From Charities We Love – Thank You
Testimonials
Fundraising Copywriting Endorsements
One of the best fundraising copywriters in the world.
"A 94.13% increase in fundraising results"
As an organisation we faced the challenge of balancing the needs of our services department to show social impact while ensuring the language we were using would engage donors and motivate them to give.
The balance we were able to strike helped us to create a hybrid model which was more donor centred but still showcased the impact of our services teams. The results had an immediate impact with our next appeal seeing a 94.13% increase in fundraising results compared with the same appeal from the previous financial year.
June's skill as a copywriter is exceptional and her commitment to leading change to a more ethical approach to donation requests while delivering exceptional ROI make her an ideal partner for our charity.
"More than double our fundraising income"
Over the past year, June has helped us with several direct response campaigns. She has advised us on appeal strategy and tactics as well as writing mail, email and website copy that has helped us more than double our fundraising income.
The direct mail appeals she wrote has led to the rise in direct mail income from $689,000 last year to $1.7 million this year. She also wrote the materials for our monthly giving acquisition and upgrade program which has increased from $26,000 in 2013 to $130,000 in 2014.
June has been able to produce consistent results and help us establish a solid income stream for the future. She is professional, proactive and easy to work with. We’re already planning further appeals and fundraising activities with June in the year to come.
"Steady growth in each appeal"
With June’s help, we’ve gone from raising less than $3000 for a single appeal two years ago to over $18,000 in our latest appeal. This is from a very small database. June’s assistance with strategy and her copywriting skills led to steady growth in each appeal with response rates ranging from 13-18%.
She also assisted in developing segmented offers and report backs for major donors and monthly givers. Her copy for an acquisition pack not only doubled our database but also made a significant profit. "20 gifts of $5000 or more"
We engaged June to write a direct mail pack to make up the shortfall for an appeal that did not perform as expected. I am delighted with the results of June’s work – more than four times the income raised!
June also wrote the direct mail copy for the end-of-financial-year appeal. The results speak for themselves. We raised 2.25 times more than last year with an excellent response rate. Plus we had 20 gifts of $5000 or more when we usually average 1-3 gifts in this range for each appeal. We’ve more than covered the extra costs involved in these appeals.
Training & Mentoring Endorsements
June has excellent knowledge of writing appeals and reports for a range of not-for-profits.
Her copywriting training provides a comprehensive guide on how to write copy for direct mail and impact reports with easily actionable tips and tricks that can be used to make improvements straight away.
The training was thought provoking, informative and very relevant. I would certainly recommend the training to others.
If you want to learn an effective way to communicate with donors, they should do this course.
I would definitely recommend the training to others. I have over 30 pages of notes and even still I think if anyone were to look at them they wouldn’t truly grasp the importance of each and every step.
The way you led everyone through the examples was invaluable.
Empower yourself through
fundraising mentoring
Working with June gave me confidence to champion how best practice fundraising should be done and not be afraid to challenge those who think they know how fundraising should be done.
It’s also equipped me with the knowledge of what a good fundraising program looks like and how to go about doing it. In being mentored by June, you're not only getting her expertise but also her passion. It’s no exaggeration to say that I use June’s teachings every day.
If you want to empower yourself or your team to become better fundraisers and give them lifelong skills then contact June. In every job I’ve had since being mentored with June I have used what she taught me to improve fundraising at the organisation.
If you want to get re-energised about connecting and communicating with donors, this training is for you!
I feel more confident that donors will connect the work, feel more appreciated, and understand the impact of their generosity in a more meaningful way
It’s important for anyone in direct fundraising to attend this training at some point, not only for roles actively involved in writing copy.
Even if you've already learned best practices it is good to have a refresher.
We had lots of opportunities to discuss the challenges we face. It was great to see lots of examples and get more ideas on how to be creative with our own appeals.
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.
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.
- White saviourism in fundraising (also published in F&P Magazine):
- Alternatives to donor as hero – based on proven donor psychology
- We need to change the way we talk about donors, giving and love.
- 4-part Donor Love Series
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.
Recent News
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