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📍What we're talking about this issue: 
How to show your love for donors in good times and bad, 9 unsung ways

Photo by Matthew Waring on Unsplash 

Dear defender of good,

So it’s almost Valentine’s Day. 

And someone, somewhere is bound to do a big post on the types of love... or what Valentine’s Day can teach you about fundraising... you get where I’m going. 

Well, this Loyalty Letter is indeed about love. 

But after you read this issue, I’m hoping you’ll look at donor love in a whole different light. 

Because loving and caring for your donors often happens in unsung, but truly effective and extraordinary, ways. 

Let's look at nine of those ways...

A Different Look at Donor Love: 
Nine Unsung Ways to Show Your Donors 
You Really, Truly Love Them

✍️ By Lisa Sargent
Fundraising copywriter

February 2025

When you think about things like story, and truth, and vulnerability, no one really equates that with loving your donors.
 
But respect for the generous hearts who support your cause through thick and thin is so often manifested in the unsung acts of love and care that make a massive difference to how donors feel about, and give to, your work.
 
Let’s look at nine of those unsung ways now.

(1.) Truth = Loving your donors.

Hyperbole has no place in fundraising. Period. If you’re writing to donors, and you’re asking them to fund an imperfect solution, say so. If you don’t have all the answers, say so. A powerful writing sequence for this is Imperfect Solution/Rallying Statement.

Such as:

There are no easy answers. But you have my word that with your help, we’ll keep doing what’s right, right now.

OR:

The solutions aren’t perfect. But they’re a way that together, we can help people avoid from slipping through the cracks any further.

Say the bravest, truest thing you can – and keep saying it.  
 

(2.) Readability for All = Loving your donors.

I’m telling you now: this is not about, “Oh Lisa is always droning on about writing for ‘older eyes,’ and ‘you are not your donor unless you’re a woman over 65.’” Because what’s readable and inviting for older eyes is readable and inviting for ALL eyes.

And making your donor comms readable and inviting = loving your donors.

Pro tip: If you run your email or letter through Hemingway Editor and it says you’re at a reading level of Grade 10, rewrite it until it’s Grade 4 to Grade 6. (Not above 8). Dense intellectual copy is not loving your donors. 

(3.) Stories = Loving your donors. 

From the dawn of humankind, stories have been how we make we sense of things. How we find meaning. How we put our heart and soul beside another, for humanity. 

Tell stories, everywhere you can, whenever you can. Your donors love stories, and loving your donors means sharing and telling your stories – AND inviting donors to share their story too.

Last year I had a choice when crafting a client’s Christmas appeal. 

I could describe the situation outlined in the creative brief, children and families caught in war – or I could start with a story.

Stories = loving your donors (and respecting your beneficiaries!). So I knew the best choice was to lead with story:
 

Madina gazes down at the last of the seeds in her hands, and faces a choice no mother should ever have to make.

 

If she uses these seeds to feed her children, none will be left to plant.  But her babies are starving.

(4.) Asking = Loving your donors.

You knew it was coming. Asking your donors for help = loving your donors. 

I mean this. Across two decades of fundraising writing, the top-performing clients I have are consistently sending appeals 4 times each year and mailing newsletters 4 times a year too. If there’s a crisis, a special letter or extra email might go out. 

Asking is not begging. So please don’t deny your donors the chance to be generous and be part of something bigger. Asking = love. 

(5.) Print = Loving your donors.

This one maybe could say, "Multi-channel = loving your donors." 

But I’m keeping it at print because print is the thing nonprofits continue to give up thinking it’s outdated, a dead medium, too costly. 

Nope. Still very much alive. Solid response rates still being generated, and I say this firsthand and loads of others do too. 

Print leaves a deeper footprint in the brain, for one thing. There’s tactility and memorability, for two more. The point though is, it’s not an either/or: it's print AND digital. Print still = love, and multi-channel givers give more. 

(6.) Clean data = Loving your donors.

Let’s start with getting the names of your supporters right, with addressing them correctly -- that's loving your donors. 

But there’s so much more to the story that clean data can tell you: 

• You can segment better
• You can add personalized touches to your donor communications
• You can ask folks for appropriate amounts 
• You can acknowledge loyalty, aspirational supporter identities, raise more, steward better, and on and on. 

All of this is love because, for your donors, clean data helps them feel seen and appreciated for who they really are. 

 

(Resource: Need help? Visit Clay at NextRiver Fundraising Strategies. From-the-heart, I get no kickback: Clay delivers database audits I recommend all the time. Coolest learning: consistent, but not consecutive, givers.) 

(7.) Reporting back = Loving your donors. 

If you ask once a year and then never communicate with your donors again, I don’t mean to sound harsh but this is not loving your donors. 

Can you do two appeals and two newsletters, with lovely thank-yous in between? Start there: ask, thank, report back, repeat (forever h/t Steven Screen).  [ps. This is actually what we do in real life: this year Designer Sandie and I are helping two clients start donor newsletter mailings. One can send just one newsletter this year, and the other is sending two. We'll keep you posted.]

(8.) Urgency + Vulnerability = Loving your donors.

If you face a crisis, communicate more. Don’t wait until your next appeal or newsletter. Act. Contact your donors. 

Lead with a story (and sometimes the story is the situation, and the effect it will have on those you serve, more on story leads here):

By now you may have seen the media coverage unfolding around [describe]. 

 

We are stunned and saddened to watch these stories of [describe], and it’s already left those we serve on the edge of disaster. 

 

Here’s what’s at stake, and how you can help – and to speak openly with you now – we urgently need whatever help you can send. 

 

[continues on to describe more]

That’s a rough example, but you have a feel for the flow now. 

Keep the corporate speak out of it. 

It’s one caring person talking to another. Vulnerability, not being sure of what’s around the corner, asking for help as soon as possible, you can say it.  

Vulnerability = love and strength. 

(9.) Thanking the giver, not just their gift = Loving your donors.

By now most of you know that I have a book out called Thankology. 

But for a little over two weeks now, I’ve also been running a 21-day series of posts on LinkedIn based on some of the principles in the book, for folks who maybe can’t or don’t want to purchase the book right now, or maybe they need some free guidance. 

My LinkedIn page has all the #21daysofthankology posts to date.  One of which is thank the giver, not just their gift: 

Gratitude lights up parts of the brain that humans and humanity really need right now – understanding one another, trust, altruism, feeling connected, sharing, compassion, all the best stuff. 

 

When you thank your givers for their time, generosity, caring, and kindness, not 'just' for their donation, that’s love.

And loving your donors helps them want to help you, and stay beside you for a long time to come.

Thank you so much for being a Loyalty Letter subscriber, and for the work you do to build a better world. I'm glad you're out there. 

See you in two weeks. 🙏😊✍️

Write with great heart always,

PS. Two more resources if you're interested: the always amazing Jen Shang and I are doing a webinar on The Psychology of Thanking Donors Well with The Chronicle of Philanthropy on Feb 27 (and we really do talk specific types of love there :) hope you'll join us!)... and for free learning, you can find back issues of The Loyalty Letter here. Thank you so much again for reading. You're the best. 

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