The robots are coming. The future is knocking. Meanwhile, nostalgia is worth its weight in golden memories. This is the 157th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can ​subscribe here for free.)​

In this issue:

✅ I agree with JP: nostalgia will be big in 2025 (in your fundraising too?)

✅ Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

Wednesday, January 8, 2025
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Hi Reader,

The podcast that got me into podcast listening is This Old Marketing. The hosts are self-described "marketing knuckleheads" — in a good way!

On last Friday's episode, Joe Pulizzi (“the Godfather of content marketing"), made this prediction for 2025:

His co-host Robert Rose agreed, saying,

Makes sense, right? The world is changing more rapidly than ever before. The future feels ever more uncertain, so the past looks ever rosier, more stable, a safe place to return to.

That's why...

I agree with JP: nostalgia will be big in 2025 (in your fundraising too?)

I'm making it my prediction too.

In fundraising, nostalgia will be big. Or at least, it should be. If you lean into nostalgia in your fundraising communications, I furthermore predict you'll be glad you did.

Nostalgia is always a good tool to have in your fundraising toolbox.

All the more so as the world gets more complex and technology accelerates —leaving in its wake opportunities and problems. Leaving us craving normality.

Normality is becoming nostalgic.

What grounds us is what tends to remain constant: family, tradition, history, and past culture that feels safe.

What do your donors have in common that feels nostalgic?

Depending on your target audience demographics, your answer might be a shared cultural moment like Woodstock, a shared rite of passage such as the first day of school, or a shared piece of pop culture such as "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic or Mario from Nintendo.

Ask yourself, "How can I include something nostalgic in what I'm writing?"

Often, adding nostalgia makes sense in your "hook," the opening lines of an appeal.

Here's an example we wrote for a client's 2024 end-of-year appeal letter:

Notice how simple this example is. "If you're like me, you practically grew up outside. How wonderful it was!"

This dollop of nostalgia is all you need to activate in your donors a sense of warmth, peace, and stability that's core to their identity, that means something to them, before proceeding to connect the nostalgia to the problem you'd like your donors' help in solving.

It's very doable. You can do it!

And if you do, please let us know how it goes!

Hopefully, you'll get rave reviews that translate to donor caring in the form of donor giving, as our aforementioned client:

Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

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

• Fundraisingly Informative — Transform New Donors into Lasting Partners: Start Here! by Mary Cahalane (a blog post full of good stewardship ideas; my favorite is "A casual donors-only event" in which the focus is not on putting on a show but letting donors connect over wine and cheese or coffee and dessert; brilliant)
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• Galactically Hopeful — Jimmy Carter's Voyager 1 message via gunsmokexeon (a Reddit post featuring a screenshot showing the words President Carter wrote to send into outer space in hopes of communicating with intelligent alien life forms)​
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• Dominantly Feline — Cat Express via Animals Being Cute (a Facebook reel showing two cats being pulled in the luxury of a train of cardboard boxes while other cats walk alongside them, envious and rejected)

Until next time: May your donor comms always connect to your donors' identities, helping your donors connect to their roots as they look to making the future a place we can all be proud of.

With gratitude,
Julie

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