Whoa, I am totally blown away. 580 of you joined the storytelling webinar that my colleague, Steve Daigneault, and I presented earlier this week in partnership with NTEN and the Ad Council. Thanks so much for joining us!

I’m definitely pumped about writing my next email appeal, and I hope you are, too. Steve and I had a few thoughts that we wanted to share with you coming out of the event, and we also promised we’d answer all the questions we didn’t get to during the webinar itself. Okay! Here goes:

Sharing our number 1 take-away
The big lesson is to make sure you cast the donor as the hero of your emails. Not your organization or your staff or your partners – your donor. Make sure you’re presenting the choice to donate as a meaningful chance to improve the world and a chance to participate in a positive shared story. It may seem counterintuitive, but this approach is more compelling to potential donors than the most vivid, heartbreaking story you have in your organizational collection.

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I just can’t wait until 2 pm EST today, when Steve Daigneault and I will be leading a free webinar on how to avoid common storytelling pitfalls and make stories work in your fundraising appeals.

If you’re interested in joining us and our partners, NTEN and Ad Council, there’s still time to register! Click here to RSVP.

And if you’d like to read our storytelling whitepaper you can download the PDF right now by clicking this link.

Hope to talk with you soon!

Get out the party hats and champagne – it’s time to write for end of year!

Most nonprofits receive a huge percentage of total yearly donations in the month of December. In fact, our 5th Benchmarks Study noted that international relief groups raise 50% of their income at the end of the year.

What’s more, nonprofits are raising more and more money online every year. Between 2009 and 2010, online fundraising revenue grew overall by 14%. So there’s also more pressure – and greater competition – than ever before, and making the most of the end-of-year opportunity means sending the best, most compelling email appeals you can. (No pressure though.)

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Want people to like you? Go on, don’t be shy. Just ask them!

Facebook “like” drives are an increasingly common practice for non-profits that want to connect with more supporters on Facebook. Most “like” drives offer an incentive of some kind in exchange for “liking” a Facebook fan page: A special offer where $1 will be donated to your organization for every “like;” some exclusive content that will be released once a page hits a certain threshold; or promising that your CEO will dye her hair blue when the “like” goal is reached. (Note: we have yet to convince any of our clients to try that last one.)

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