Your Case for Support – Get it Right or Lose Out
With competition for funds arguably at an all time high and with a tough environment for fundraising, getting your case for support right could not be more important.
We recently reviewed a charity’s fundraising operation and, as part of the assignment, looked at the how its competitors were making their case. Surprisingly, none of them was making a really strong case and certainly none stood out as especially inspiring. It is impossible of course to tell how much impact this has had on their bottom lines, but my guess is that they have all lost out on donations as a result. Most versions we looked at seemed to assume everyone would understand and agree why their work was important, yet this is often not the case.
Yet it does not take a great deal of time or money to create a compelling case, the heart of which lies in identifying the needs and demonstrating what difference you are making to people’s lives or to the environment etc, not just in what you do.
Question to Ask
So what questions can you ask yourself when drafting the case? Here are a few to think about:
What are the specific needs we are addressing?
How do we do this in tangible ways?
Why should I give to this organisation?
What difference will my donation make?
How will people’s lives be better as a result of my giving?
What human stories can we use to illustrate the impact of our work?
Can we identify any unit costs to use in the case?
What would be the result if our charity could not act?
How can we make donors feel part of our vision for a better world?
Test, Test, Test
Once you have a draft, make sure you test it on a wide range of stakeholders and especially those who represent the types of donors you will be targeting. At its simplest, you can do this simply by sharing it with people outside the charity, such as family or friends or, if you want to be more scientific about it, you can run or commission some focus groups to explore it in more depth.
Roll it out Consistently
When you have your final case, you can then use it across your comms in longer and shorter versions. By developing it in this way, not only will you ensure you are making the strongest arguments you can, but also that your messaging is uniform and coherent (i.e. that donors will get the same consistent message, no matter where they see it). So the case will support your appeals, printed literature, web content, social media posts, displays and so on.
Getting the case right really is fundamental and will repay itself many times over.
Get Help if you Need it
If you need help in developing your case for support, we have a specialist fundraising copywriter on our team, who will be very happy to help, so do get in touch today for a free initial chat about this. Please contact Simon George on 01903 723519 or email iinfo@wgconsulting.co.uk/p>
There is further information here about copywriting for fundraising.
