Category Archives: Social Change

16 Tips for Crafting a Powerful Postcard Campaign – Part 1

[Dalya’s Note] This guest blog post originally appeared on Michael Rosen’s blog on April 19, 2013. Michael J. Rosen, CFRE is President, ML Innovations (http://mlinnovations.com), and Publisher, Michael Rosen Says… (http://MichaelRosenSays.wordpress.com).

As you might imagine, I regularly receive direct mail appeals from many charities. Most of them are truly “junk mail.” After a quick glance, I quickly deposit the junk appeals into the recycling bin where they will do much more good than their intended purpose.

Occasionally, I’ll receive a mailing that captures my attention, for the right reasons. Even more rarely, I’ll find something in my mailbox that is worthy of sharing with you. Earlier this month, I found just such a piece.

The postcard mailing from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia arrived shortly before the Passover and tied into the holiday. This post contains an image of the front and back of the postcard so you can see it for yourself. Federation did a great job with the piece. So, let me take a few moments to share some tips we all can learn from it:

1. Get rid of the envelope. One of the greatest challenges with direct mail is getting people to open the envelope. They won’t get your message unless they do. If you can get your message across in a way that does not require a full mailing package, you can overcome this challenge by simply doing away with the envelope altogether. Federation’s postcard mailing has done exactly that.

2. Employ a pattern interrupt. Another challenge with direct mail involves figuring out ways to engage the recipient so they spend more than two seconds with the piece before tossing it into the trash. When most folks go through their mail, they quickly look for the fun stuff and bills. People quickly weed-out what appears to be junk.

So, how did Federation disrupt the typical mail-sorting pattern? They did it with two very different photos on the front of an odd-sized postcard. While speedily going through my mail, I noticed an old-fashioned, sepia-tone photo of an older couple on the postcard. Beside it, there was a contemporary color picture of a cute, young child eating matzo. The postcard got me to ask, “Huh, what’s this about?”

In other words, Federation caught my attention by being unusual and by presenting contrasting photographs. They knocked me out of my normal mail-sorting pattern.

3. Make it easy to read. By printing black type on a white background, Federation provides strong contrast that makes reading easier. While reverse type was used – something I normally do not approve of — it was used sparingly and with a larger serif font ensuring easy readability.

4. Keep the message brief but impactful. In about 50 words, I learned that Mr. and Mrs. Schweig had passed away long ago. However, I also learned they had contributed to Federation. Most compellingly, I discovered that their generous support would feed 1,500 community members in need during Passover.

The generosity of the Schweigs impressed me. The depth of the community need surprised me. The organization really had my attention.

5. Engage the reader. I was already engaged with the postcard when the photos caught my attention and I read the pithy message on the front of the card. However, the card engaged me further with a simple question: “What will your legacy be?” By asking the reader a question, you can get them to stop and think.

6. Provide more details. On the address-side of the postcard, the reader is told that Mr. and Mrs. Schweig made their gift through a bequest. Providing additional details and telling people where they can get even more information will satisfy all readers and their individual levels of curiosity.

7. Demonstrate impact. Donors want to make a difference. Whether they give to the annual fund or make a planned gift commitment, people want to know that their support will have a positive impact. They want to know that their donations will be used efficiently to help the organization fulfill its mission.

This postcard shows how the support of past donors is being put to good use. The implied messages are: We wisely use the support from past donors to help the community. We can help you to have a positive, high-impact as well.

8. Show appreciation. By recognizing two deceased donors, Federation sends the message that the organization remembers donors even after they are no longer physically with us. By thanking Mr. and Mrs. Schweig for their impactful support, Federation is letting all donors know their support is valued.

For those considering leaving a legacy gift, these are meaningful messages. While some people may not necessarily want to secure a measure of immortality, all donors will be happy to know that they can continue to have a positive impact on the lives of others after they themselves are gone.

(See Part II of this article HERE.)

Musings on the 50th Anniversary of MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail

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This month marks the 50^th Anniversary of the Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963) written by Martin Luther King, Jr. In it he responded to 8 white clergymen who expressed their objections to recent nonviolent protests. As one of King’s most well-known pieces, the letter served as a turning point for the civil rights movement as it defended the strategy of nonviolent resistance in response to racism.

King wrote the letter in the margins of newspapers (the only paper he had at his disposal) and eventually pieced it together for publication in the New York Post, Christian Century, and Atlantic Monthly. It then became part of huge changes that year and beyond.

King used his writing to make a difference; he clearly understood the immense power of writing and used it to express his passion and inspire huge numbers of people the world over. You can take a cue from him.

On this website, in my presentations and coaching session, and in my editing work, I offer a slew of tools to use when sharpening your writing to inspire change and engage hearts and minds. While we may not find ourselves at King’s level of making sweeping changes at the end of our pens (or keyboards), we can strive to maximize our written words.

Here’s an excerpt from King’s letter, where I highlighted the most famous quote:

“… I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.”

Read the full letter HERE.

Are You a Marketer Looking for a Cause? A Cause Looking for a Marketer? Read This!

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[Dalya’s Note] This original blog post was written by writer Anna Mullenneaux.

Pimp My Cause connects charities and social ventures with top marketers who can provide transformational input pro bono through a free, online matching platform.

