This is the 180th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, October 8, 2025 Hi Reader, Maybe you're a social butterfly. I'm more like a social caterpillar. When it occurs to me to attempt fluttering by in a social situation, I default to "not just yet." I mean, in a room full of lovely people, where do I look? There are so many faces. There are so many possibilities. It's...
25 days ago • 3 min read
This is the 179th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, September 24, 2025 Hi Reader, When I was a kid, I loved reading. I would read Book Fair books and Dear Abby columns and even the backs of cereal boxes. But I wasn't drowning in words. I'd spend some of my free time watching The Brady Bunch and Tom & Jerry and Saturday morning cartoons, and I'd play outside with my...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
This is the 178th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, September 10, 2025 Hi Reader, When Brett taught English to 8th graders, he couldn't believe how many of his fellow teachers were using the font Comic Sans. You know — this one: No offense to any Comic Sans fans out there... but the font has an elementary school vibe. It's off-putting to young teens who are knocking on the...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Sing it! This is the 177th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, August 27, 2025 Hi Reader, For a long time, I really did not like country music. Then I came across the classic country station "Willie's Roadhouse" on Sirius XM, and I started paying attention to the lyrics. Tears flowed. My heart swelled and broke and swelled again. Now I know what before I did not: some of the...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Easy thumbs-up. This is the 176th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, August 13, 2025 Hi Reader, If you've done any writing at all, you've probably heard the advice “show, don’t tell” about a million times. But “showing” is not just about sensory details or dialogue. It’s also about you-were-there "time travel." Are you forgetting the ING in your fundraising writing? An -ING...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Well, hello there! This is the 175th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, July 30, 2025 Hi Reader, Have you heard of "audience capture"? It's when a person (typically an artist, performer, or influencer) is shaped almost entirely by the feedback from their audience. Instead of doing what they feel ought to be done, the person does only what they feel the audience thinks...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Middle-of-the-road is cringe. Don't go there. This is the 174th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, July 16, 2025 Hi Reader, There's a problem I'm seeing more and more of, especially in fundraising. It's insidious. It's pervasive to the point of being almost invisible. I'm talking about giving everyone a voice at all times. But everyone should have a voice! Right? Well, yes...
4 months ago • 2 min read
For Grinch-proof appeals. This is the 173rd Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, July 9, 2025 Hi Reader, I'm a naturally caring person. But when my Aunt Jo died of colon cancer, suddenly I found myself caring far more than ever before about this horrible disease, because it now had a face and a heart. Your fundraising stories can do the same for your donors. I encourage you...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Our new puppy, Charlie. A puppy for your happy fundraising summer thoughts. This is the 173rd Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, June 25, 2025 Hi Reader, Summer snuck up on me. So did this puppy. Meet Charlie! He's a cavapoo. We've had him for 1 week, and already we are head over heels. After Brett and I lost our dear Pepe and Daisy within 12 months of each other last year,...
4 months ago • 2 min read