Hey there, lovely you! This is the 77th issue of the Fundraising Writing Newsletter. Kindly share it with someone who's striving to stay gold. (They can ​subscribe for free.)

In this issue:

• Why you should never stop fundraising to this group of lapsed donors 🌅 🧡
• Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Hi Reader,

One great thing about movies and books (and movies based on books) is that they offer:

• stories worth hearing
• populated by characters worth knowing
• learning lessons worth learning
• illustrated with images worth remembering.

If you've read SE Hinton's classic novel The Outsiders and/or seen the 1983 film version, for example, then you and I have some memories in common. Like this one:

I hope you do share this "memory" with me, because:

1.) the book and movie are wonderful and

2.) the image of Ponyboy and Cherry (two opposites) watching the same sunset — their humanity triumphing over their differences — is beautiful.

It's an image I think of when I muse about the concept of the "magic hour" — i.e., just after the sun sets (or just before it rises) and the light is magic.

I blame Professor Russell James for making me think in poetic pictures. 😊

It all began when he first mentioned the concept of the "magic age" and the reason . . .

Why you should never stop fundraising to this group of lapsed donors 🌅 🧡

You see, we've all experienced the "magic hour" —

— yet most of us know little or nothing of the "magic age."

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So let's compare and contrast:

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The magic hour = a time of day good for thinking, reflecting, and appreciating.

The magic age = a time of life good for thinking, reflecting, and appreciating.

* * *

The magic hour = the last (or first) moments of a day.

The magic age = the last years of a life.

* * *

The magic hour = a time of quiet stillness that can nonetheless be mentally productive.

The magic age = a time of life when a person may "go quiet" on you ... but you should not go quiet on them!

* * *

In the following video excerpt from Tom Ahern's recent bequest marketing webinar, Professor Russell James explains how the magic age is key to good fundraising.

He talks at length about:

• when the magic age is
  ​
• what the magic age means for you and your donors
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• and how important it is that you do not go quiet on your donors who've reached the magic age ... even if they've gone quiet on you!

Once you've watched this video, I hope you'll never forget about the magic age, about your donors who've achieved it, or about the fact that we're not so different from them — we watch the same sunset! 🌅 🧡

Randomly yours: to inspire and recharge you

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

• Fundraisingly Informative — The Two Times Smaller Orgs Get More Complaints by Steven Screen (a blog post about how getting more complaints correlates with raising more money)
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• Audibly Heart-stirring — Isabel via Heavyweight (a 37-minute podcast episode about a person who finds an old suitcase with 5 years worth of love letters and then tries to solve the mystery of why they were discarded)
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• Visibly Moving — 1,000 Blind People See for the First Time via MrBeast (an 8-minute video in which people around the world are given surgery to remove their cataracts so they can see again)
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• Robotically Captivating — Atlas Gets a Grip via Boston Dynamics (a 1-minute video showing the latest Boston Dynamics advanced humanoid robot in action: jogging, jumping, carrying, tossing, and problem solving)
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• Analytically Comprehensive — Analyze My Writing (a free website where you can paste a piece of text and have it analyzed for: basic text statistics, common words and phrases, readability, lexical density, and passive voice)
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• Artificially Tasty — AI Veggie Soup Recipe via ChatGPT (Brett asked ChatGPT this question: "What's a good recipe for vegetable soup that does not include peas or beans?" and it generated a recipe that sounded good, and we actually tried it; the results were so yummy that we've now made the soup twice and plan to keep it in our regular rotation)

Until next time: May your humanity always triumph over your differences, and may you happily and gracefully live long enough to attain and savor the magic age!

All our best,

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PS: If you'd like to read past issues of this newsletter, the Fundraising Writing Newsletter archive is here.

PPS: Need help with your donor communications? You might want to check out some portfolio examples (of appeals, newsletters, cases...) from The Case Writers — a collective of pro fundraising copywriters and designers with winning results (including yours truly).