As a nonprofit copywriter, every fundraising appeal I write deserves my very best.
Sounds like an ethical business philosophy … and so it is.
But it’s so much more than a philosophy. Every fundraising appeal I write deserves my very best because it just might help to save a life. The money raised may put food in the tummy of a starving child. The money raised may give life-saving medicine to a very ill mother. The money raised may help teach a farmer in a developing country how to grow more crops in the same amount of land; thus having enough money to feed his family and teach others to do the same. The scenarios are endless.
So whenever I’m getting tired and start to think, “Oh, that’s enough effort. That’s a good letter as it stands.” I remind myself of this reality – of the impact the copy I write can have – and I go back and work on the appeal some more.
Are you one of the copywriters at your nonprofit? If so, maybe this will give you another burst of energy when you’re working overtime to get out your newsletter and don’t want to take time for edits. Or when you’re tempted to take the direct mail letter and toss it up onto the website without any revisions. Or when the annual report is due and you too start to think, “Hey, who reads these anyway? That’s good enough.”
We never know who will be reading and how our words will affect them. We don’t know exactly when and how someone will be motivated to give. But can we afford to risk missing that opportunity to motivate them by taking short cuts with our copy? I don’t think so.
Let’s give nonprofit copywriting another go. Read it again … cut more extraneous words … add more emotion … make the extra effort to touch another giving heart ... to help save another life.
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