15 Jun Copywriting tips for charity communications
One of The Goodwill Partnership’s greatest assets is that it was borne out of the joint vision of Howse Jackson Marketing and Welcare Guardian. Whilst the latter is one of the UK’s most respected Will-writing services, HJ Marketing is a multi-disciplinary marketing agency with a wealth of experience across many sectors.
Because of this background, not only can we advise charities on promoting Will-writing services to their supporters, we can also help them with every facet of their marketing campaigns, not just for Will-writing but across the board. We can advise on the various marketing channels as well as implement campaigns on their behalf. In essence, think of us as a one-stop shop for charity marketing, not just a Will-writing service.
With this in mind, we recently came across a superb article covering ten great examples of marketing copywriting by charities. Written by Dan Brotzel and featured in Econsultancy, the piece looks at marketing comms from a number of high profile charities including BBC Children in Need, Shelter, Cancer Research UK as well as a valued Will-writing partner of ours, Oxfam.
Without repeating the article in full, the piece dives in-depth at all the various ways charities can communicate to donors, volunteers and even potential supporters. Each individual example stands out in its own right, for example, sustainable transport charity Sustrans makes brilliant use of personal stories and emotional hooks to encourage more people to support the 14,000 miles of the National Cycle Network.
But what really stands out amongst all the examples is the need to adopt a warm, friendly tone and use every action available to be transparent, honest, open and let readers know how and where their donations will be used. Most of the examples in the Econsultancy article reflect this ethos, certainly the best ones do.
Oxfam, for example, are praised for showing what each donation will tangibly buy e.g. £2 is enough to train two female African farmers whilst £25 can drill 3 wells to provide clean, safe water. Incidentally, as an aside, this writer personally travelled to Gambia in 1991, hired a jeep and visited a very remote village in the savannah. I personally witnessed the wells that Action Aid had sunk in the area and came away inspired and motivated by what I’d seen – donations do make a huge difference!
If charity marketing as well as legacy fundraising is high on your agenda, please do get in touch with us at The Goodwill Partnership. The bottom line is we can help. We have the know-how and sector experience. Our contact details are info@thegoodwillpartnership.co.uk or 01492 437 005.