Will I love The Fundraiser's Guide to Irresistible Communications?

I love this book because it is gloriously messy—which is exactly what our fundraising communication needs to look like.

Too many nonprofits hide behind sterile, corporate language that completely kills their appeals. Jeff Brooks teaches you how to write with raw emotion and urgency. If you write fundraising letters and want people to actually read them, this is mandatory reading.

If there’s anyone who cares about effective graphic design, it’s direct-mail experts and fundraisers like Brooks. Brooks devotes about one-quarter of his book to the “design of fundraising”—how to use graphics to improve response rates. If folks can’t read your pitch because of poor design, all the words you write won’t make a difference. “It doesn’t matter how great a piece looks if it’s hard to read,” he says. He deflates designs that make the designer feel good, but make the reader toss the communication because it’s just too much work to figure out.