If your campaign feels like a report with graphs and numbers, you’re not going to move your donors to give.
If your campaign sounds like every other fundraising appeal in their inbox, they won’t see a reason to give to yours.
If your campaign doesn’t show an urgent reason to give NOW, they may not give until later–or at all.
So even before the federal funding cut chaos, and the donor confusion and overwhelm it created, nonprofits, schools, and foundations of every size were finding it harder to secure major gifts. Why?
Because your donors have heard it all, and from every channel.
Tepid campaign messages and tools won’t cut it today, even with your most loyal supporters. Why? Because with so much competition for their time and money, donors are less willing than ever to trust you if you can’t make them a powerful promise about what their dollars will achieve.
Remember, your donors are people who need to be moved. They’re looking for a powerful promise to believe in. They’re looking for conviction. And they want to know the power of what’s possible and how they can play a role in it.
We all know this! So why do so many organizations still create expected, uninspiring, donor communications? Why do nonprofits still ask for what they need instead of offering donors a way to get what they want?
Here’s a rubric for your next case that will make your campaign unapologetically bold. (But word of caution: if you fill it in with expected ideas, threadbare phrases, and need, need, need, even our formula won’t work)
Start with what Donors VALUE, NOT What YOU Need
Need alone is not enough to motivate donors. Group your audiences by the values they share with each other, not their giving potential or demographic profiles. Learn more about how to do this well by flipping the donor pyramid here and moving away from traditional donor personas here.
When The Rhodes Trust set out to launch a global campaign, they faced a big challenge. How do you inspire donors from different cultures, giving behaviors, and identities to support an institution in a different country whose very name evokes colonialism?The answer wasn’t to play it safe and dodge discomfort. It was to lean into the values that their donors held dear. By not segmenting donors by their race, class, gender, and occupation, we homed in on what donors care about the most, from equity to global stewardship. Donors weren’t asked to just give, but to shape what The Rhodes Trust could be. See the case here.
Make Your Case Believable, Urgent, and Emotional
Most campaigns make their case based on need alone. That kind of ask taps only the rational part of the brain. But donors must feel something before they give, and know their gift is urgently needed before they’ll take action. Your campaign will resonate with donors when you strike the right balance of making it urgent enough to act, emotional enough to care, and rationale enough to build trust. Read this to learn more about balancing the trifecta of urgency, emotion, and rationale.
Develop a Campaign Name That Doesn’t Put People to Sleep
You want your campaign to be talked about—and with excitement. If the theme is too long, too academic, or too literal, that won’t happen. So use simple, visual language, and make it easy to say. Learn how to create a great campaign name and see examples here.
With these three improvements, you’ll be on your way to get your donors excited about the problem they can solve and the opportunities you can seize together. You’ll help them see a future they’ll stop at nothing to help you achieve.
Mission Minded is a strategy and creative firm that helps good causes have greater impact.
Through elevated strategic plans, brand and messaging strategy, and passionate campaigns we’ve helped our clients raise over a billion dollars in the last five years by being unapologetically bold about what makes them unique.
If you have a major donor campaign on the horizon let us help you create the strategy and donor tools to exceed your goal. For more inspiration look at these successful campaigns.