While everyone knows a good story when they see one, few know what makes a good story good, and fewer still can write one. All the recent buzz about storytelling is good. But buzz mainly makes your hair stand on end. Frank C. Dickerson, Ph.D. will help you begin what will hopefully be a career-long learning process of learning how to improve your communication skills.

1. How to Avoid the 5
Fatal Mistakes Fund
Appeals Make
4/30/15
1pm Eastern
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Our guest presenter »
Frank C. Dickerson, Ph.D.
• President of High Touch
Communication, producer of direct
mail fund-raising campaigns
• Adjunct professor at Cal University
• Former Director of Development for
Campus Crusade for Christ, where he
grew yearly income 7-10%, with annual
income now approaching half-a-billion-
dollars.
• Former pupil of Peter Drucker

5. How to Avoid the Five Fatal Mistakes Fund Appeals Make
Presented by Frank C. Dickerson, Ph.D. for Bloomerang

6. Apparently my mom
wanted a baby girl
when I happened along
in 1951. She named me
Frankie Carol!

7. Dad wasn’t a farmer.
Rather, it was oil that
had brought him to
Illinois from Texas after
WWII. Then in 1964 it
drew my family to Ohio.

8. I became a freshman at
The Ohio State University
in 1969—the year when. . .

9. • OSU beat O.J. Simpson’s USC Trojans 27 - 16 in the Rose Bowl

10. • Seven days later Richard Nixon became the 37th U.S. President

11. • Atlantic Records released Led Zeplin’s first studio album

12. • The Beatles played their last concert on rooftop of Apple Records

13. • Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon

14. • 500,000 attended Woodstock at Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, NY

15. • The first Internet message was sent at 10:30 pm on October 29

18. A Connecting Narrative Moment

19. A Connecting Narrative Moment
People: We Feel Connection

20. A Connecting Narrative Moment
“Fear and pity may be aroused
by spectacular means; but they
may also result from the inner
structure of the piece, which is
the better way, and indicates a
superior poet. For the plot ought
to be so constructed that, even
without the aid of the eye, he
who hears the tale told will thrill
with horror and melt to pity at
what takes Place.” (Poetics II: 14)
Tension We suffer Conflict

21. A Connecting Narrative Moment
Kindness is great if shown to one
who is in great need, or who
needs what is important and
hard to get, or who needs it at
an important and difficult crisis;
or if the helper is the only, the
first, or the chief person to give
the help.” (Rhetoric II: 7)
Resolution We become Heroes

23. Effective writing can make us . . .

24. Exposition | Narrative
Logical
Analytical
Objective
Emotional
Relational
Subjective

25. Exposition follows:
Sergeant Friday’s Facts Only, Data Approach

26. Narrative follows:
C.S. Lewis’ Word Picture, Story Approach
__________________________________________

27. How do fund
raisers write?

28. Fund appeals are long on concepts
& Short on dramatic action

29. Fund appeals don’t
show people doing.

30. Rather, they tell about
people thinking.

31. Fund appeals don’t
show people doing.
What type of writing style do fund raisers prefer?

32. Fundraisers were asked to rate two
modes of communication: on a 1 to 5
scale, with 1 being low and 5 being high.
Exposition | Narrative

34. Fundraisers know what
has worked in the past.
Ad Age rated this 1925
ad 45th on their list of
the top 100 of the
twentieth century.
Written for U.S. School
of Music by John Caples,
it ran for decades and
was copied by many.

35. It connected and readers empathized . . .

36. It connected and readers empathized . . .
“Can he really play”? A girl whispered.
“Heavens no!” Arthur exclaimed,” “He
never played a note in his life.”

37. Then I Started to Play
Instantly a tense silence fell on
the guests. The laughter died on
their lips as if by magic. I played
through the first and second of
Liszt’s immortal Liebestraume. I
heard gasps of amazement. My
friends sat breathless—spellbound.
It connected and readers empathized . . .

38. Over the past few years,
narrative story telling
has been a hot topic.

39. Everyone knows a good
story when they see one.

40. Everyone knows a good
story when they see one.
But seeing exactly what it is about
a good story that makes it good.
Well . . . that’s another story

43. Two Researchers Studied Indiana Nonprofits
Ulla Connor Thomas Upton
In 2003 Connor and
Upton at IUPUI used
Biber’s protocols to
answer this question:
“Which of the 23
genres Biber profiled,
does the writing of
fund-raisers most
closely resemble?”

45. Connor and Upton Concluded:

47. Case in Point: The Girl Scouts:

50. 


The Copy is Abstract:

51. Four Nouns as Vague Outcomes:





53. Reveals a Universal Problem:

55. Do elite Nonprofits write better?
I studied . . .

73. We at Xela AID are working to do something that has not been
done before in the Guatemalan highlands and beyond: sustainable
community development. Here’s how:
Ours is a fully integrated approach to community development:
we aim to remove the health, environmental and socioeconomic
obstacles to education so we can transform poverty into
abundance. This has to be done systematically, with continuous
effort, and with continuous adaptation to current conditions. This
is a tall order, but we are up to the task.We firmly believe that
that partnering, respectfully, and recognizing the riches of the
Guatemalan people is as important as the apparent physical
outcomes we achieve. For Xela AID, our end product is the sum of
our “doing” and our “being” together with our partners, and
recognizing the benefits to all involved.

82. EM (Edward Morgan) Forster

94. A fund appeal must paint a word
picture of someone doing something.

95. A fund appeal must paint a word
picture of someone doing something.
It fails if it’s limited to an exposition
of someone thinking something.

96. A fund appeal must paint a word
picture of someone doing something.
It fails if it’s limited to an exposition
of someone thinking something.
Ask: “Can I see what I’ve written on
screen with action and dialogue?”

97. The Key Question . . .
Do you have something that could be
shown on screen with no words, and it
would tell a compelling story?

112. In a “nominalized” sentence
abstract nouns do the work.

113. Once upon a time, as a walk through
the woods was taking place on the
part of Little Red Riding Hood, the
jump out from behind a tree of the
Wolf occurred, causing her fright.

114. Once upon a time, Little Red Riding
Hood was walking through the woods,
when the Wolf jumped out from
behind a tree and frightened her.

146. Questions?

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