Welcome! We're not going to string you along! 🤣 It's the 61st issue of the Fundraising Writing Newsletter. Please forward this to someone swell! (Swell people can ​subscribe for free.)

In this issue:

• 8 fundraising ASK strings -- help your donors make their best gift today 🤩
• Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Hi Reader,

Strings are underrated.

Say what?

Oh yes.

A few quick examples for you:

1. Strings can make music . . .

2. Strings can save lives . . .

3. Strings can be silly:

But perhaps the best strings of all are ASK strings.

That's because they connect your offer to your supporters and frame beautiful moments of much-needed giving . . .
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8 fundraising ASK strings -- help your donors make their best gift today 🤩

Let's get right to it.

Here are 5 "hot takes" containing 8 ASK strings . . . hot off the griddle for you:

1. While ASK string formulas vary, they should be based on the individual donor’s last gift.

Here are 3 examples:

This first formula rounds the 2nd ASK amount to the nearest $1: <last gift>, <last gift x 1.5>, <last gift x 2>.

This second formula is: <last gift>, <last gift x 2.5>, <last gift x 5>.

And this third formula rounds the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ASK amounts to the nearest $5: <last gift>, <last gift x 2>, <last gift x 4>, <last gift x 6>.
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2. Tie each ASK amount to your fundraising offer.

The offer above is: $1 provides 10 meals.

We can tell that this pack is going to a donor who gave around $18 for their last gift.

(Or this could be an acquisition or a mailing to lapsed donors, in which the ASK string starts with a low amount of $18.)

This offer is: $19 provides someone in a disaster a meal, snack, beverage, blanket and comfort kit.

The first ASK amount shown above indicates that the donor’s last gift was around $38. So, the ASK string starts by asking the donor to help 2 people ($19 x 2 = $38).
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3. If you have matching funds, show the doubling effect so the donor can see their forthcoming impact.

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4. You may want to circle one amount to encourage a higher gift.

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5. Finally, for your online donation page, consider this formula:

• Determine your average gift.
• Multiple that number by 1.5.
• Set this as the midpoint of your ASK string.
• Then fan out the other amounts on either side.

For example, if your average gift is $100, your midpoint is: $100 times 1.5 = $150. If you have 5 suggested ASK amounts, the ASK string might look like this:

$50, $100, $150, $250, $500, Other $_______​
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And . . . here's hoping at least one of these "hot takes" sates your hungry hankering for examples showing how to wrap your offers with ASK strings that connect your good cause to your donor's desire to be effectively generous. 🫶

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Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

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

• Irresistibly Appealing — Julie will be Rachel Muir’s guest during her October Workshop "Write Better Emails and Appeals." This is happening on Thursday, October 20th, so check out the deets and sign up here.
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• Fundraisingly Informative — Story problems with fundraising metrics: UR doing it wrong by Russell James (a long blog post in which James explains how metrics in fundraising can be good or bad, depending on how they're used; with tips on how to strategically focus your metrics and hold the all-important big picture near and dear)
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• Hilariously Wrong — If Not One Of These 33 Photos Makes You Laugh, Nothing Will by Andy Golder via Buzzfeed (33 pics of product knock-offs; for example, would you try "Dave" soap instead of Dove soap?)
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• Audibly Adventurous — Jimmy and Mark via Heavyweight (a 33-minute podcast episode about the true story of four boys around the age of 10 who rode their bikes 240 miles, Stand by Me style. It took 3 days. They had no adult supervision. This was, unsurprisingly, in the 1970s. Now, one of those boys wants to know if the others' lives were as profoundly changed as was his own life by that bike trip.)
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• Comically Social — Be Real by Saturday Night Live (a 3-minute video from last week's SNL season opener, in which a bank robbery is interrupted by notifications from the Be Real social media app)
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• Formally Yours — calligraphr (a website where you can pay to have your handwriting turned into a font)

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Until next time: May you always wrap your offers with ASK strings that inspire your donors to make their best gifts.

We'll see you in your inbox soon!

All our best,

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​PS: You deserve to raise lots more money for your good cause. Why not recruit an "all-star team" — The Case Writers — to take on your donor communications?

Imagine having all of these people on your side: Tom Ahern, John Lepp, Jen Love, Jeff Brooks, Maggie Cohn, Leah Eustace, Andrea Hopkins, Aimee Vance, and us (Julie & Brett).

Interested? Contact us, risk-free.

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