As a consultant for nonprofits and political campaigns, I receive a ton of action alerts and fundraising appeals every day. To be honest, my eyes just glaze over reading most of them because they say the same old thing. Yawn! As communicators who are fighting to change the world, we need to write passionately and tell stories that connect to people in order to motivate them to take action and donate some of their hard earned money. Often though, action alerts and fundraising appeals are written for senior management’s approval and just use their own wonky, boiler plate language. This needs to change ASAP. Remember the people on your list are not Members of Congress; they are everyday people who took the time to sign up to your list because they care about the issues you are fighting for. So speak to them.
Just this week MoveOn.org and Moms Rising sent out two great action alerts and online fundraising appeals that captured my attention and got me to take action. Here’s what hooked me.
MoveOn.org
Compelling Subject Line
"It Worked To Start A War"
Attention Grabbing Opening Line
"It worked to start a war. Will it work to kill clean energy?"
Timely And Channels The Public’s Anger
"The truth is, shifting away from dirty energy is great for working families—and it's essential to rebuilding our tanking economy. But a big lie can start to seem like the truth if we don't speak up. Remember Saddam Hussein's WMDs?"
Tone Is Action Oriented But Casual
"If Republicans convince voters that clean energy legislation amounts to a new tax, Obama's plan is toast.
We need to ramp up immediately—to the tune of $100,000 this week—and then keep the pressure on until we turn things around. Can you contribute $15 per month to help out? Click here."
Framing It Is Everything
MoveOn laid out what they were going to do with my donation.
“We'll counter right-wing lies—developing ads that expose the Republican spin, and getting powerful spokespeople into the media.
We'll organize local press events, face-to-face visits with members of Congress, and a national day of action to keep the heat on Congress and show how clean energy jobs can revive our communities.”
Offered Options
They gave me two different options to donate – either $15 monthly or a one-time donation. Not rocket science but I liked the way they framed it.
“This is a make-or-break moment to win the fight for clean energy, and we need to raise more funds to ramp up our campaign over the coming months. Can you chip in $15 monthly to make sure Republicans don't succeed in torpedoing our economy and a clean-energy future?”
“Yes, I'll chip in monthly “- Takes you to a monthly giving page.
No, I can't right now “- Takes you to the page to make a one-time donation.
Moms Rising
Moms Rising continues to do a great job at speaking to moms and sharing meaningful stories in a very frank way.
Their recent alert about how businesses would save $8.2 billion with paid sick days tells the story of every parent’s dreaded phone call from their child’s daycare provider that their child is sick and needs to be picked up right away.
“Many of us have been through this. It's part of raising kids. But, too many of us have had to choose between caring for our kids and losing a day's pay, and sometimes even our jobs. It's seems crazy, but it's true. In the U.S. (unlike most other countries) there is no law which requires employers to allow their employees to earn paid sick days. In fact, nearly 1/2 of the private-sector workforce in America has no paid sick days.
Parents shouldn't have to choose between caring for our kids when they are sick and making ends meet. We can change this! Tell your Congressperson to co-sponsor the Healthy Families Act.”
After you take action, you get sent to a landing page that asks you to share your own experience with having (or not having) Paid Sick Days. There is also a series of blog posts from other moms and a Digg button front and center to promote the blog posts.
Another aspect I liked about Moms Rising online series is they utilized social networking to spread their message in their thank you email.
“P.S. Try updating your Facebook status with this handy info: "92% of waiters and waitresses have no paid sick days? Gross! Tell Congress to fix this!"
Seen a good action alert or fundraising appeal lately? What were the key highlights? Why did it motivate you to take action or donate money?
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