6 Takeaways from Our Donor Newsletter Webinar

A few weeks ago, three of our creative experts led a webinar entitled, Love Thy Donor: 10 Commandments Your Donor Newsletter Should Follow. 

Jennifer Miller, Creative Director; David Torres, Creative Director; and Matthew Lorenz, Art Director, have over 55 years of combined experience in crafting direct-response appeals, and have helped raise tens of millions of dollars for the nonprofits they feel privileged to serve.

As I expected, there was lots of great information shared during the one-hour presentation to help The Salvation Army engage donors with a great newsletter.

Weren’t able to join the webinar live?  You can watch the on-demand version here.

Here are my top 6 takeaways about donor newsletter best practices:

1. You can’t overuse the word “you.”  Donors love reading about how they made an impact.
2. Highlight volunteer opportunities for donors.  You have a captive audience of people who already support you financially, so share how they can also support you with their time.
3. Make it worth their time to read.  Donors have so much mail to open.  Make your newsletter something they will make a point to open.
4. People are hard-wired for stories.  Remember being a kid and how you loved hearing a good story?  Use your newsletter to tell stories.  They are remembered far longer than expository essays loaded with facts and figures.
5. Choose your photos wisely.  No photo is better than a bad photo.  And please ditch the picture of your Executive Director holding a large novelty check from a local company.  That doesn’t inspire donors to give more — it has the opposite effect!
6. A newsletter should be a vehicle of joy for donors!  They should read about the good that’s being done because of them.  That’s what it’s really about.