| Anger is one of the best emotions that you can | | | | hundreds likely perished. For days, we saw the |
| arouse in a donor. Anger is a healthy emotion, | | | | images on our television screens of stranded citizens |
| particularly when your fundraising letter offers donors | | | | dying in New Orleans while help tarried. |
| a way to assuage their anger. "Individuals are more | | | | In your fundraising letter to raise funds for these |
| prone to respond to a genuine feeling of anger than | | | | hurricane victims, you could name President Bush as |
| to any other emotion," says Roland Kiniholm in his | | | | your villain. You could blame the plight of the |
| book, Maximum Gifts by Return Mail. | | | | displaced people on Federal Emergency Management |
| To make your donors angry, you need a villain. Villains | | | | Agency director Michael Brown, who many are saying |
| are good. They help you focus your donors' attention | | | | is responsible for the delays that caused so many |
| on one problem that needs fixing. That villain can be a | | | | deaths. Or you could blame the mayor of New |
| person or a problem. | | | | Orleans. But these attacks would sound unkind. And |
| My advice is that you never name a particular person | | | | painting any of these men as the villain right now |
| as your villain, since doing so is not very charitable, | | | | would be premature. |
| excuse the pun. Plus, you might get sued for | | | | Instead, a successful appeal letter would paint the |
| defamation of character or slander. Instead, you | | | | hurricane as the villain. Or point the finger at the |
| should attack the catastrophe that the villain has | | | | flooding as the villain. |
| created, or simply make the catastrophe the villain. | | | | Your fundraising campaign can have a villain and still |
| - Mothers Against Drunk Driving has a villain: drunk | | | | be positive. The Red Cross, for example, is running a |
| driving (not drunken drivers) | | | | fundraising campaign right now with this theme: Hope |
| - The Coalition Against Gun Violence has a villain: gun | | | | is Stronger than a Hurricane. There's only one thing |
| violence (not gun owners) | | | | wrong with that theme. I didn't think of it. |
| - Oxfam has a villain: poverty (not the wealthy) | | | | If you want to stir up one of the strongest human |
| - Habitat for Humanity has a villain: unaffordable | | | | emotions to your advantage, chose a villain that your |
| housing (not landlords) | | | | donors can get angry at. Then show how your |
| Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United | | | | non-profit organization can alleviate that anger by |
| States last week. The response by the US federal | | | | eliminating (or, more realistically, weakening) that |
| government to the plight of tens of thousands of | | | | villain. |
| refugees stranded in New Orleans was so slow that | | | | |