It was the lead-in copy that grabbed my heart and turned my stomach….
“Newborn Babies & Their Mothers Held Hostage. What if this were you and your child?”
Immediately upon reading these words in an Instagram story, I felt simultaneously outraged, physically ill, and curious. Questions quickly floated around my head in the split second it took for the post to load.
“Where are these mothers?”
“Who is doing this to them?”
“Newborn babies...that can’t be real…can it?”
The story that followed broke my heart and left me with tears rolling down my cheeks, and I reached for my credit card to support an organization I had discovered less than 5 minutes earlier.
With two simple sentences and a photo, they had taken me from a total stranger to their cause and organization to a donor, all because their headline and lead-in copy on an Instagram story struck a deep chord within me.
And then it hit me. DANG—that was some good marketing copy.
As I explored their website further and pondered my experience, I realized that my donor journey is not unique; it’s the process every donor goes through (although, admittedly, the majority of people don’t make that journey in 5 minutes).
So I “put my lab coat on,” as our CEO likes to say, and began to dissect what just happened—running through my thoughts, emotions, feelings, and action—noting causal relationships and correlating actions.
What I found held to what my experiences in digital marketing for non-profits have taught me throughout the years.
The gist? You have only seconds to capture a person's attention, bring them into your story, and elicit enough emotion to drive them to action. If you don’t nail the first impression, they’re gone.
You might be thinking, “Okay, great—but how do I capture those people?” Glad you asked! Let’s dive in.
It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but most marketers agree: you have 8 seconds or less to capture your reader’s attention with your ad lead-in, email subject line, preview text, or headline copy—before they move on.
Then, if you do in fact encourage a person to click (or continue scrolling), the average reader will only scan and consume 20-28% of the content on your page. For a 1,000-word blog post, that’s only 200-300 words.
With this comes both good news and bad news.
The good? You can still effectively attract, capture, and delight a reader who will only consume one-fifth of the content you produce.
The bad? Every word counts, and perfecting the art of eliminating dead words in favor of copy that engages takes practice.
All this considered, here are my humble, need-to-know tips for crafting first-impression copy that will encourage people to donate:
Your organization’s brand is the personality a donor interacts with. It’s the person relaying stories, presenting needs and challenges, and ultimately, asking for a donation.
Your brand is the hinge that your marketing success rests on. Without authentic and streamlined branding—or brand integrity—your prospective donor will be left underwhelmed (at best) and confused (at worst).
Branding provides the foundation for every aspect of your copy—from headlines and tone to voice and storytelling. If you want to create truly compelling content, start by aligning your writing with your brand’s unique voice.
Why does brand integrity matter so much? Because every interaction a prospective donor has with your brand is an opportunity to draw them closer into a relationship or lose them in a sea of competing voices.
Every communication—whether it’s an ad, blog post, or email—is an opportunity to tell a powerful story and place the donor at its center.
If you want your lead-in copy to spark that story, focus on two things: lead with honesty and captivate with creativity.
Today’s prospective donors are constantly bombarded with content, and as a result, they’ve become skilled at spotting weak or insincere messaging. Strong stories stand out—they surprise, delight, and tap into emotion.
Why lean on emotion rather than logic? Because people give with their hearts, not just their heads.
Pro tip: Don’t just describe the problem—invite your reader into the story as the hero. Show them how they can be part of the solution.
Here’s the deal: You could have the very best story to tell, spelled out through the most beautiful copywriting, but if your title, headlines, and subheadings don’t grab my attention and compel me to care, I’ll never read it.
Remember, the average reader is only glancing at your title and headlines for 8 seconds or less before deciding if they want to move on. And, if you do convince the reader to engage with your content, it’s likely that they will only skim 20-28% of it.
This means that you need to tell your whole story through the title, headlines, intro copy, and subtitles—ALONE.
If all your reader looks at are these elements, they need to be able to gather a good sense of what’s going on. However, at the same time, your headings shouldn’t offer a full description.
Titles and headlines that are bold, exciting, and slightly elusive will steal your reader’s attention, but then leave them wanting more, encouraging them to read the rest of the copy you spent time crafting.
Here are some examples of section headers from one of our clients’ blogs, The Mission Post by Divine Word Missionaries:
Intentionally leaving gaps in your writing will encourage your readers to search for more answers, increasing their session time (time spent consuming your content) and raising their familiarity with your brand.
And, ignoring my unusual experience outlined at the beginning of this blog, the more time a person spends with a brand, the more likely they are to donate.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of structuring your content to give it the best possible chance of appearing at the top of Google’s search results.
Why does SEO matter?
Organic search traffic brings in new visitors at no cost, many of whom are highly qualified prospective donors. In other words, attracting someone through an optimized blog post or webpage is one of the most valuable conversion opportunities you can get.
So, how does it work?
When Google’s bots crawl your pages, they are looking for “keywords”—things people are already searching for on Google. By incorporating these keywords into strategic places in your content, like the title, headlines, and page meta descriptions, Google is more likely to rank your content favorably.
When Google finds these keywords, it uses an algorithm to determine how authoritative the page is on the keyword/topic. This calculation determines the page’s search result ranking.
A powerful SEO tool like SEMrush offers valuable insights, such as monthly search volume (how often a term is searched) and keyword difficulty (how competitive it is to rank on Google). These metrics help you decide whether it’s worth building a story or piece of content around a specific keyword to improve your visibility in search results.
Pro tip: If SEO has you scared or stumped, reach out to our team. We love the challenge and have helped several organizations earn a spot on Google’s first page.
Say your organization helps to end hunger in Africa. You have a blog and are making next quarter’s content plan. What if you could strategically plan the blog titles and headlines so that they pop up on the first page of Google results, bringing fresh leads to your organization?
With a tool like SEMrush, you can find the keywords people are searching for, along with how difficult it will be to rank for a particular keyword. Check out these results:
Near the top, the term “starvation in Africa” has a strong monthly search volume (720) and a reasonable keyword difficulty (48%)—a winning combo.
When our clients incorporate keywords that meet these criteria into their blog posts or landing pages—placing them in the title, headings, meta description, and other key areas—we’ve seen impressive growth in organic search traffic.
The more organic search growth you experience, the more brand visibility you have, and the higher your likelihood of attracting new donors.
The art of encouraging people to donate to your organization requires a combination of form and function. It’s where the creativity of storytelling, the skill of knowing your reader, and a data-driven SEO strategy come together to increase your brand visibility and build your army of advocates.
Now more than ever, donors are looking for worthy causes to rally behind—especially the next generation of donors. So get your brand in front of them, grab their attention from the start, and tell them a story that resonates and invites them to step in as the hero.
We’d love to help you reach your fundraising goals and inspire more people to support your mission. Let’s connect and explore how we can be partners in good.