Jennifer Miller, Creative Director; David Torres, Creative Director; and Matthew Lorenz, Art Director, have over 55 years of combined experience in crafting direct-response appeals, and have helped raise tens of millions of dollars for the nonprofits they feel privileged to serve.
As I expected, there was lots of great information shared during the one-hour presentation to help The Salvation Army engage donors with a great newsletter.
Weren’t able to join the webinar live? You can watch the on-demand version here.
Here are my top 6 takeaways about donor newsletter best practices:
- You can’t overuse the word “you.” Donors love reading about how they made an impact.
- Highlight volunteer opportunities for donors. You have a captive audience of people who already support you financially, so share how they can also support you with their time.
- Make it worth their time to read. Donors have so much mail to open. Make your newsletter something they will make a point to open.
- People are hard-wired for stories. Remember being a kid and how you loved hearing a good story? Use your newsletter to tell stories. They are remembered far longer than expository essays loaded with facts and figures.
- Choose your photos wisely. No photo is better than a bad photo. And please ditch the picture of your Executive Director holding a large novelty check from a local company. That doesn’t inspire donors to give more — it has the opposite effect!
- A newsletter should be a vehicle of joy for donors! They should read about the good that’s being done because of them. That’s what it’s really about.