# Hot Appeals or Burnt Offerings: Do's and Don'ts for Twenty-First Century Fundraising

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/hot-appeals-or-burnt-offerings-dos-and-donts-for-twenty-first-century-fundraising/
- Published: 2008-10-01T20:21:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**So yours is a 501(c)(3) and theirs isn’t? Do your best donors and potential donors
regard that facet as attention-getting and relevant? Probably not. Technical details
don’t provide much persuasive power in this new world. **

For those many newcomers to our ranks who believe the medium (especially email) 
is the message, this book could be their salvation, their map out of the factoid
wilderness.

For the rest of us, this book will remind us not only to recognise that we’re competing(
for many, an unwelcome intrusion), but also to see the many options available to
us, some classic and some new, and give guidance to successfully using all of them.

It’s a new world and with it a radically difference fundraising ambience from that
of the kinder, gentler 1980s and 1990s. That world was certainly competitive; but
the competition didn’t include the World Wide Web and a welter of other forces some
positive, others sinister competing for and weighing down on your loyal patrons.

In this world of instant world-wide communication, the local library competes with
the local symphony orchestra… which competes with the local hospital, which competes
with national hospitals… which in turn compete with…

There also is the greater ability to target actual donors and potential donors.

Add to this is another reality that hasn’t changed: donors have a finite amount 
of money — approximately the same amount as in the pre-Internet, pre-World Wide 
Web days — to contribute to all causes.

Two words are operative here. First is **attention**, because our best potential
donors are the ones whose attention is most in play. They’re the ones whose e-mail
boxes are the most crowded. They’re the ones most likely to be jaded by constant“
We need help” messages from every competitor, whether library, orchestra, college,
hospital, or major cause. And theirs is the attention most likely to be fragmented.

The second operative word is **relevance**. Those others out there, they aren’t 
as relevant as we are. They don’t offer as much personal recognition, which in turn
means they don’t offer as much personal satisfaction. So we go for emotional relevance.