By Alan Sharpe (January 2009) E-book $29.99
How to create, write, design and distribute donor newsletters that recruit supporters, renew donors, retain members, inspire action, build community and raise funds. The secret to your long-term success as a non-profit organization is keeping the donors you have. Acquiring donors and members is of no use if they give you one gift and never give again. Revenue follows retention. The cost-effective key to donor retention is a donor newsletter. When your newsletter inspires, informs and involves your readers, they look forward to hearing from you—and gladly participate when you ask for a donation in an appeal letter.
Read Chapter 1 free of charge
Lucrative Donor Newsletters gives you the tools you need to create, write, design and distribute donor newsletters that recruit supporters, renew donors, retain members, inspire action, build community and raise funds.
Chapter 1: Create and Publish a Publication with Purpose
- do you want your newsletter to recruit supporters, retain members, educate about your cause, build community, inspire readers to act, raise revenue, or all of the above?
- establish your style & tone
- establish a style guide for punctuation, capitalization, spelling, abbreviations, numbers and grammar
- develop a publication calendar
- define your editorial content
- establish a budget
- decide on a size and number of pages
- decide distribution
- choose from the many types of newsletters
- name your newsletter with a memorable moniker
- anatomy of an effective donor newsletter
Chapter 2: How to Write Compelling Newsletter Content
- news, features, columns, profiles, interviews, announcements and other content
- where to find news and stories
- basic story types (chronology, problem-solution, narrative, more) and how to write them
- put your donor first
- interview like a pro
- put the news in newsletter
- write irresistible headlines
- write a great lead
- write to be read
- write subheads
- call-outs and pull quotes
- write in newsletter style
- editor’s checklist
- common news writing blunders to avoid
- working with contributors
Chapter 3: The Power of Pictures
- think like a photojournalist
- photography involves three people
- action + reaction = drama
- posed and candid photos, and when to use each
- smiles and why you must capture them
- backgrounds can make or break your photo
- eyes looking at the camera or away—which?
- where to find affordable stock photography
- take photographs that stir emotions
- secrets to effective composition
- use lighting to your advantage
- crop your photos to add drama
- captions and how to write them
- cliché photos to avoid like the plague
Chapter 4: How to Design and Layout your Newsletter
- design a strong nameplate
- design for readability
- use a suitable grid system (margins, columns, headers, footers)
- page size and column width
- use color effectively
- choose a suitable typeface for headlines and body copy
- spacing, leading, justification
- address, notice of copyright, masthead, date and volume number, ISSN and other standing elements
- design blunders to avoid
- beyond 8.5 x 11
- designing for direct mail
Chapter 5: How to Raise Revenue with your Newsletter
- paid subscriptions
- donations (learn 51 ways to raise funds with your newsletter)
- mailing list rental
- advertising revenue
- product sales
- sponsors
Chapter 6: Printing and Distributing your Newsletter Cost-effectively
- using outside suppliers
- choose the best printing method
- printing in-house
- make the most of one- and two-color printing
- how to request a quote from printers
- add impact with inserts
- cutting, collating, stitching, stapling
- e-newsletters
- archiving print newsletters online
- postage and postal regulations
Product Details
Format: E-book in Adobe PDF format for immediate download. This ebook is divided into six files in Adobe Acrobat PDF format because it’s too large to download as one file. You will download all six files, one file for each of the six chapters.
Pages: 344
Publisher: Andrew Spencer Publishing
Language: English
Dimensions: 8.5 X 11 inches
SKU: sharpe003
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