A fun tool for better fundraising copy

Here's an idea for improving fundraising copy that I'm stealing from Fundraising Coach Marc Pitman, posted at Donor-centered fundraising or schpeal-centered?

It involves the odd-but-inspiring tool Wordle, which takes any bunch of words and makes a "cloud" of them. The more often a word appears in your bunch of words, the larger it appears in your Wordle cloud.

So here's the trick: Make a Wordle cloud out of your next fundraising appeal.

Do you see in the resulting word cloud? human connection, cause, warmth, conversation?

Or do you see a dull, twisted, self-centered set of words that look like they could have been drawn from a position paper or a Form 990?

Guess which kind of cloud gives evidence of a more effective fundraiser?

Technorati Tags: fundraising, copywriting, Wordle

Comments

[Kristiana]

I put my organization's Mission into the Wordle box and hit "create." It was a powerful message to me to see what's most important about our mission since the words that are listed more frequently in the Mission are larger than others. So I would recommend throwing your Mission statement in and find out what the core of the mission is :)

Thanks for recommending a really fun tool! I think this could become our t-shirt design next year!

[Allen Thornburgh]

Credit where due - this is quite clever. Just gave it a try with an upcoming appeal and the results were quite encouraging.

On the other hand, your having provided me with an utterly addictive timewaster may have counteracted all of the gains which our program might have experienced via the Wordle tool.

So, thanks ... I think.

Heh.

[Greg]

This tool is brilliant! Not only does it put our letter in perspective, it makes pretty artwork! Thanks for posting this. It's actually quite an insightful tool

[Maryann Devine]

What a great idea! -- both for my own writing and to help clients with theirs. Paints a very clear picture of what the message is really about. I love it!