Just one of those days...

As staff you have to make a lot of fundraising calls. Every staff does. And every now and then you get one of those calls that kicks you right in the gut. You know the ones, right? The call where you hang up wondering IF you really are doing the right thing. The call where you hang up wondering IF you really are just panhandling.

But, at the end of the day you know you’ve been called to serve your mission and a part of that calling is fundraising. And besides, now you have one of those war stories to share with other staff!

Well, let us here at Staff Monkey encourage you! Just because you leave staff doesn’t mean you won’t still get to have those calls from time to time! We recently received an email from a staff who believed we might be engaged in a diabolical plot to rip off staff because there are a number of other Do-It-Yourself email marketing options out there that are cheaper than Staff Monkey. And he was particularly concerned because we use MailChimp (the very best of these) as our backend for our customers and yet keep this a closely guarded secret.

I would share the email, but he wasn’t nice people (although I’m sure he didn’t mean to come across as rude, right?).

We do want to take this opportunity to reaffirm to you, our much loved customers (and potentially much loved customers), that we will always look for better and greater ways to make you more awesome at what you’ve been called to do. And we are always evaluating and looking for ways to add value for what you pay for.

OK, I’m letting go now.

Writing a great newsletter is an important part of partnering with your donors.

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to actually accomplish your number 1 goal when sending a newsletter (see here)… getting it READ! Although there is no magical formula (surprisingly) there are a number of things you can do to get your newsletter read and even get a response from those you are trying to communicate with about your ministry.

1. Write For Your Readers. Although your life and ministry is extremely fascinating to you (and rightly so), try to ask yourself if what you are reporting is really important to those who pray and invest in your ministry. Although it is tempting to share every detail of your month to those who help make it happen, remember that what supporters want to hear more than anything else is a story of how people are being impacted by your ministry!
2. Keep It Simple (or in this case, Short) S****d. Although this adage is slightly insulting it will serve you well. How short? Think 300 words for emails and 500 words for paper newsletters. In other words, very short. You want people to open your newsletter and decide right then and there that they will take the time to read it because if they decide to “read it later”… well, they most likely won’t. Remember, your goal is to get your newsletter READ.
3. Choose Exceptional Pictures. The first thing a reader looks at when they open a newsletter is the pictures. Make sure your pictures are of good quality, tell an interesting story and leave people wanting to know more. Obviously this can be a tall order, but try… try hard. And enlist the help of others if this isn’t one of your strengths, because you just might know a co-worker or student or someone who loves taking exceptional pictures.

If you can do these 3 things your newsletter will get read more often by more people and that’s the whole reason why you are writing your newsletter in the first place! For most people this will actually be a serious challenge, but I always considered it a (spiritual?) discipline when I was on staff and I was never sorry when I did it right.

Both answers are good. But neither answer should be your top priority when it comes to sending out a prayer letter. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

So what should your #1 goal be?

When you are doing your “newsletter thing” you want one question on your mind above all others, “what can I do to make sure as many supporters as possible read this?” That is a staff’s #1 goal when sending out a newsletter. You want to have your newsletter read. Period. Nothing else even matters if people aren’t reading your updates.

So what can you do to get more people reading your ministry newsletters? At Staff Monkey we encourage clients to think about length, quality and frequency.

Length can be a killer for some staff. So many great things going on, so little time. If your newsletter is much over 3 to 4 paragraphs in length its too long. Long newsletters don’t get read. You don’t read long newsletters, we don’t read long newsletters and neither do your supporters. Limit what you share. If a supporter wants to know more, they will ask.

Quality is just as important when it comes to your newsletters. Use great pictures, not blury out of focus ones. Always send in color, not black and white on hot pink paper. Make it look attractive and inviting to the eye (lots of white space). Write about things that your supporters will care about, not just what you care about.

Frequency rounds out this dynamic trio. You need to send your newsletters often and consistently to your supporters. Once a month appears to be the sweet spot. Not once a month if you remember, but once a month, every month. You want your donors to expect your newsletter much like they expect their Economist, Atlantic Monthly or Christianity Today.

Keep these 3 things in mind as you send out your newsletter over the next year and see if you start to get more supporters interacting with you and your ministry. I bet you will.

