It’s difficult to realistically imagine many copywriters — or fundraisers who have to double as copywriters — escaping the scourge of the year-end copy review.

I’m sure for many the assaults have already begun. But, hopefully, before any fatal damage is done in the review process, you’ll heed this advice from Jeff Brooks.

In his remarkable new book How To Turn Your Words Into Money, Jeff wisely alerts fundraisers to the manifestations and dangers of the most sinister word in fundraising.

The word? ‘I’. That’s right I. And not just the first person singular, warns Jeff, but “I in all its forms, including me, we, us, and our and all the others”.

This evil word has the negative power to transform your message into one that should be about the donor to one about you and your organization.

As in: “We are the top provider of services to the homeless in the tri-country area. Every night we provide safe, welcoming shelter to more than 3,000 men, women and children.”

As Jeff points out, “That’s not good fundraising … because most of the things that make you great won’t move people to action. I’m not saying those things are unimportant. They just don’t stir people.”

EVEN WORSE, warns Jeff, is that “the evil power of I really bubbles from the cauldron when you use it in your office discussions about fundraising”.

So … at this special season of the year when lots of copy is being reviewed please be alert and on-guard against those internal I statements like the following:

• “I like it.”

• “I don’t like it.”

• “I would never respond to that.”

Fact is when it comes to fundraising, what you and the folks in your office or on your board feel about the copy simply doesn’t matter. Only thing that matters is how the donor feels.

Jeff suggests you and the folks in your organization follow two simple rules of thumb:

1.  “When you base your judgment on your own response, you’re sure to get it wrong.

Why? Because you’re more likely than not to focus on processes and the wonderful things about your organization. In doing so you’ll overlook the problems your donors can solve.

2.  “Learn to get your thrills not from fundraising messages that make you or your boss feel good but from the results your work creates.”

Are you alert to the danger of the the evil power of ‘I’?

Roger

P.S. Give yourself an early holiday gift and take two minutes right now to order Jeff’s How To Turn Your Words Into Money. It’s a gift that will keep on giving to you and your organization for years to come.