The copy editing mush mill
As a fundraising copywriter, there are few things more frustrating and, if I’m honest infuriating, than having copy absolutely decimated by non-fundraising staff. Often the copy runs through a human disassembly line that extracts: Any emotion; one-sentence paragraphs; plain-spoken turns of phrase, and more recently anything that could ever be interpreted by anyone as inappropriate (I wrote for a childhood hunger organization where the program staff objected to referring to children as “hungry.” No joke)
The result: Inoffensive copy that passes muster with your 11th grade English teacher. Making things worse, it often scores ‘post-graduate’ on Hemingway App, meaning it is somewhat incomprehensible…and definitely less likely to raise money.
Enter Lisa Sargent, a master copywriter who has forgotten more than I have ever known about effective fundraising writing. She’s written a patient, lucid, summary of many of the ways copy is reduced to pablum and offers explanations why most good copy is clear, evocative, warm, and conversational.
If you’re a copywriter, take Lisa’s post as reassurance that it’s really not you, it’s them. And if you’re one of the well-intended guilty parties to the mush mill, please understand that fundraisers know what they are doing.
Good fundraising copy is a conversation, not a term paper.