“I am sorry to write such a long letter. I didn’t have time to write a short one,” quipped the artisan, Mark Twain.

The sage captured a core competency required to cement a vibrant relationship between church leaders and their donors. Crafting complex written communication to a simple message requires intentionality and craftsmanship.

The payoff reaps enormous benefit.

Why? A donor invests financially in a fiercely committed practice to the degree they sense alignment with their spiritual growth, their hearts and the mission of their church.

Most church written communication actually detracts from weaving a vibrant relationship with a donor. Rather than sustained giving patterns, the donor sees better giving opportunities on the other side of fence where the grass is greener.

Greener in this case, means the donor senses a deeper alignment and relationship with mission other than his church.

Written communication comes electronically, as well as by paper.

What are eight easy steps to better, written communication with your donors?

1. Think telling a story rather being a news reporter

People gravitate to story rather than facts. Let me grasp the vision through the eyes of a person benefitting from the mission.  Leave the predictable, forgettable mission statement hidden in plan sight elsewhere.

2. Write in sound bytes not preaching style

Your reader grants you brief mental bandwidth upon scanning your message, allowing less than 20 seconds to deem the information relevant. To demonstrate significance, have no more than three sentences per paragraph. Visually have the communication show lots of white space.

3. One thought per communication

One thought repeated in several ways and call it successful. Avoid throwing the unrelated program elements just because a staff person is begging you to put it in.

4. Personalize the written communication

We are building relationship from shepherd leaders to our people. Always use first names: “Dear Brad and Lisa”.  Disenfranchise the reader by using veneer words like “Dear Friend of First Church”.

5. Send frequent, succinct communication

Better to connect meaningfully incrementally than an infrequent tome. For example, sending out quarterly giving statements with a vision-inspiring cover letter cultivates much more generosity than the standard, invoice looking statement in January.

6. Leverage the P.S. practice

After looking at their name, readers focus briefly on the first paragraph, assess immediate relevancy (they toss it or read on), scan the balance, and focus again on a rather surprising place: the P.S. The P.S. becomes the best place to affirm relationship with the donor from the leadership, such as:

“P.S. I love being your pastor. Your part in First Church means so much to me.”

7. For letters – use bright, fun first-class stamps

Your administrators will beef at the extra cost and time, but studies show that first-class stamped letters are opened at an incredibly higher rate over metered mail or bulk stamps.

8. Don’t use mailing labels

Use mailing labels if you want the letter ignored.  Using a printer, print the name and address on the envelopes.  Note – this can be automated by using the mail merge feature in MS Word. Nothing says “You are not special to me at all, but my time saving practices are,” more than mailing labels. 

A relationship with your donors means the difference between marginal giving and abundant giving, so practice effectiveness not efficiency.