How to Make Your Case for Donations

July 11, 2011
Mission Minded marketing guide cover: "Make Your Case for Donations: Create a Standout Case for Support"

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Create a Standout Case for Support

You’ve made it. You’ve finally landed that coveted meeting with your next major donor—the one who can finance an important new initiative for your organization.

Now comes the big question: How do you make your case?

  • Create urgency: Show donors their gift is needed now to solve a real problem, and that it will make a genuine difference.
  • Write a narrative: Lead with a story that stirs emotion, then follow it with the reasoning that makes giving feel like the obvious choice.
  • Be specific: Spell out exactly why the money is needed and how the world improves because of the donor’s gift.
  • Picture a person: Write to one real individual you know, not a faceless crowd, and make your case the way you would in a one-on-one conversation.

Plus more in the guide: two more ways to make your case great, a full anatomy of a winning case for support, and a checklist for testing it on real donors.

Happy fundraising!

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