How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money

Not sure how to say what I want to say about this book. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad book. I learned some very useful tips and mindsets from reading this. In fact, right after finishing it, I had occasion to revise a case statement for a capital campaign I am involved in, and having read this book, I approached that revision very differently. But, the writer of this book, does not write in a very easy to read style. Which is ironic, because it is a book about effective writing.

On a more positive note, he does a very good job of distinguishing between donors, prospects, and suspects, and how to approach all three. He also helps us define the types of target audiences we face, and how to speak to their various brains (or ‘ears’ as he calls them). Tom also does a decent job of defining and discussing branding and the issue of writing to be “donor centric”. The book is also helpful in the many lists of considerations he provides for all the various topics he addresses. I know that sounds specific, but there are too many to go into detail here…but most of them are in the summary below.

Perhaps the best part of the book are some of the actual re-vision examples he gives of poor writing and good writing. In some cases I have attempted to recreate these in my summary. Two particularly helpful that parts I could not re-create were a large letter sample and a list of replacement words in the back of the book. I could not recreate these because of their size and for copyright purposes. These lists might be worth the price of the book; maybe. Enjoy the summary.

How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money – MS WORD

How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money – PDF