Giving is especially powerful when you connect the story of your cause to the story of your donors' loved ones. This is the 152nd Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can ​subscribe here for free.)​

In this issue:

✅ If you help your donors see their loved ones in your cause...

✅ What gift ask amounts should be on your donation page?

✅ Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

Wednesday, November 13, 2024
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Hi Reader,

Brett here:

I love words.

You too?

I hope so. Being a word nerd is fun as well as educational. 🤓

When I was an English teacher, I taught my students "word stems" — prefixes, roots, suffixes...

For example, the word "philanthropy" can be broken into the roots "phil" and "anthrop" and the suffix "y."

Likewise, philanthropists are people who love humanity so much they're willing to donate money (and perhaps other resources) to help their fellow human beings.

I mention this because Julie and I recently read a blog post by Drs. Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang of the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy — an organization that exists to "grow the human capacity to love" — and from which Julie has earned her Certificate in Philanthropic Psychology and tutored in their Fundraising Copywriting program.

In the piece (which you can read here), Shang and Sargeant make the case for using messaging that activates a donor's "companionate love" in addition to their "compassionate love."

Here's where knowledge of word stems can help to illuminate a rather complex concept.

Back to those word stems in a moment.

For now, let's take a look at the upshot...

If you help your donors see their loved ones in your cause...

...then they will feel more giving because they will feel more like themselves.

Think about it.

When you feel like yourself, you're more likely to rise to your highest ideals.

When you read a fundraising appeal, you're in a "relationship" with the message — because the message comes from someone else.

You're engaging with the ideas of the person (or group of people) writing to you. You can accept or reject those ideas. You can pay attention to or ignore them.

Anytime you interact with someone else, you naturally decide (consciously or subconsciously) how guarded to be.

Generally, with someone we don't know well, we are guarded by default to protect ourselves.

But if we feel comfortable, we can open up and be ourselves. Then we're likely to be less guarded, more giving.

How can you apply this to fundraising writing?

One way is by striving to activate in your donors a sense of "companionate love" as well as "compassionate love."

Let's get back to those word stems.

"Compassionate" is a form of "compassion."

Here's an example of "compassionate love" in a Johnson Box at the top of a fundraising appeal letter we wrote for a client:

This Johnson Box copy is meant to invoke "compassionate love" by helping donors feel as though they are witnessing someone who is struggling and has an urgent need — and, hopefully, the donor will want to help because the copy places them with someone in the midst of their suffering.

"Compassionate love" is powerful.

It's even more powerful when paired with "companionate love."

What's the difference?

Well, "companionate" is a form of "companion."

In other words, a companion is someone close to you. (Our loves ones are the ones we most often break bread with.)

"Companionate love" can invoke your deepest sense of personal identity because it's the kind of love you reserve for your loved ones — the kind of love that makes you YOU.

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Here's an example of "companionate love" in the first body paragraphs of an appeal we wrote for another client:

(Content Warning: This appeal letter excerpt includes infant loss.)

This opening is not merely meant to establish a personal connection that sets up a fundraising story. It's meant to do so based on "companionate love."

Most donors will have had the experience of expecting their own baby or perhaps a niece or nephew. Reading the text above, they're likely to think and feel good things based on their own experience with their own loved ones.

Once they're in that frame of mind, they're feeling less guarded, more like themselves, more open to giving.

So, look for opportunities to invoke both "compassionate love" and "companionate love" as you write your next appeal.

The more love, the better! 💌

Question:

How do I decide what suggested gift amounts to put on my organization's donation page?

Julie's Answer:

It's not a one-size-fits-all answer, but you can easily figure it out! In this video, I'll give you a formula to use and you can apply it to your single gift AND monthly gift options on your donation page. (It's a helpful formula that I first learned from Dr. Adrian Sargeant's research.)

Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

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

• Fundraisingly Informative — Shortfall Story by Steven Screen (a blog post explaining how and why you might consider sending a shortfall appeal when you have a shortfall; including the story of a nonprofit client's initial resistance and eventual success)
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• Aggressively Corvid — If You Think You Can Hold a Grudge, Consider the Crow by Thomas Fuller (a NYT article about how crows can remember incidents of "wrongdoing" for years and team up to take drastic action)​
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• Elaborately Amusing — Beppo via Saturday Night Live (a wild ride of a 6-minute YouTube video about a fictional space chimp named Beppo and how he deals with a tragic series of escalating events)

Until next time: May you always help your donors feel the love so you can spread the love.

For the good of giving,
Brett

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