We welcome a Guest Agitator today, copywriter Lisa Sargent (www.lisasargent.com).

Lisa has a bone to pick with nonprofits who try to write effective fundraising copy — themselves or through consultants — without an explicit creative brief to provide the essential guidance. She’s right.

Here’s Lisa …

Will this letter win … or lose?

I have a quiz for you, readers. And as part of this quiz, you get to “write” a fundraising letter.

It goes like this: I supply you with the details about the appeal you’ll be writing. Then for your one and only quiz question, you predict how well your letter will perform. Ready?

Here’s what you know:
 
Your letter is to accompany a calendar mailing, and should highlight all the good work of the organization. Oh, and it must ask for additional donations. (As the writer, you can dig for examples of the good work on the organization’s website.)
 
Now for what you don’t know:

You don’t know if this letter is one page or two or twenty. You can’t access a copy of the other package elements online. You don’t know who the signer is, or if the letter will be personalized. You know nothing about the target audience, what the Ask amount is, or if the Ask is to be “soft” or direct.

What’s the case for giving? Ummm… there’s that calendar. And all the good work.
 
Two more things. You have 48 hours to write the letter. And you’re not allowed to ask for any more details.
 
So: How will your letter perform?

I sure hope you wouldn’t bet your bottom line on it. But some nonprofits would – and yes, some already do – rely on fundraising letters like these to get the job done.
 
Please don’t be like them: because your work deserves better. Because your donors deserve better. Because you can’t just toss in a tear-jerker tale and a few generic Asks and expect people to run for their wallets.

Because if you want success, you can’t just write the letter: first, you need a plan.

That plan is a fundraising tool that’s about as high-tech as dry toast (apologies if you were hoping for something sexy), but it works: it’s called a copy platform, a marketing concept, or a creative brief.

And whether you outsource or in source your creative, it’s the best way to stack the odds in your favor.
 
Essential for projects with deadlines that are two days, two weeks, or two months away, the creative brief tells you what you’re writing, why you’re writing, and to whom you’re writing, among other things.

Boring details, maybe. Nitpicky even. But really: can you write a persuasive fundraising letter without them?

I say no…

…And to prove it, I make the same offer to you that I made to my own e-newsletter subscribers this month: all Agitator readers are welcome to a free copy of the creative brief template that I use for new projects and new clients.

There’s nothing to sign up for… and I won’t ask for your business email or the name of your first born: I’m sharing a PDF of the template with Roger & Tom under a Creative Commons (CC) license, so all you have to do is click here to get your copy.

At three pages, the creative brief template is longish. But fear not: you’ll soon see that you don’t need all of the questions all of the time.

Lisa Sargent