5 Ways to Prevent Writing Errors

1. Spell-checkIt won’t catch every mistake, but it’s an easy way to start the editing process, especially if time is tight. It’s generally good for misspelled words, basic grammatical errors, and such mistakes as writing the same word twice.

2. Print your copy and read it aloud. Listening helps us focus to find mistakes. It’s amazing how simple and effective it is; it’s easy to miss things on-screen. After I make my major edits, this is the biggest step I take to spot errors.

3. Check your facts. This includes numbers, dates, and times — the harder things spell-check can’t do.

4. Rest. Before any deadline, get enough sleep to be alert to spot errors. Take breaks from your work to focus on other things. Look out the window, get some coffee, stretch your legs, and you’ll return with renewed vigor and focus. Also, make time to edit so that you won’t rush, which leads to carelessness and errors.

5. Get help. Mistakes happen. We sometimes can’t catch them all.  It always helps to have at least one or two other people who know English well read your copy before publication.  Sometimes, we’re so close to our work that we overlook mistakes.


The Classy Writing Blog

Nonprofit Fundraising Tips & Creative Nonprofit Marketing Ideas

“This recap includes exercises to help you improve your own non-profit fundraising and marketing efforts.  They can also apply to other industries….” Read more.


Quotes

“Everyone needs an editor.” ~ Tim Foote

“Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.” ~ Author Unknown


Comments? Suggestions? Need help? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

Nonprofit Fundraising Tips & Creative Nonprofit Marketing Ideas

Andy Robinson speaks at the Focus on Friendraising MANP seminar. At a recent Maine Association of Nonprofits workshop, nonprofit fundraising expert Andy Robinson presented interactive exercises to teach attendees how collaboration can build relationships with donors.

This recap includes exercises to help you improve your own non-profit fundraising and marketing efforts. These nonprofit fundraising tips can also apply to other industries.

Why Donors Give: Building the Case for Funding

1. Name three things your organization does well.
2. What makes your group unique?
3. Market segmentation: Who are you trying to reach (audiences for education, service delivery, fundraising, advocacy, collaboration, etc.)?
4. Recount a favorite anecdote or example that describes the impact of your work.

Good stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. They evoke emotion, and a visual story connects with people, is relatable, and can be used as a non-profit fundraising pitch; an attendee suggested that board directors relate a success story at the beginning of board meetings to open a discussion with members. Robinson also recommended a “Mission Moment” — a tour of a nonprofit’s facilities to later discuss with members why they’re on the board and why they care about the organization’s mission.

Features and Benefits: What Are We Selling?

One of the greatest mistakes in fundraising for nonprofits is selling features, not benefits.

As Robinson stated, the difference between a feature and a benefit is at the heart of marketing theory; you describe something by listing its features, and you sell it through naming its benefits.

Note the features and benefits of a large spoon to better understand the difference between the two and to sharpen your case and your pitch. The spoon’s features include “the shiny, stainless steel alloy” and its “nonporous” material; its many benefits can range from “easy to clean” to “you can heat it and use it to push up your eyelashes.”

Elements of the Case Statement

Your mission states your purpose. Robinson named famous taglines that imply or state directly why certain well-known nonprofits exist:

1. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” (United Negro College Fund; now College Fund)
2. “Together, we can save a life.” (American Red Cross)
3. “When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.” (American Lung Association)

After the mission, in a case statement, people should list their goals, review what they’ve done so far, discuss board and staff roles, determine a fundraising plan, and attach financial statements from the prior fiscal year and a current budget.

Robinson sees a fundraising plan as helpful for grant writing as an “uber” document to draw information from and as a vision exercise for board and staff to collaborate and learn what they need to do or do more of.  We can be too close to our work to see it objectively.

Pitching Your Project: Meeting With the Funder

In a group of three, each person should play a different role as either a grant seeker, a foundation officer, or an observer, and at the end, critique the grant seeker’s funding presentation.

This exercise helps people develop confidence and clarify their pitches — how they present their work, to develop empathy for the person on the other side of the relationship — the grantmaker — and to improve listening skills.

