The Fundraiser's Guide to Irresistible Communications

Real-World, Field-Tested Strategies for Raising More Money

• The Importance of Being Urgent The secret ingredient that so many fundraisers omit.
• Make It Easy to Read Have your readers breezing happily through your copy.
• Long Messages Work Better It's true.  And your boss is wrong.
• Grammar for Fundraisers The rules you should and shouldn't follow.
• Persuade with Story, Not Statistics One way motivates donors, the other demotivates them.
• Keep It Simple Complexity kills fundraising.
• Make It All About the Donor It's not about you!
• I Have Bad News and Good News Balanced fundraising that works and keeps working.
• Have a Clear Call to Action No matter how well you write and design, if you omit this, you're sunk.
• P.S. I Love You Guess what part of your letter people are most likely to read.
• Design for Older Eyes You're a tree falling in the forest with nobody to hear it if you don't design for bifocals-wearing readers.
• Don't Skimp on Emphasis It makes a difference.
• Make Images Work for You The right picture can boost results, but the wrong one can turn them away.
• Plain, Corny, and Obvious Three characteristics of successful fundraising design.
• Self-Centric Fundraising The deadliest mistake in fundraising.
• Three Things You Should Know About Donors Embrace these truths, and you'll always do better.
• Three Deadly Fundraising Myths Everyone else is getting it wrong because they believe these things.
• Proud to Be a Fundraiser What's really going on with donors is better news than you might have thought.