“At Pimp My Cause we believe that marketers and causes have a lot to offer each other,” explains Paul Skinner, founder of Pimp My Cause. ”On the one hand, causes need marketing capabilities more than ever, as they seek to maintain relevance in a digital age and diversify their funding streams in the light of the global economic context for example through the adoption of social enterprise models.”

“On the other hand,” he says, “marketers are becoming increasingly keen to develop their credentials in terms of sustainable business, corporate citizenship and ethical marketing, and have a lot to learn from working with causes in terms of how to create the kinds of social and environmental benefits that are becoming increasingly relevant to their day jobs.”

The Pimp My Cause platform has options for anyone to search and browse listings of profiles to find their own best match – in terms of the type of cause they are interested in, or the marketing skills they have to offer, and where they are based.In the year and a half since the site launched membership has quickly grown to over 750 professional marketers and 650 causes, with around 60 streams of pro bono marketing in progress at any time. There are members in over 40 countries but the majority of activity is in the UK. Marketers have opportunities to support everything from big name charities like the RSPCA and Cancer Research down to tiny social venture start-ups, often with first-in-kind business models or ideas like Wheelchair Laser Tag.

Recent member stories that have been featured in the Pimp My Cause news section include:

marketers creating an animated video that helped Foodcycle gain £120,000 in funding
identifying ways to fund sustainable farming through the application of new business models at farmhopping
providing a design make-over and business model review for a Lakeview Monkey Sanctuary
developing the first strategic marketing plan for European Disaster Volunteers to help them build primary schools in disaster afflicted communities.

By exploring the website it is easy to see the openness and ease of use for both marketers looking to find a project to support and causes in need of marketing expertise. If anyone has questions they can email Anna Mullenneaux, Chief Match Maker of Pimp My Cause, to learn more.

What’s in a Name? Why Good Titles Are Important

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Ellen Bristol will be a Special Guest on the 4/17 Writing Wednesdays call and has written the below blog post. She developed the Leaky Bucket Assessment for Effective Fundraising, and the methodology Fundraising the SMART Way. Enjoy the post, and we hope you can make the conference call!

I’m a fundraising consultant. I’ve been a fundraising consultant for 18 years, but my practice really took off in April 2011, when I launched the Leaky Bucket Assessment for Effective Fundraising. Since then, I’ve collected over 300 surveys, co-authored a book inspired by the Assessment (with a fundraising rock star, which didn’t hurt), presented dozens of webinars based on Leaky Bucket results, written I don’t know how many articles and blog postings about the Leaky Bucket, and gotten I don’t know how many audiences to laugh out loud when I am introduced as the creator of the Leaky Bucket Assessment (even if they have no clue what the Leaky Bucket Assessment is all about).

So why has this five-word phrase had such an impact? To tell you the truth, it was a total surprise, but it also taught me something I should have known years ago. Good titles are important. And in the twitterized universe, they are supremely important. Titles work best when they capture a mood, when they’re understandable but with a twist, and when they’re easy to remember.

I always thought I had trouble with titles because I tend to think (and write) in longer phrases. It was easy for me to call my first book “What’s Wrong with Your Fundraising – and How You Can Fix It” (eleven words!) even though our publisher really, really wanted us to call it something like “How to Improve Your Fundraising” (five words). Fortunately, my co-author Linda and I talked him into the longer title; the short one gave us hives.

Titles are important because they’re kind of like mission statements. They can tell you the whole story, or the purpose, or the impact, in a few words. Titles sell books. They also sell other things you can publish, like webinars, surveys, white papers, interviews, and videos. If they’re catchy, they go viral. Remember the Dancing Baby?

Oh, by the way, the Leaky Bucket itself has led to a big fat increase in lucrative consulting engagements, the publishing of a game used in teaching fundraising skills, a contract with a big mainstream publisher to write another book (on the methodology that inspired the creation of Leaky Bucket), and a few other income-producing things. It’s also on its way to launching a new service for my company: benchmarking.

The success of the Leaky Bucket title has given me a couple of important insights, beyond the fact that titles are important. One is that it’s okay to let your personal voice show in a title. I came up with the leaky bucket image when I found myself trying to describe productivity in fundraising to a friend; I said “productivity leaks out of fundraising shops in ways you don’t notice.” Well, what leaks, people? Buckets do! That one was just too easy. So now, everything I write gets put to the Leaky Bucket test: is the title memorable? Does it go with my admittedly off-kilter personality? (I mean, if I don’t like the title, nobody’s gonna like it, right?) Can people remember it? Can I re-use it, or a version of it, as a metaphor or jumping-off point in the article/white paper/book/video/blog posting that it honors? For example, you can get one of four scores when you take the Leaky Bucket; the lowest score is “Leaking Like a Sieve!” Get it?

Think about your own titles. As useful as the “Seven Steps…” or the “Fourteen Fundamentals…” might be, can you challenge yourself to find phrases that reflect your point of view, represent your uniqueness, and yet are still accessible to others? If the title meets the “like me, unique, catchy” test, it still needs to be easy for a search engine to locate.

You may have spent tons of time working on the content of your writing but it pays to remember that your titles are just as important. And they just might be more important. Especially if they can launch your writing career into the stratosphere.