Fundraising With No Margin: A KILLER!
After I left the pastorate and entered the marketplace, I knew I needed a great website. A good friend turned me on to Donald Miller. I found his podcast, started from day one and took notes. The cost: My time.
In those days, Miller and his always-laughing associate JJ Peterson would critique someone's website on the show. I learned a lot but still felt unsure about how to build my own website. So, when he published his book Building A Storybrand I quickly bought it. The cost: $17.99
I had listened to dozens of Building A Storybrand podcasts AND taken fastidious notes, AND studied the book, but I still lacked the confidence to build my own website. So...when Donald Miller offered an online experience to learn the Storybrand framework for $299, I jumped at the chance!
Call me a slow learner, but even then, I still lacked the confidence that I needed to make a great website! So, when Miller offered the opportunity to come to Nashville for two days and be personally guided by him and his team for $2,000, I jumped at the chance!
THEN... After signing up for the in-person experience, I learned that for another $13,000, I could spend the week with Donald Miller, JJ Peterson, Koula Callahan, and the Storybrand team learning the Storybrand framework.
You know what happened, don't you? I whipped out my credit card and jumped at the chance!!!
That was the beginning of a great relationship with Donald Miller and his team as a Storybrand Certified Guide.
Can I tell you one of the main things I learned that nonprofit leaders and missionaries need to hear?
Great promotional collateral intentionally includes a lot of margin, saying more with less.
...saying more with less.
There is a revolution going on now in marketing and promotion, and nonprofit leaders and missionaries should scramble to understand it.
Big business has learned that consumers are attracted to "less is more." The early adopters who have caught on are selling more and edging out their competition.
MISSIONARIES, NONPROFITS AND MARGIN
I first learned about margin from my sign painter, dad. "People don't read the copy on a sign," he would say. "They read the space around it." He was always teaching me the power of less copy on a sign to enhance its readability.
I have realized that most business, nonprofit, and missionary marketing is done by graphics and I.T. folks who know nothing about the power of margin. It is always crammed with too much information.
Most "old-school" graphics and I.T. folks know little about margin. And sadly, too many of us nonprofit leaders and missionaries take our cue from them.
Most businesses do their marketing the same way; it's just too much. "Please," the consumer and your donors are saying, "less is more."
I spent a year with Storybrand learning from Miller and his team as a Certified Guide. Please, study a website with me. Look at the before and after for Meyers Pet Care:
Notice Meyers Pet Care AFTER Donald Miller's Storybrand team gives it a one-liner and LOTS OF MARGIN.
What difference does margin make?
UHMMMMM... WITH MARGIN IN THEIR NEW WEBSITE MYERS PET CARE QUADRUPLED THEIR BUSINESS.
Message to missionaries and nonprofit leaders, margin is attractive. Less is more, and donors LOVE it.
Andy Stanley leads a class called "Take It To The Limit," where he helps people understand the power of margin in their lives. One of his definitions of margin is "the space between our current performance and our limits."
Margin is pacing yourself on a long relay run, leaving room for a burst of speed at the end. The athletes who win have mastered this. And we love them for it.
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Margin is showing up somewhere a couple of minutes early.
Having a friend who lives with that kind of margin and gets there on time to save you a seat can be priceless!
Our highways have margin, spaces wider than what our car needs. Which is better, five inches or three feet? In the age of texting while driving, we are so thankful for more than inches.
Margin is the difference in legroom in a first-class airplane seat or a coach seat. Yeah, are we ever attracted to that!
Margin is having some money left over that you didn't spend at the end of the month. We have a word for the people who maximize that value. We call them "wealthy."
Watching people live margin-less lives makes for excellent reality t.v. But, in real life, no margin is a recipe for disaster. It is quite unattractive and is a horrible promotional strategy.
Think about it. We are so attracted to people who have maximized the power of margin in their lives.
Margin can make your promotional literature so much more attractive.
My friend Caleb Jordan just got a new website. Notice all the margin. Notice how he says more with less. He and I struggled for weeks to describe what he brings to the table in one SHORT phrase. (thanks, lindseyoaks.com for the site).
Andy Stanley says that life happens in the margins.
I say missionaries and nonprofit leaders raise more money with margin in their promotional collateral.
Selah, pause and think about margin.
Some practical ways I have learned to add margin:
What about you? How have you learned to add margin to your promotional collateral? Email me at david@wsdevelop and share your tips.