This is the 197th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can ​subscribe here for free.)​

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Dear Reader,

I’ve always loved typography...

...but lately I’ve taken it to a new level.

I've gone down a rabbit hole of books, online course materials, and YouTube videos.

For me, typography (the art of arranging letters on a page) is like Lay’s potato chips. Once you get a taste, you just can’t stop!

So I'm now in the habit of noticing and taking photos of words in the wild. Here are a few recent ones for you:

The beer glass font choice is excellent. The formality of a typewriter font colliding with a crass message really helps land the joke. 🤣

In fundraising, a handwriting font can have a similarly powerful impact.

Think about your average donor. Statistically, they are in their mid-60s. They grew up before cell phones and the internet, when often you picked up pen and paper if you wanted to stay close to someone.

Brett and I are Gen Xers, and we feel the pull of handwriting fonts too. We wrote back and forth to each other during our high school and college years! Here’s a glimpse of our ginormous bin of letters.

When an older donor sees a bit of handwriting on one of your communications, it’s likely to evoke for them countless warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia.

Studies like this one show that handwriting fonts have an effect that can be nearly as powerful as the human touch. Which makes people more likely to donate.

Still, you wouldn’t want to write a whole donor piece in a handwriting font. It would probably not feel authentic. And it would be hard to read. Think of handwriting fonts in the way you think of headlines or pops of color. A little goes a long way.

Here are:

6 examples of how to use a handwriting font in your donor comms

To help your donors feel more connected to your cause (and therefore more ready to give):
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1. Gratitude message in a donor newsletter

This one looks like a quick note written on a Polaroid picture. (Handwriting font: Journal)

2. Call-to-action area on a website

This screenshot shows the newsletter signup form on our website. You can add a handwriting font (and maybe some identity language) to your site, too! (Handwriting font: Sweet Belly Script)

3. A message at the top of an appeal

This note draws attention to the matching funds offer. (Handwriting font: Million Dreams)

4. A nudge on a response card in a direct mail appeal pack

This short message is intended to guide a giving choice. (Handwriting font: Fave Script Pro)

5. Page trail marker

This helps guide the donor through an appeal letter in a personal, inviting way. (Handwriting font: Rollerscript)

6. Photo caption

This transforms a polished description into something a staff member could have jotted down for the donor. (Handwriting font: Marydale)

By the way, I’m a big believer in adding a handwriting font to your brand guidelines. Most of our clients have one. You should too!

Randomly yours

For your brain, heart, and funny bone...

• Fundraisingly Informative — Never Interrupt Your Donors When They’re Being Generous by Steven Screen (a timeless blog post about how good intentions can backfire; "One person’s fear that 'their donors were going to get burnt out' was given more weight than the behavior of thousands of donors. Because of that, the organization raised less money and lost many of those donors.")​
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• Genuinely Awesome — BILLIE EILISH – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D) via Paramount Pictures (a 3-minute trailer for the James Cameron-directed concert film that just left theaters ... but you can catch it on streaming this summer; Brett and I saw it and were absolutely wowed!)
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• Backwardly Dated — Looney Tunes hasn't aged well via dustinnickerson (a short video clip of a standup comedian explaining in painfully funny detail how Looney Tunes is now to our eyes and ears obviously wildly inappropriate: That's all, folks!)​

Until next time: May you always remember that your donors want to feel connected, and there are lots of fun little places where you can create new links!

Grateful,

Julie Cooper & Brett Cooper
Fundraising Copywriters​
​FundraisingWriting.com​
​Fundraising Copywriting & Design​​
​100% human, thank you very much.