For instance, on April 10th 2008, the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement was made. How many times have you had to help students make peace with one another? That stuff doesn’t always make newsletters but its a part of your day-to-day job and it’s important to communicate those things to donors who make it possible for you to do that job.

2) Tie in a current event and how it’s affecting your ministry.

I know of a couple of staff who are losing potential student leaders because they have to leave school and find jobs because their parents can’t afford to pay for college anymore. Many donors don’t even understand that InterVarsity staff spend most of their time training up student leaders! It’s not as glamourous as the 5 people that got saved last month, but probably just as relevant to you.

3) Find inspiration from your organization’s annual report.

Many, if not most, of your donors support YOU, not necessarily the organization you work for. But there are great things happening in your organization as well! Let your supporters know about those things that are relevant.

And if you are still all out of ideas, go put on a sandwich board sign for the day and generate one of those memorable, awkward sorts of stories.

“September 16 at 4 p.m. I accompanied our Wisconsin staff member to campus to visit a friend of his. We met him at the door to his dorm room; he was carrying two cans of Old Milwaukee and a package of bratwurst-Schweigert, I think.

He welcomed us warmly, and we started talking as he poured the 2 beers into an electric frying pan. One of the beers exploded onto his books and clothes. ‘Someone must have shook this one up,’ he said. Then he dumped the Schweigert bratwursts into the beer (on simmer) and kept turning them while we talked.

His roommate soon arrived carrying a can of Del Monte cream-style corn. He scraped it into an electric coffeepot already plugged into the wall. Naturally, the pot was too hot, and soon he was futilely trying to stir the burning corn at the bottom of the pot.

“Nice balanced meal,’ I said. ‘Beats dorm food,’ they replied.

Will you join me in praying for Wisconsin students?”

It’s important to think about how the people on your list know you. Did you know you can segment your list so that you can send only to certain groups?

No doubt half your email list doesn’t support you; but this does show that those who don’t are invested enough in your ministry to click on an email survey. In other words, there are probably as many prospects on your list as you have current financial supporters.

There are about 4 components below that came out very strong.

How long should your update be? 2 to 3 paragraphs for over 75% percent of the people on your list.

Hopefully this isn’t a surprise to anyone!

If you don’t have a website, there are good online photo-sharing programs out there such as the popular Flickr. Here are a couple of links for you:

http://www.flickr.com/

http://picasaweb.google.com (not to be confused with the Picasa software program)

You will want to avoid using a site that requires a donor to set up a username and password. Whilst Facebook might seem like a natural place to post pictures (and it is if you spend time there), the chance that Aunt Betsy and a majority of your donor list have pages themselves is unlikely.

For example, if you are sending your updates using a gmail address, here’s how to ensure proper inbox delivery in some popular e-mail programs and services:

Microsoft® Outlook®

* Select the e-mail from gmail.com.

* Go to the Actions menu.

* Choose Junk E-mail, then Add Sender’s Domain to Safe Sender’s List.

Gmail

* Click Contacts.

* Select Create Contact.

* Add “@gmail.com” in the Primary Email field.

* Click Save.

Yahoo!

* Select the e-mail from gmail.com

* Click Add to Address Book.

* Verify that the e-mail address is correct.

* Click Add to Address Book.

AOL

* Click Mail Options and select Address Book from the drop-down box.

* Click the Add (+) button.

* Enter the gmail.com address in the Other E-mail Address box

* Click Save.

Hotmail

* Click the Options link.

* Select Contacts.

* Click the Safe List link.

* Type “gmail.com” in the Domain text box.

* Click Add.

http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/fundraising_booklet/

Here is an example of a great picture taken by Katie Siemens, on staff at the Colorado School of Mines:

a) It is of a picture of the student she wrote a story about in that particular update

b) It is close-up and not straight on

c) It’s playful

Now, I am not assuming that you have all the time in the world to run around and take the perfect photo for your next newsletter/update. Having said that, here are some tips to using photos to illustrate your communication:

1) Use an inanimate object to describe an idea or event, like a picture of a brewing cup of coffee aside a story of a meeting with a student at the local coffee shop.

2) Make sure you are in the photos often. You (and your family) are your donors’ frame of reference.

3) Candid photos show ministry in action. You don’t need to have everybody smiling for the camera at all times.

4) If you do have people smiling for the camera, close-up shots where the whites of their eyes can be seen are best.

5) Simple photos without a lot of background noise stand out.