6 Words that you should avoid using with your donors

Words matter a lot when it comes to fundraising for nonprofits. The words that you use in your communication could have either a positive or a negative impact on your potential donors. This in turn would go on to determine the amount of donations coming in and the success that your nonprofit eventually witnesses. The words that you choose to use in your messaging, emails, website and call to action contribute to this. You could consider a few words to be innocent and try to pass it off in your communication but they could end up having a very detrimental effect on your results.

Here are a few words that your nonprofit should avoid using while communicating with your donors.

Submit

The word Submit has its roots in the word submission which means yielding to someone or something. This is something that your donors would never want to and thus using it in your marketing material could be quite counterproductive. In a study, it has been found how the conversion rates drop by a huge margin when the word - submit is used.

Impact

This is such an overused word in the nonprofit space that it seems to have lost a lot of impact of its own. People might want to have an impact but they have a lot of other things to manage in their lives. Therefore it gets important to not overwhelm them with such words and use a lighter word instead.

Optimize

This would mean to make something as effective, perfect or useful as possible. This again could get overwhelming for your donors. Try using words like ‘develop’, ‘boost’ or ‘improve’ to make it more appropriate.

Leverage

The word leverage means to exert power or influence on to obtain a desired result. So using the word leverage could go to mean that you are trying to take advantage of a relationship. This might not sound great in a sector which is heavily dependent on gratitude. It is time to replace this word with something that might fit better.

More than Ever

Your donors are so used to repeatedly hearing this phrase that the sense of urgency is lost somewhere within it. This phrase in itself could be true but the repeated use of it has led donors to take it less seriously. A different phrase which could still drive the point home as to why their support is so essential would be much more effective.

These are a few words which nonprofit should ideally avoid to not have a negative effect on your donors. After all, donors are the key to a successful fundraising for nonprofits. The better the impression you have on them, the greater are the heights that your nonprofit would reach.