Brevity in Donor Communications: Less is Best

Here’s a simple fact: Like us, our donors live in a fast-paced world where every second counts and attention spans are shrinking. That’s why brevity is especially important in donor communications. With individuals being bombarded with messages from all directions, short, direct, and compelling messages stand out. Let’s delve deeper into the rationale behind this and touch upon some insights from recent research.

1. The Busy Donor's Dilemma
Your donor is swamped. Between personal commitments, professional tasks, and the constant ping of notifications, it's not just their money that's valuable—it's their time. Sending lengthy, wordy communications can quickly deter an otherwise eager donor. If they need to sift through paragraphs to understand the essence of your message, they might skip reading it altogether.

2. The Power of Brevity: Research Insights
A recent study published in the Journal of Marketing Research (accessible here) sheds light on the impact of message length in the context of donor communications. The findings underline that:

• Attracting is Step One: Even if you have a great headline or pithy subject line that attracts attention, you need to follow that with content that can sustain the reader’s attention if you want your message received. That’s where brevity comes in.
  
• Brevity = Higher Engagement: In the studies, shorter messages led to greater engagement. Readers were more likely to read, recall, and respond to concise communications.
  
• Brevity is Not Enough: While brevity is important, it must be coupled with three important factors—Readability, Syntactic Simplicity, and Concreteness—as well as language that evokes emotion. Positive Emotions and Anxiety are particularly powerful while readers often disengage with language that evokes Sadness. 

3. Brevity as an Art and Skill
As noted above, being concise doesn't mean stripping your message of emotion or impact. It’s about trimming the excess and focusing on what truly matters. Aim for:

• Clear Calls to Action: A donor should quickly understand the desired action, be it a donation, meeting request, attending an event, or sharing a message.
• Use of Visuals: A well-placed image or infographic can convey more than paragraphs of text. They grab attention and convey emotions effectively.
• Expressing Impact: One of the best ways to build trust with a donor is to simply and compellingly articulate the impact their gift is making. This is best done by combining data, to tell the big story, with a human story that grounds the work.

4. Tailored Messaging
While brevity is crucial, personalization shouldn't be overlooked. In addition to tailoring messages to individual donor interests, a shorter, personalized message makes the donor feel seen and appreciated. This leads to a more profound connection.

Final Thoughts
Not only are concise messages more effective in delivering the desired message to a donor, but there is also a knock-on effect related to trust. When an organization respects a donor’s time and delivers information in a concise manner, it instills the sense that the organization values their time, strengthening the relationship and opening the door to continued engagement. Be one of the organizations that demonstrates you value your donors' time and reap the rewards!