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Who we Are

Creagivity
- how we were born

Creagivity is the brainchild of June Steward, fundraiser and copywriter. 

The business grew out of the blog known as June’s Fundraising Letter, which I started back in 2010 when my jaunt into freelance copywriting began. We’ve grown to the point where we now work with several other contract writers. 

High performing direct mail and email appeals are our bread and butter. But we write practically anything that’s part of the donor journey – appeals, emails, newsletters, impact reports, major donor proposals, cases for support, bequest collateral, regular giving material. We’ve also been known to write telefundraising scripts for campaigns such as RG conversion or donor nurture as well as coal media posts.

Now we do much more than just fundraising copywriting. We also do fundraising and copywriting training plus strategic work helping charities develop their donor journeys and raising the level of fundraising literacy within non-profits.

What is June’s fundraising background?

I’m one of those people who plan their giving to charities every year. I love donating and I carefully select the causes and charities I care about. Then around May or June, I have a great time deciding how much I’ll give to each one.

Before I became a fundraiser, I thought everyone did this. I wondered why charities would waste money sending me mail or ringing me up.

I was one of THOSE people who would rudely hang up on your telemarketers. Or ring you up in anger to DEMAND that you take my name off your database. And NEVER, EVER send me anything again.

After all, I reasoned, you didn’t have to convince me to give. I’d made my decision. Apparently I’m a rare type of donor. It was a great surprise when I discovered most donors don’t plan their giving. They give because you ask them to.
How did I find this out? I got a job at a non-profit organisation. With amazement, I watched them send out huge volumes of mail to donors. Hundreds of thousands of pieces. Every month.
Worse, they would ring up donors to ask them for money. Horrors! But they raised millions of dollars each year for people living in poverty all over the world. As a results-oriented person, I was forced to capitulate.
Sending mail, calling donors and now talking to donors via email, web and other channels… actually raises money. Lots of money. Money used to make the world a better place. Far from wasting money, they were getting a fantastic return on investment. The more I learned about fundraising, the more I loved it. I loved the strategy, the planning, the testing, the learning about donors. And as a writer, I loved creating the packages and writing the copy. Most of all, I loved seeing great results.

Frequently asked
Questions

With the growth of the business, that is no longer possible. June has creative and strategic oversight of all projects and aims to empower the writers she works with to best practice in all aspects of fundraising copywriting.

We focus on copy only although we often provide design notes or supply mockups on supplied copy. However, we are not a full service agency and actual design is not included in our services. You will need to use your own designer or we can recommend someone.

We can also advise on design so it works together with the copy and to avoid common problems which reduce direct response readability and decreases income and response. These may include using tiny font, large slabs of reverse text and squashing parts of the Johnson box into a corporate style banner.

Creative – As a person of faith, June is passionate about following in the footsteps of the Creator who made us all. We’re all about using our storytelling talents to create a better world with more love, kindness and grace. We want to care for His creations whether people or planet and show God’s love in the world.

Giving – This is about reflecting the example of God who gave us the greatest gift of all – Jesus. Beyond that, we use the art and science of encouraging donors to be financial givers to great causes. We believe that giving to others is a vital expression of our faith. We want to create change through love in action, expressed by giving money.

Note, this doesn’t mean we only work with Christian organisations. We love working with any non-profit that is doing good stuff in the world.

June is always interested in hearing from other fundraising copywriters. Please contact her as we often need help with ad hoc jobs during busy periods.

We get asked this question a lot. Hence I have put together the following document that gives you an overview of how much time to allow.

Download fundraising appeals process

Our approach has always been driven by donor centricity. However, we recognise that many charities wish to make their fundraising more beneficiary-centred and less saviourist. We have been exploring evidence-based ways to take into account the needs of donors AND to do no harm to participants and their communities.

This is why we are interested in philanthropic psychology and other similar approaches, based on research and testing proven to increase donor income and response. Although the language approach may appear to overlap with strengths-based or rights-based fundraising, they are not the same thing.

Here are some articles related to this subject.

Or you can download a package of resources we’ve put together.       Download here

June works from Melbourne, Australia, and uses various contract writers.

We don’t charge by the hour. We quote a project fee after talking to a prospective non-profit client about their needs, donor base, previous fundraising activities, past results and fundraising culture as well as their job requirements.

Discover more

Recent News

Part 4. Is AI capable of growing love?

Samara Linehan

This is the last in a series of four posts reflecting on a conversation about donor-centred fundraising and growing donor love with Professor Jen Shang