Behind the Scenes: 5 Essential Copywriting Tips

You have no doubt seen them — letters inviting you to support worthy causes, gripping emails about emerging crises, and social media ads highlighting how you can make a difference in the world.

Fundraising copy takes many forms on just as many platforms, but not all copy is created equal. Today, we are going to look behind the curtain and explore some copywriting best practices to help you spot, or craft, effective messaging.

Without further ado, let's get into some essential fundraising copywriting tips:

1.     Start with a Clear Intention

Before getting started, establish what you want your audience to know, feel, and do. This will guide your copy strategy — making it easier to pick content for a first draft and make decisions about what to trim or keep during the revising process.

2.     Include Four Essential Ingredients

Most copywriting for nonprofits has four distinct parts.

  • The Lead: Spark intrigue quickly with a shocking stat or motivating statement, the beginning of an engaging story, or a question. The lead should focus on a single emotion and introduce the problem you want the reader to know about — without solving it right away.

  • The Ask: Quickly include a clear call to action. Focus on the single thing you most want the reader to do, whether it’s to donate now, share this post, or attend an event.

  • The Story: Distill your nonprofit’s mission in the story of one individual that has been impacted. The story should outline what problem this person faced, how they addressed it with the organization’s help, and emphasize that the reader can help by getting involved. Be sure to connect the dots between the story itself and the difference the donor’s support can make.

  • The P.S.: For any longer form of copy, a P.S. is essential .It’s a short, noticeable way to summarize for your reader what you want them to know, feel, and do — especially if they skimmed the rest of your content.

3.     Tell It Like It Is

Storytelling is perhaps the most crucial part of fundraising. While numbers and statistics might appeal to logic, the stories of real people can touch the heart. It’s essential that the stories you share show how we can make the world a better place, together.

When discussing storytelling, a vital part of the puzzle is ethical storytelling — representing a story in an accurate and authentic way, with express permission to share that story. The featured individuals are real people, complete with hopes, dreams, fears, and agency as they navigate the problems in their lives. (You can learn more about the importance of ethical storytelling in a previous blog post.)

Take these two versions of explaining the same problem, for example:

Starving kids need your help.

OR

Mothers are doing everything they can to feed their kids. You can help.

In the second example, we more accurately describe the situation, acknowledging that the people you can help have some control and power in their lives — that they are already working to solve the problem at hand.

4.     Keep It Simple

Copy should be easy to read and digest. That means writing at a 6th to 8th grade reading level in most instances and ensuring there is a clear logic linking paragraph to paragraph.

This principle applies to both word choice and formatting. You want to vary the length of your sentences to keep it interesting for the reader while also making it easy to scan. Use italics when there is one word that needs to stand out. Or bold entire phrases that convey important ideas — like why now is the time to act. And break up longer sections of text with ...

Sub-headers

·       Or

·       Bullet

·       Points

And when you share stats, follow the “rule of ten.” It is nearly impossible for most people to grasp the difference between 17.6 million and 18.2 million people. While these numbers seem close, 0.6 million is roughly equal to the entire population of Las Vegas, Nevada! We can more easily imagine the size of an entire city as opposed to millions of individuals. Likewise, we can wrap our head around an example like, “1 in 10 people in the U.S.” It’s best to contextualize numbers when possible, and break down the biggest stats into more understandable, “1 in 10” examples.

5.     Put Your Reader at the Center

Many organizations are well-versed in why they are unique, why donating to them is the best choice, or why their mission is the one you need to join ASAP. However, copy is more engaging when it invites the reader in.

One short and easy way to make your copy more focused on the reader is to make “you” the subject of the sentence as much as possible. For example:

Our nonprofit is saving lives.

vs.

You save lives when you make a generous contribution.

The latter is considered more engaging for readers because they are included in what you’re communicating. You can take it even further by connecting readers to the specifics of the mission you are writing about. For example,

You can help our organization fight poverty.

 vs.

You can provide determined people with the tools to lift themselves out of poverty — including vocational training, access to loans, and crucial professional networking contacts.

See the difference? Which makes you feel more connected to the nonprofit, or the communities served? Which presents the people that you can help as active participants in the solution being proposed?

The next time you receive a fundraising letter or stumble across an online ad asking you to donate, see if you can spot these copywriting tips in action. By keeping these in mind, you are well on your way to being a more effective writer.

P.S. Were these tips helpful to you? Are there important things that we missed? Or do you need help crafting engaging copy that converts? Click here to let us know!

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