The professor holds forth, and I am all ears! This is the 171st Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can βsubscribe here for free.)β β β Wednesday, June 4, 2025 Hi Reader, One of the highlights of my recent trip to the UK and Ireland was meeting Professor Russell James in person. Brett and I had met him virtually when he was the special guest for a couple of Tom Ahern webinars on bequest fundraising. So we knew what level of excellence to expect. Still, being in the audience for one of the professor's presentations at The Fundraising Summer School in Dublin β with no screen in between β was fantastic. I took lots of notes... "Top 10 legacy fundraising strategies..."The full title of the talk was actually: "Top 10 legacy fundraising strategies from scientific research: National data and results from the lab." And the 10 strategies are:
All of the above Professor James refers to as the pursuit of symbolic immortality. I like to think of it as people wanting to focus on making a difference... and nothing else. For a slew of free information on gifts in wills, connect with Prof. James on LinkedIn. Heβll automatically message you a bunch of resources β gold!! π€ Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge youFor your brain, heart, and funny bone...
Until next time: May you always remember to think like a donor when writing your donor comms, and may your donors always feel like you understand because you care. Grateful, Brett Cooper & Julie Cooper |
We're Julie Cooper and Brett Cooper, fundraising copywriters for great causes. Does your fundraising bring in as much money as it could? You can send donor communications that stir hearts to action. We'd love to help. π Start by subscribing to our FREE and fun weekly newsletter.
Easy thumbs-up. This is the 176th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, August 13, 2025 Hi Reader, If you've done any writing at all, you've probably heard the advice βshow, donβt tellβ about a million times. But βshowingβ is not just about sensory details or dialogue. Itβs also about you-were-there "time travel." Are you forgetting the ING in your fundraising writing? An -ING...
Well, hello there! This is the 175th Fundraising Writing Newsletter. If you find value here, please tell a fundraising friend. (Your fundraising friend can subscribe here for free.) Wednesday, July 30, 2025 Hi Reader, Have you heard of "audience capture"? It's when a person (typically an artist, performer, or influencer) is shaped almost entirely by the feedback from their audience. Instead of doing what they feel ought to be done, the person does only what they feel the audience thinks...
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.) 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...