Description
If you’re like the rest of us, you’re working hard on your appeal right now, and this might be the only paper appeal you’re sending this year.
Your Ultimate Guide to Successful Year End Appeals E-Course gives you everything you need to make this year’s solicitation package the best ever – Starting right away you can
- –Make sure your envelope gets opened
- –Craft killer opening lines
- –Make it easy for your reader to understand why you’re asking
- –Learn how to use stories and statistics for the greatest impact
- –Find out which words to use a lot of – and which words to never use!
- –Learn the essential elements of an “I will give to you now!” reply card
- –Use social media to leverage your work and boost your results
- –Have fun writing your letter and creating your package!
According to Blackbaud’s 2014 Giving Report (shown above), most money is raised in the last quarter of the year. We know that around the holidays, people tend to give more, both online and offline. This means that your year-end appeal letter is a critical element of your fundraising success.
Why do people give in the last quarter of the year?
Maybe they want the tax write-off, or because of the holiday spirit, or maybe because you only mail out one appeal letter a year.
Because people give more in December than any other time of year, you MUST ask now for your nonprofit. Making your year end appeal the best it can be is critical to your nonprofit’s success.
What will you learn to help your year-end appeal be the best it can be?
In this 5 week e-course, you’ll learn:
Week One: Getting Ready to Write: What’s in your toolkit?
BONUS: A gift of Tons of Money in the Mail, a webinar by Mazarine Treyz
|
|
Week Two: The Whole Enchilada… and a Nice Cheesy Story
BONUS: A Sample Year-End Appeal Timeline BONUS: Sample Letter Template
|
|
Week Three: Writing, Editing and Design Oh My!
BONUS: Donor centered appeal letter checklist
|
|
Week Four: Get the Appeal and Your Donor’s Wallet Opened
BONUS: Starting Your Swipe File with the Grand Controls
|
|
Week Five: Close the Loop – Spread the Love
BONUS: A Gift Podcast, The Power of Thank You –Where the Donor Relationship Begins, by course presenter Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE |
You get all of these bonuses, PLUS:
Bonus: Anatomy of a Fundraising Appeal Letter
How to write a stunning direct mail package, piece by piece webinar recording, a $87 value!
PLUS: Crucial Year End Giving webinar recording, the webinar that sold out in ONE DAY for GuideStar!
Who is teaching this course? Why should you listen to us?
Mazarine Treyz has helped small nonprofits raise more with their appeal letters since 2007. As the development director of a small arts nonprofit, she helped raise fundraising results from a fall appeal to a winter appeal 200% simply by redoing the appeal letter strategy, and engaging and reactivating donors. She has raised tens of thousands with appeal letters for domestic violence agencies, arts nonprofits, social justice nonprofits, education nonprofits, and more. In 2014 she helped 5 nonprofits raise over $5K with their first year endd appeals, and in 2015 she helped a nonprofit raise $66K with a spring appeal. She has written 5 star books on fundraising. She has co-founded a nonprofit as well as knowing how to get it all done in a one-person fundraising shop.
Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, of Clarification. Claire has helped large nonprofits raise more with their appeal letters for many years. Named Outstanding Fundraising Professional of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Claire teaches the CFRE course that certifies professional fundraisers. Her blog was recently named “Top Fundraising Blog” by Fundraising Success and she is a regular contributor to Fundraising Success Magazine.
What have people said about Mazarine Treyz’s webinars and courses on Appeals?
“I’ve been trying for years to figure out how to write about our non-profit in a way that moves folks to action. After just one session of your Make Tons of Money in the Mail seminar that I finally got how to do that! Because of the shift in copy inspired by Tons of Money in the Mail, Nourish America is being featured in a special report on Hunger that will be in the Chicago Sun Times along with heavy weights – Feeding America and Meals on Wheels! The editor specifically told me that she was particularly excited about how visceral my copy was and that she’d never seen hunger described like that before!” -Mary Morgan, Nourish America, Ojai, California
“Tons of Money in the Mail gave me TONS of ideas for making our year-end direct mailing more effective. The opportunity for questions and answers was also extremely valuable! Thanks!” —T.J. Holsen, Development Director, Parents as Teachers of Lake County, Inc. Indiana
I thought it was very informative and received good tips for my year-end appeal letter. I thought Mazarine was terrific. I look forward to attending another webinar . -Anonymous
What is an E-course?
An e-course is written material, sent to you every week, in a printable format. When you buy this product, you will be placed on an email list that will email you the product, one week at a time. You will not be placed on any other list, and once the course is over you will get no further emails from us.
It will also include four recorded webinars and a recorded podcast. We created this format so that you can go at your own pace, and fit the e-course into your busy schedule. Here’s a sample of the e-course.
Is it live?
