The following topics for nonprofit communications workshops are available live or virtual. Contact me to schedule a workshop or webinar, discuss a custom training for your team, or request references from my past speaking engagements.
Appeal Letter Boot Camp
- How to grab your reader’s attention
- Effective P.S. ideas
- How to increase your response rates
- How to overcome writer’s block
- What neuroscience tells us about what motivates people to take action
- Sales writing techniques adapted for charities
Are you short on time? No money in the budget to hire a professional copywriter? Does writer’s block get in your way? After this workshop you’ll be prepared to write your own appeal letters, donor proposals, and cases for support—faster and better. You’ll learn:
How to Make Your Donor Feel Like a Hero
You hear everyone talking about how nonprofits need to be more “donor centric.” You like the idea, but old habits are hard to break. How do you actually communicate in a way that makes your donor feel like he or she is the hero of the story? After this workshop you’ll know:
- Why “donor-centric” matters
- If the donor’s the hero, what does that make you?
- Simple writer tricks to make your stories more impactful
- The difference between an impact story and an asking story
- A simple acronym you’ll use over and over
- Lot of examples to show what donor-centric communication looks like—and doesn’t
- Practice exercises
Storytelling Secrets from a Professional Writer
If your donors don’t FEEL, they don’t ACT. So how do you make them feel? Tell a story. This workshop teaches you simple, immediate ways to improve the stories you’re telling.
- How to convert statistics to stories
- What kind of stories you should be telling
- The one question that really matters
- Anatomy of a good story (an outline you’ll use over and over)
- Sample stories—the good, the bad, and the inspiring
- 3 big important DON’Ts
- Writer tricks you can use to jazz up your stories
Effective Donor Thank Yous
You know how critical it is to make your donors feel appreciated and valued. For one thing, expressing gratitude results in deeper donor loyalty and more gifts. But those thank-you notes just seem to pile up on your desk, don’t they? If donor thank-yous feel like just another item on your to-do list, this popular nonprofit communications workshop will give you fresh ideas and a plan.
- Do’s and don’ts for your thank you letters
- Starting lines to help you beat writer’s block
- Easy, creative ideas for a whole year of thank-yous