How to Make an Evidence-based Ask

Social science findings should guide fundraising appeals, says Esther James, "The Happy Fundraiser."

James sifted the peer-reviewed papers of social scientists throughout the English-speaking world.

She uncovered 10 tips for forceful fundraising letters:

1. Always tell one beneficiary's story, both in your letters and follow-up materials—especially your thank-you notes.
   
   
2. Include at least one "sad-faced" photo of the beneficiary. Avoid group shots, because they'll trigger "compassion fatigue."
   
   
3. Describe the consequence of inaction. When St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital told the story of a baby it treated for leukemia, donors were informed 70% of the other babies with the disease would die without their help.
   
   
4. Ask for money. And do it all year.
   
   
5. Partner with a foundation, corporation or major donor to offer a matching gift. It need not be dollar-for-dollar, but it must be at least $10 to work.
   
   
6. Leverage social pressure. Spur donors by saying “people like you gave $_____."
   
   
7. Test different forms of social pressure. Donors respond well when their identities (gender, race, Zip Code, etc.) match.
   
   
8. Spend more on letters for new donors, less on letters for repeat donors.
   
   
9. Send "signals of trustworthiness." There are many. Longevity. Prominent board members' names. Grants received. Affiliations with other trusted organizations. Audited financials. The breakout of your administrative and fundraising costs. Lists of your past achievements. Testimonials. Media mentions. And charity watchdog ratings.
   
   
10. Talk up your awesomeness when writing to big donors; don't when writing to others.

PS: Esther James is my daughter. For more fundraising tips, follow her blog.

Regime of Humbug

Want to know where government's heading?

"Read Ayn Rand," says the chair of the world's biggest hedge fund firm, Ray Dalio.

"This new administration hates weak, unproductive, socialist people and policies, and it admires strong, can-do, profit makers," Dalio says.

"It wants to, and probably will, shift the environment from one that makes profit makers villains with limited power to one that makes them heroes with significant power."

Spirits, where are you when we need you?

The Content Marketer's Dilemma

If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

— Henry Ford

What's a content marketer to do?

Scrape the web for feedback to create content customers search for? Or create content based on your vision of a better future?

We all know the merits of creating content based on web feedback.

Study upon study shows customers begin their "buying journey" by Googling familiar keywords... prefer those brands whose content they find... and find that content because it's stuffed with those keywords and conforms to their notions of a "buyer's guide."

And we all know the pitfalls of creating content based on a vision.

That kind of content isn't stuffed with all the keywords customers know and doesn't otherwise meet their expectations of a "buyer's guide." So they never find it; or, if they do, don't click on it. Like the tree that falls in the empty forest, content based on a vision makes no sound.

How do you create content?

Justice. There's No App for That.

The sides are forming: a union of haves versus a confederacy of have-nots. As Yogi Berra said, it's like déjà vu all over again.

So, during the holidays:

• Enjoy a little peace. Come January 21, peace is over.
  
  
• Subscribe to a source of real news. Deceit will be the government's weapon of choice.
  
  
• Be kind to women, gays, minorities, refugees and immigrants. Most wear targets on their backs.
  
  
• Prepare to mobilize. And I don't mean your iPhone.

Inch by Inch

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has always found ways to leverage technology—whether e-commerce, rockets, drones or cloud computing—to give his company's flywheel another jolt.

Who doesn't want to find the profit-turning flywheel Bezos runs, the one Jim Collins describes in Good to Great?

But the truth is, you don't find it; you cultivate it.

"No matter how dramatic the end result, the good-to-great transformations never happened in one fell swoop," Collins says. "There was no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no wrenching revolution."

A flywheel is not the creation of the fast-buck "mercenary" (Bezos' term), but of the "missionary"—the patient, purpose-driven businessman or woman.