This is the 184th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can ​subscribe here for free.)​

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Hi Reader,

Your EOY appeal has mailed — or will any minute.

Your GivingTuesday emails have been sent.

Your year-end comms are queued up.

But wait —

one last thing

If you'd like to be sure you're not missing anything...

...you might want to do one final edit to your emails and other comms that have not yet gone out.

All it takes is some judicious deleting.

To quote Steven Screen's Better Fundraising blog post published yesterday:

and

and

100% yes to all of this.

As Brett and I wrote in Chapter 1 of our free book Heartable Fundraising Writing, knowing your audience means being audience-centered. When I'm talking to my mom, I don't say certain things I would to my friends. At that moment, I'm mom-centered. When I'm talking to my sons, I'm son-centered. And when I'm talking to donors, I'm donor-centered.

This doesn't mean my mom or my sons or donors are self-centered. It means everyone has their own life, their own viewpoint, and to communicate well we must understand the differences between our viewpoint and others'.

And the thing is: the flip side of "know your audience" is "know yourself." As Screen implies in the final quote above, someone from your HR department might be tempted to talk about staffing or your org's culture ... if they were to write your fundraising appeals and other comms. Someone from your finance department might be tempted to be talk about your org's accounting approach. And so on.

It's crucial for you to be aware of the things that are interesting and relevant to you that are not interesting or relevant to your donors.

Again:

1. Who's your audience? (Donors, in this case.)
   ​
2. Who's the writer? (Doesn't matter as long as they are donor-centered when talking to your donors.)

Being donor-centered when talking to your donors is an act of generosity. As Screen puts it:

So, as you prepare for your org's year-end... if you have time, consider taking one last pass at your emails and other fundraising comms that have not yet been sent.

Think of your delete button as a magic wand. 🪄

Then go through your year-end fundraising emails, etc., and delete anything that's more educational than it is donor-relevant — anything that's for you more than it is for them.

Focus on what grabs the heart: need, urgency, and the human (or animal... or natural...) specifics thereof; plus your offer — i.e., how the donor can be a part of a story that switches from tragedy to heartwarming tale of success in the final act.

That's all you need.

Nothing more.

Randomly yours

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

• Fundraisingly Informative — The Gift of Not Having to Know the Details by Steven Screen (the blog post that inspired today's newsletter; worth reading more than once for its nuggets of fundraising wisdom worth their weight in gold!)
  ​
• Tragically Romantic — Train Dreams via Netflix (a 3-minute trailer of the new film now out on Netflix — the movie follows the story of an Idaho logger, his wife, their daughter, and a love and life story that unfolds over decades, beginning in 1917)
  ​
• Nerdily Nitty Gritty — Back to the Future via The Rewatchables (a 1.5-hour podcast episode in which the hosts extoll what makes the 1985 classic film so rewatchable; if you enjoy it, check out the other movies the podcast has covered)

Until next time: May you always know and respect the differences between you and your audience, for heartable fundraising writing that will inspire your donors to care more, feel more, and give more.

Grateful,

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