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.)​

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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 and no, I'd say.

I'd say it's rather like AI...

Are you falling into "the AI trap"? (Please no!)

Does your org's fundraising copy review process involve several people giving direction disguised as feedback?

If so, you may be falling into "the AI trap."

This is where you channel too many voices, you say too much, you lose focus. Instead of harnessing one human voice that rings clean and clear through the noise of modern life, you play it safe by going middle-of-the-road.

Just like an AI.

Today's chatbot AI are trained by consuming the internet. They are constantly finding and mimicking patterns.

The patterns are "the middle of the road."

This can be super helpful for creating generic content, for doing some research or brainstorming, or for bouncing ideas off of as you gather your thoughts.

For fundraising, middle-of-the-road is cringe.

For fundraising, you want your donors to feel the urgency of an important problem they can help solve right now.

Donors who feel more, care more and give more.

Middle-of-the-road messaging won't make your donors feel much of anything.

You need a writer who listens to all relevant voices and then synthesizes all of that (keeping only what's necessary) to convey a single, powerful, focused, fundraising message that moves your donors to give. Whether the writer is you or someone else, their unique human voice must be preserved in the review process.

Otherwise, your message will be spread thin, muddied, and muted. It won't sound like an actual person. It will fall flat.

Listen to every voice... in the beginning.

Then empower one voice: the writer's.

Keep feedback as limited as possible.

Good fundraising is a relationship. As with any relationship, your donor comms should feel intimate, like one person talking to another in conversation, authentically, passionately.

Not like a committee.

Not like a group.

Not like an AI.

Please don't fall into that trap!

Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

For your brain, heart, and funny bone...
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• Fundraisingly Informative — 5 Steps to Your Easy Annual Fundraising Plan by Jeff Brooks via Moceanic (a blog post that gives a solid to-do list for a year of fundraising letters and emails)
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• Heartwarmingly Viral — Winnie the Pooh Is a Grandpa! by Jim Cummings (a short Instagram reel featuring the man with the golden Pooh Bear voice speaking soothingly to his baby grandson).
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• Incredibly Believable — Easy Money: The Charles Ponzi Story via Apple Podcasts (comedian Sebastian Maniscalco gives voice to Charles Ponzi in this true story of how the Italian immigrant who set the stage for Bernie Madoff made his name)

Until next time: May you raise more money for your good cause by sounding like an actual person anytime you communicate with your donors.

Grateful,

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