Here’s a great post from Marc Pitman, aka The Fundraising Coach.  Leave it to Marc to find a link between Katy Perry and fundraising!  This is a good one!

Marc also has a great new post on his site, entitled The Role of the Executive Director in a Development Database, which you should also check out.

Marc is a great friend of Step by Step Fundraising.  I hope you take the opportunity to get to know him as we have!

Oh, if you are inclined to Tweet, you can follow @marcapitman.  Thanks, Marc!

What Katy Perry and the Black Eyed Peas taught me about nonprofit fundraising

Last week I heard Katy Perry‘s “Teenage Dream” for the first time. The song is basically a few lines of lyrics repeated over and over. And it topped the charts in popularity.

Listening to Katy Perry got me thinking about fundraising.

Her song reminded me of the Black Eyed Peas‘ “I Got a Feeling” : simple lyrics repeated over and over. It’s really catchy. (If you’re not entirely convinced that it’s the same one or two lines repeated over and over, with random phrases thrown in, check out this parody on YouTube: I Got a Feeling – that this owl is really creepy!)

I could go on. Anyone out there remember Weird Al’s “This Song’s Just Six Words Long“? Another great parody on the lack of lyrics in popular songs. The thing is, it works. People remember the lyrics and the songs are wildly popular.

This week, why not look at your fundraising appeals and your approaches to donors. Are you over doing it? Are you overwhelming donors with facts and data? Trying to firehose them with information?

Why not try to rework your solicitations by singing from the same sheet as Katy Perry, the Black Eyed Peas, and Weird Al:

For the remainder of this article, please click here to visit Marc’s site!