One person asked, is it a live webinar that I’ll need to login to attend? It is not a live webinar. Because of everyone’s busy schedules, we are making this e-course of written material, plus four recorded webinars, and a podcast recording, so that you can learn this information exactly when it is convenient for you. It is at your own pace.
When does the course start?
The course starts as soon as you buy it. You get a welcome email the first week. The second week you get the email with Week one and the links to the bonus materials for that week. This continues for the next 5 weeks.
If you don’t have time to access the course, the whole course is guaranteed to be available to you for 12 months after you buy it. And of course you can always download it to have whenever you want on your desktop, or print it out and put it in a binder for easy access away from your desk.
How long will the course take me to complete?
The course will take roughly 2 hours a week. There are also four recorded webinars that may take a little more time.
Have you ever offered this course before?
Yes! I offered it last year, and here are some of the results that people got:
“Thank you so much! With your help, we raised twice what we raised with our letter in previous years!” -Meals on Wheels affiliate
“Wow! We raised $35,000 with our year end appeal letter, despite starting late and having more competition this year!” -Senior services nonprofit
Will there be printable materials?
Yes! Every week you will get an email with an attached pdf that you can print and put into a binder.
Will there be any opportunities to ask questions?
Absolutely! You can email me unlimited emails for the duration of the course.
Will there be practice exercises to complete?
Yes, there will be practice exercises to complete. I include worksheets and templates in all of my webinars and e-courses. I believe that if you apply your learning instantly, then it sticks!
Is there a money-back guarantee?
YES! If you are not satisfied for any reason, I offer a 30 day money-back guarantee.
Got questions? Just email me at info@wildwomanfundraising.com. I can’t wait to hear from you!
Mazarine Treyz
Author, The Wild Woman’s Guide to Fundraising, The Wild Woman’s Guide to Social Media, and Get the Job! Your Fundraising Career Empowerment Guide, given 5 star reviews by Nonprofit.About.com
Jennifer Teeters –
I just wanted to thank you for your helpful emails and tips. They are always insightful, fun and relatable. I want to thank you, in particular, for your end of the year appeal course. One thing always done around here was a quarterly newsletter, and the Christmas newsletter was always the most important one, as they hoped it would amp up end of year giving. Unfortunately, it wasn’t anymore. Newsletters have been the same format with the same info for 10+ years.
After taking your e-course, I decided to take the leap and suggest we try an end of the year appeal letter, something our organization has never done before (because “everyone else did it”).
I wrote the letter, we spent a week around thanksgiving stuffing 5,300 personalized letters and envelopes, and we crossed our fingers as they went out.
Since the beginning of December, we have brought in $27,550 from the appeal. (It’s now December 21st).
Your e-course helped us make three to four times what we usually bring in at year end!
I jump for joy when we see an appeal remittance envelope come in. It’s a great feeling to know an idea worked, and I have you to thank for it!
— Jennifer Teeters
Grants & Media Specialist
Opportunities, Inc. Texarkana, TX
4w3s0mE –
(About one of the webinars included in this course) “Tons of Money in the Mail gave me TONS of ideas for making our year-end direct mailing more effective. The opportunity for questions and answers was also extremely valuable! Thanks!” —T.J. Holsen, Development Director, Parents as Teachers of Lake County, Inc. Indiana
4w3s0mE –
(About one of the webinars included in this course) “I’ve been trying for years to figure out how to write about our non-profit in a way that moves folks to action. After just one session of your Make Tons of Money in the Mail seminar that I finally got how to do that! Because of the shift in copy inspired by Tons of Money in the Mail, Nourish America is being featured in a special report on Hunger that will be in the Chicago Sun Times along with heavy weights – Feeding America and Meals on Wheels! The editor specifically told me that she was particularly excited about how visceral my copy was and that she’d never seen hunger described like that before!” -Mary Morgan, Nourish America, Ojai, California
4w3s0mE –
(About one of the webinars included in this course) “Your Tons of Money In the Mail webinar gave me many fresh ideas that I would like to incorporate into my upcoming mailings. I plan to review my notes and the supplemental materials provided in order to create an “action plan” for the lessons learned. Thank you!” -Amanda Parker, Grants and Development Manager, OPERA America
4w3s0mE –
(About one of the webinars included in this course) “Your How to Write Stunning Appeal Letters webinar was sooooo good! Thanks so much for the best training in years. Clear. Concise. Real world examples. Great pace. Loved it!” -Julie Nations, Executive Director, The Ellie Fund, Boston, MA
4w3s0mE –
(About one of the webinars included with this course) “This has been one of the best webinars I’ve attended. Incredible amount of information that I can’t wait to implement at work. Thank you so much!” -Jen Hiebert, Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute, Moscow, Idaho
4w3s0mE –
I just wanted to share some very encouraging news now that our year-end appeal is winding down. With what I’ve learned from you, and a lot of donor cultivation, we have seen our annual appeal grow 244% over last year. I am stoked! -Judi De Souter