Robinson suggests that if you don’t know, look it up; don’t make up anything or promise more than you can deliver, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Being an Ambassador for Your Organization: Word-of-Mouth Marketing

·         Marketing a nonprofit: more than promotion ·         Multiple strategies = big results
·         Competition: 3,000 messages a day ·         Word of mouth is still the #1 strategy
·         Repetition: the rule of 27 ·         Everyone represents, like it or not

 

Even in the era of social media, the most effective marketing strategy is word of mouth.  Robinson taught everyone how to engage potential supporters, develop compelling messages, and to deliver them effectively.

“Marketing is about being really good about what you do.  You have to be great before you’re great,” said Robinson.  Nonprofits compete with “for profits.”

He quoted Guerilla Marketing author Jay Conrad Levinson’s “Rule of 27”: prospects need to experience a marketing message nine times, and then three times before they act on it.

It’s not enough to send a fundraising appeal through the mail; social media and eblasts are important, too. You want to build awareness, raise money, and increase your power.

Active Listening: What Did You Hear?

Focus less on the pitch — what you say about your organization — and more on donors’ needs and interests.

One person should tell the other a story about a favorite relative or their organization, and then the listener should recount the story from memory. The speaker then gives the listener feedback on what he or she might have missed.

Attendees found stories easier to remember if they were visual or had dramatic elements.

Ask Better Questions, Raise More Money

  • What kinds of questions can we ask that are relevant to our work?
  • Engage people with those questions

Robinson is amused (and occasionally annoyed) by the obsessive pursuit of the perfect elevator pitch.

As he says, it’s all about listening. Good things can happen when you describe your organization clearly and concisely, however, the quest for the perfect pitch ignores one essential fundraising truth: listening is WAY more important than talking. Yes, the best fundraisers are good talkers, but even better listeners. They excel at discovering, and then meeting, the donors’ needs.

If you’re too focused on delivering the perfect pitch, you can forget to listen. Good listening lets you customize your responses to address the interests of your potential donor, volunteer, or ally.

Market Segmentation: Setting Priorities and Customizing Your Message

  • Identify three audiences
  • For each audience: name two things you want them to know about your organization and one thing you want them to DO

To Robinson, awareness campaigns are a pet peeve; he believes all nonprofit fundraising marketing campaigns are about raising awareness.

One Minute of Fame: Crafting Your Elevator Pitch

Many people fear public speaking. If your board or your staff can’t or won’t speak on your behalf, you’ll miss many marketing opportunities. This is helpful when your colleagues need to find the right words to speak about your org. with passion and precision.

Pick your audience and name it; it could be anyone involved in your fundraising campaign: a combination of board, staff, and volunteers.

In a group of five, each person has one minute to deliver his/her elevator pitch: “What you want them to know and what you want them to do.”  Group members then critique the elevator pitches.

Robinson suggests videotaping yourself for practice. It’s not what you learn, but how you apply it.  Effective pitches clearly and concisely tell a story that connects with listeners and invite and inspire action.

Do you struggle to write your content on deadline: grant proposals, blog posts, newsletters, and more? If so, download my free ebook, 14 Ways to Write More in Less Time.

Why You Should Avoid Waffle Words

The word “waffle can have bad connotations. It brings to mind a breakfast food with toppings rich in waffle topped with a pat of butter flavor and calories and the inability to decide. In British culture, it can mean that you’re rambling without saying anything meaningful. I’ve waffled over waffles, but eating these tasty, toasty, ironed creations regularly tends to expand the waistline.

You are what you eat, and your word choices reflect who you are. (Just don’t eat your words.) “Waffle words” weaken your writing; they’re timid, afraid to commit, and can make you look the same way. These are the words you should remove to strengthen your writing, and why:

 

1. Well — As a transitional word, it lacks substance.

Example: I’ve added more info about the new heating system we want to buy to the proposal. Well, let me know your opinion of it.
Revised: I’ve added more info about the new heating system we want to buy to the proposal. What do you think of it?

2. So — It’s one of “well”‘s cousins. If you can remove a word without affecting the overall meaning of a sentence, it’s not necessary.

Example: So, we should meet again after lunch.
Revised: Let’s meet again after lunch.

3. Sorry — I’ve been guilty of overusing it; I admit I’m an apologist. Sometimes we can use it to avoid hard feelings, and lean on it like a crutch. Overuse makes you look weak.

Example: Sorry, I just don’t think getting a new water cooler is a good idea.
Revised: We can’t afford to buy a new water cooler this quarter, so I’ve decided to buy one next spring instead.

