If you read this post, you'll know that I think attention to detail is important because it can often make a significant difference to response.
Before I came to Bluefrog, I worked at RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf People) and it was there that I started learning about fundraising, from people like Alan Gosschalk, Richard Verden (now at Red Cross) and Allan Thompson (NDCS). At the time, we had a banker cold pack that was impossible to beat, so we spent a lot of time making improvements to it. During this time, I learnt many 'fundraising truths'. We called them 'fundraising truths' because many fundraisers seem to know them, although I've never seen them written down in one place. Nevertheless, they're things that are always worth doing.
For example:
- Long copy
- A window BRE
- A separate donation form (ideally A4)
Not rocket science.
A few years ago, we retested some of these 'fundraising truths' and guess what? They all won in the tests we'd set up.
And so on to the Friday fundraisers' quiz question. Both the charity press adverts that appeared in Monday's Guardian went against a 'fundraising truth'. Can you see what it is?
The scan makes this question rather more tricky than it actually is (if you've still got a copy of the newspaper, take a look at that instead). But I'll resist the temptation to give you any more of a clue and I'll put the answer up at 4pm anyway.
