Nonprofit communications are vitally important. They keep your organization current, relevant, and fresh in the minds of your supporters. You want to keep your people in the know, especially since you don’t want them to forget about you! Communications are key in establishing sustainable long-term donor relationships between you and them.
Yours may involve the creation of a multiple-paged newsletter. But releasing a newsletter on a frequent basis (think Nashville Rescue Mission with their 12 full color print newsletters a year) can feel like a daunting prospect for a number of reasons. It likely involves a significant investment of time, effort, and money. It’s a whole lotta blood, sweat, and tears going into a copy that is then disseminated for free among your respective audience of supporters and other individuals who have ties to your organization.
It doesn’t have to be as intimidating as you’d think, though. Remember, your communications isn’t a case of go big or go home. Don’t pressure yourself to put out pages and pages of inspired, compelling copy every month. Communications should involve reaching out to your people on the regular, but that doesn’t mean it has to be time-consuming, expensive, and stressful. Start where you’re at.
Instead of the full-on tour de force newsletter, you can always start with a 1-2 page “newsyletter”. Living Yoga did, and they did it right. Their double-sided piece includes a welcome to fall and shares recent updates that they wanted to share with their supporters. Despite this newsy being a mere two-pager, it still accomplishes what it sets out to do: it keeps the channel of communication between Living Yoga and its people going strong. Plus, Living Yoga shares just enough detail about what has been going on in their organization.
Simple Development Systems’ member Living Yoga made this work through the careful organization of their content from start to finish. The Fall 2015 newsy title is “inner space,” which is perfectly suited to who Living Yoga is and what they do. The piece begins with a very short intro before delving into the updates. Each update is under a bold subtitle and most are discussed with a single paragraph of content, with a couple of lengthier updates, too. The newsy highlights their new yoga classes, leads with a marvelous ‘We Can Be Heroes’ story from a teacher with a close that brings it home to the donor: It’s because of you that “super” classes like this are possible,” includes a direct donor quote, and discusses upcoming events and how to get involved. The newsy gets a boost from some storytelling woven in, along with the very last line:
Thank you for your continued support of Living Yoga!
Never miss an opportunity to say thank you, especially at the end. What we see last often brings the most impact, and it’s what we tend to remember the most. Gratitude is a perfect final note.
PS: Make time for personalized sticky notes. Always, always mail in an envelope, and include a donation envelope. Click the image to download this package.
Keep your donors front and center with Simple Development Systems, an easy ‘rinse and repeat’ methodology of expressing gratitude and sharing stories across all channels to grow your nonprofit’s fundraising exponentially. Join us every week for Power of Nonprofit Storytelling (Mondays), What’s in my Inbox (Tuesdays), and What’s in my Mailbox (Wednesdays).
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I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
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