4. Maybe — If you tend to waffle, this would one of your favorite words.

Example: Maybe we can go to lunch sometime next week.
Revised: How about lunch together next Tuesday?

5. I think/I believe/I feel/I guess/I suggest…  — They often don’t add anything to sentences. I’ve used them, usually to soften a statement, and certain phrases, such as “I feel,” can work for a psychological effect, to connect with people emotionally. But, without these phrases, your sentences can pack more punch.

Example: I think we should hire an accountant to file our tax return.
Revised: We should hire an accountant to file our tax return.

 

What do you think? What are some more ways to strengthen your writing?

Does your writing need more weight? See how business writing coaching can help you flex your verbal skills to tone up your writing.

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5 Ways Writing by Hand Can Improve your Writing

1. Think time — When we take pen to page or finger or stylus to screen, the slower movements of our hand and fingers give us a few more seconds to gather our thoughts.

2. Short cuts — The time we spend writing by hand can make us less likely to ramble on; we’ll feel less wordy, especially if writer’s cramp sets in during the process.

3. Better focus — Armed with just a pen and a blank page, fewer visuals can distract you from writing.

4. Mindfulness — The act of hand writing can use more of our brain — including the right and left hemispheres — than typing and result in a more thoughtful piece. As quoted in Reader’s Digest, “‘Writing by hand is different from typing because it requires using strokes to create a letter, rather than just selecting the whole letter by touching a key,’ says Virginia Berninger, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington. These finger movements activate large regions of the brain involved in thinking, memory, and language.”

5. Freedom — Lack of distractions, more time with the page, greater care in our wording, and use of our minds can unleash our creative spirits to take our writing to a deeper level, especially if we don’t write by hand often. A change of routine, such as a sunny day rest on a park bench writing with pen and notepad might be a great way to refresh your prose and stimulate a new perspective.


Quotes

“I write with a felt-tip pen, or sometimes a pencil, on yellow or white legal pads, that fetish of American writers. I like the slowness of writing by hand.” ~ Susan Sontag

“People complain that writing by hand is slow, but that can be good for thinking and creating. It slows us down to think and to contemplate and to revise and recast. Its physical presence can be a goad to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten.” ~ David Allen, Getting Things Done


Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

6 Books to Improve Your Writing

1. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
This is one of the first and shortest books to improve your writing I’ve ever read; much of the advice is memorable, and I apply it to this day. It was first published over 100 years ago, but good style is always in fashion. Some grammar snobs hate it because they consider the advice too rigid and archaic, but for everyone else, the book offers the best of the basics.

2. The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Sherzer
This is somewhat of a companion to Strunk and White’s book, published by the same publisher, Macmillan. It’s a short guide to punctuation, spelling, and usage, which you can browse by topic for an “on the spot remedy” to heal common writing ailments.

3. The Chicago Manual of Style by University of Chicago Press Staff (Editor) and 4. The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law by The Associated Press
Following a certain style is good for consistency in your English usage, and for consultation when you’re not sure how to write certain words or to properly credit facts or sources.

These books to improve your writing can be your bibles to write “right.” Some key differences between both style guides lie in the formatting of certain words and punctuation. For example, AP style is well-known for omitting the serial, or Oxford, comma.

5. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
Goldberg applied her experiences with Zen meditation to writing, making it simpler by removing the rules. With short chapters, you don’t have to read her book cover-to-cover for insights. Some of the advice can seem a little bohemian, especially with her references to writing in cafés, and her emphasis on poetry. I’ve found the writing exercises helpful for writing better descriptions. They can apply to any type of writing. Or, to go further beyond, to quote Ms. Goldberg, “What is said here about writing can be applied to running, painting, anything you love and have chosen to work with in your life.”

6. On Writing Well by William Zinsser
“This is a book for people who want to learn how to write. It’s also a book for people in every kind of job who have to do some writing just to get through the day; most people do more writing than they realize.” ~ William Zinsser

Separated into two parts, Zinsser’s book covers “Principles” and “Forms and Methods.” He preaches four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity. His “informal guide to writing non-fiction” covers these and other basics, on such topics as usage, revisions, and oh, yes, even business writing; he uses anecdotes and personal experiences to illustrate his points.


Quotes

“Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.” ~ William Zinsser

“Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.”  ~ Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within


Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to email me: michelle “at” classywriting.com

Michelle Troutman
Classy Writing
207.332.8379