I love love! This is the 166th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can ​subscribe here for free.)​

In this issue:

✅ In life and fundraising, love needs honesty.

✅ Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

Wednesday, April 9, 2025
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Hi Reader,

36 years ago, Brett and I had been dating for 2 months when he wrote me this letter.

Two things:

1.) I love this letter so much that I recently framed it. I keep it propped up by my makeup mirror so I can glance at it every morning.

2.) This is the best display of Brett's handwriting known to man, yet still not easy to read. Here are a couple of excerpts:

When he wrote this, Brett was 17 and I was 15.

I share this because of three places where Brett says something slightly unexpected for a love letter.

1.) "Two months is not a really long time"

2.) "I'm not quite as realistic as you are"

3.) "I’m not just saying all these things so that you’ll say nice things about me either"

In the first example, Brett's being honest about our chances. In the second, he's being honest about himself. In the third, he's being honest about what I might be thinking as I read this.

I love his kind words, of course!

But I love the honesty most of all.

The honesty is the glue.

Honesty is bracing.

Honesty is necessary.

Honesty is memorable.

And it's appropriate for your fundraising storytelling...

In life and fundraising, love needs honesty.

In general, fundraising storytelling works best when you focus on the urgency and the need in your appeals and you focus on the impact in your newsletters and annual reports.

But there's a related issue that has to do with the language you use. I recently read a LinkedIn post on this that caught my eye. Here's an excerpt:

At first glance, this sounds right, right?

Certainly no one's going to argue for "harmful narratives."

But, as suggested above, framing is important. In this case, I'd argue that the "harmful narratives" framing is itself harmful. It presupposes correctness. It has you nodding along before it's proved its point.

In the comments of the post, Lincy Jephchirchir responds eloquently, saying what I wish I'd have said if she hadn't:

💯

So much YES!

We need honesty because honesty is bracing, necessary, memorable... and true.

Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

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

• Fundraisingly Informative — Economic chaos is upon us; should fundraisers panic? by Jeff Brooks (a blog post about the precariousness of today's fundraising climate and what you should and should not do in response)​
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• Incredibly Aged — Life in the 1970s via James Lucas (an X thread featuring 30 amazing photos of how wildly different things were approximately 50 years ago, for good and... not so much)​
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• Officially Adorable — Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure via Netflix (a 2.5-minute trailer of a fascinating 3-episode docuseries in which a man in 2010 decides to bury a chest full of gold worth millions and announce it to the world, precipitating an epic and dangerous treasure hunt spanning years)

Until next time: May you always write to your donors with the passion of new love and the honesty that hopes for a relationship that will last.

With gratitude,
Brett Cooper & Julie Cooper
​(photo from Vegas, last week)

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