environment. So I was stoked to learn that a Dutch nonprofit figured out they could preserve sea ice in the Arctic with the same technology that's used to make outdoor skating rinks! 🤯 See you next month! Lee O'Connell, nonprofit content and copywriter If someone forwarded this to you, you can snag your own subscription here. |
The Supporter Connection Newsletter
Your mission is powered by people. Give them a reason to stay. Most nonprofit comms feel like a series of transactions instead of a genuine connection. I’m here to help you build a relationship engine instead. Every month, The Supporter Connection delivers practical, high-ROI strategies to help you:💪 STRENGTHEN LOYALTY: Build deeper connections with donors, members, and volunteers through consistent, meaningful communication.🎭 TELL BETTER STORIES: Borrow tips from my background as an Actor + Fundraiser to find the emotional hook that inspires long-term commitment.⚙️ FOCUS ON WHAT WORKS: Get result-driven insights designed for small-to-midsize teams who need their comms to work as hard as they do. Join a community of mission-driven leaders moving from transactions to true connection.
📣Last email’s poll results 📣 It’s unanimous, y’all, polls are a go! Look out for this month’s poll after the main article. I shared in my last email that I’m focusing on nonprofit communications that help build stronger relationships between an organization and its supporters. To do that, I try to ground my writing in three simple ideas: Write from a person. Write to a person. Write about a person. This month, I’ll break down the first one: how to write from a person. First of all, I get it....
If you follow award show season, you may have noticed Huntrix—the fictional girl group at the center of the movie K-Pop: Demon Hunters—has been topping the best song nominations and awards. (I promise I am not here to get “Golden” stuck in your head… oops.) As someone who listened to the soundtrack on repeat for months last year, I can tell you that the honor is well-deserved. To quote another parent friend of mine, the soundtrack is, fortunately, "all killer, no filler." But inside one of...
If you’re like me, you got A LOT of nonprofit emails in November and December. And many of them communicated similar things Support our cause Help us reach our goal Your gift will be matched Give before the deadline Don’t get me wrong. These emails came from worthy organizations with missions worth supporting. And many sent stories in addition to cut-and-dried asks, which is great! But if you’re getting a half-dozen or more of these emails every day for two months, it feels almost...