The main task of a fundraising text, unlike a regular text, is to raise money. And although there is no single formula of success for such texts, there are several ways to encourage the reader to make a donation,
Tell about the person
Even if you are raising money for a systemic project, for the activities of the organization, it is better to write a story about a specific person. Such a text is closer and clearer to the reader, and it is easier to attract donations.
Choose one hero
In a fundraising text it is important to bring the reader to the end, because most often it is there that the reader is urged to transfer money to support the project. But if the text has a lot of heroes, it's easy to get confused and lose the main point. Find a person whose story will help you tell about the project. It could be an employee of the foundation, a beneficiary, for example, a sick child or a family with many children.
Write in simple language
Each 1 step. Standing, arms along the body, feet shoulder width apart, shoes off, eyes open. Begin to make a short and sharp inhalation-exhalation through the nose, lips close. (This resembles a very frequent breathing). We do this without a break for 7 minutes, looking at the clock. Then a short pause (not more than 1 minute).
Stage 2. Sitting on a sofa or chair, back straight, eyes open, hands on knees, shoes off. We do another block of short inhalations and exhalations through the nose - another 7 min. You can help yourself by small "bouncing" of the body up and down. Then a short pause of no more than 1 min.
Stage 3. Lying on your side on the sofa. Legs can be slightly bent, put your hands as comfortable. Do another intensive block of short inhalations and exhalations through the nose for another 7 min.
At the end of the practice, sit down and recover your breath for as long as necessary.
During the practice and at the end of it, there may be tears, reaction of the nasal mucosa, coughing, dizziness, a state of swelling, painful sensations in different places of the body. These are manifestations of broken knots and the release of stagnant energy.
It seems that its topic is the most important and main, but for the reader its importance is not always obvious and clear. Do not overload the text with complex diagnoses that are not familiar to the audience. Explain medical terms in simple words: few people know what cystic fibrosis or osteogenesis imperfecta are. Tell what the money you are asking for is for.
Be concise
A fundraising text should not be long.
There is a high probability that such a text will not be read in several sittings, so you need to make it concise.
Use the laws of dramaturgy
The text should have a backstory, a plot, a drama, a climax and a finale, after which the reader is ready to transfer the donation.
"Sometimes we thicken the colors a bit," adds Often the situation itself is sad, but if we tell it like it is, the gravity of the story may not be read by the reader.
And after a story that has already ended well, the reader is not too willing to share the money.
"When we raise money for infrastructure projects, we can write about a hero who has already been helped," says the expert. - For example, he took a course of work with a psychologist or the foundation helped him to get his children back. And when we meet him, everything is almost fine. But if we write about it, they won't give money for the project. In fact, we are not collecting money for Maria Ivanovna, but for the work of the organization. And it is very important to show the reader that he or she has a chance to influence the course of history.
Pseudo-targeting
You can not hide from the reader that the money will go to the project as a whole, despite the fact that the author tells the stories of the mentees. Tell them that the problem is not an isolated one, and the situation you describe is faced by dozens, hundreds of people. They all need help.
In addition, do not forget to explain to the hero the purpose of the text. He should not have the illusion of targeted collection in his favor.
Ask the hero uncomfortable questions
It is important to be honest with readers, after all, it reflects on your reputation. If during a conversation with the hero you realize that something is wrong, most likely, your intuition does not fail you, notes . If you doubt the honesty of the hero's story, check the information received through other sources, interview people who have encountered this person.
Do not hesitate to ask the question that is spinning in your head, even if it is uncomfortable and unpleasant. If you don't ask it, your readers will. Information that they are trying to hide from you (or you want to hide) will become known sooner or later anyway, says the journalist.
Expanding difficult topics
There are topics that people don't want to give money to.
"We have a lot of such topics. Everyone worked hard, the text is good, it was even read, but they didn't give us any money. It turns out that we spend the editorial board's money and can't do anything. What do we need it for? This is an important educational story. If you fight, it's slowly starting to work. At first they collect 2-3 thousand rubles, and then - 20-30 thousand. If you start writing about it, someone else will learn about it, feel it and will be able to help," says the expert.
Emotions or reason?
Many people believe that only "emotional" fundraising works, and to get a donation, you need to evoke emotions in a person. This is often true.
But, first of all, not all topics can be emotionally close to people. The main audience that helps NPOs are women over 25 years old living in megacities, the expert says. It is difficult for them to sympathize with a villager whose family has been addicted to alcohol for many generations and who gives their children to orphanages.
"Emotionally, a person wants to close himself off from these people and pretend that they do not exist in his life. The only thing left is to explain that he benefits from breaking the cycle. It works, but not immediately," says the journalist.
Secondly, such techniques should be used point by point and occasionally, otherwise you won't have any readers. Strong emotions cannot be experienced on a daily basis. If fundraising texts are published frequently, they should be different in terms of emotional intensity.
Ask for money
It seems obvious that after a fundraising text the reader will immediately transfer the donation. But in fact, without a direct request to transfer money, even the best text will not work.
It is important to clearly write what the money is needed for and how it will be spent. Tell about the results: not only about the amount raised, but also about the solution of the tasks for which it was collected.
Slippers with a pompom
Every text should be unique. But if there are a lot of these texts, it is difficult to avoid monotony. The journalist says that "slippers with a pompom" will help to avoid self-repetition.
"Each hero is first of all not a patient and sufferer, but a person. When you write about a person, it is important to find lively details. Yes, he has the same diagnosis as hundreds of people. But people are all different," he says. We had a text about a woman with ALS. When journalists came to see her, they saw that she had beautiful slippers with a pompom. And the first half of the text was not about the disease, but about the importance of her staying beautiful and dressed up. The text got a good readership response.
Such details are necessary not only for the reader, but also for the author, who writes a large number of similar stories. If the reader is served the same story under different sauces, he will stop trusting you, the expert added.
Try new things
It is important not to stop at the text format only. To collect donations, you can, for example, shoot photo stories or make videos. They can bring in just as many donations as a text
Sounds of darkness: what can a dyslexic musician tell us about the structure of the brain?
We still don't know where dyslexia, a reading disorder, comes from. Israeli researchers decided to test the popular theory about its connection with sound perception disorders and invited dyslexic musicians for tests.
Wired magazine writes about their findings, from the text of which T&P highlighted the most important points.
Dyslexia prevents many talented people from reading. No one knows exactly what causes it, but one of the most popular hypotheses states that at the heart of the problem is the defective processing of sounds by the human brain - primarily in childhood. Later in life, it becomes difficult for people to trace the connection between the sounds spoken and the symbols on the page.
But if it's all about recognizing sounds, how can we explain the existence of dyslexic musicians?
They should not have such problems. The question was addressed by Israeli psychologist Merav Aissar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. First, a group of researchers under her supervision tested 52 musicians on auditory perception (the ability to recognize different sounds and their intervals), as well as music perception (distinguishing rhythms and melodies) and language (identifying words from similar incoherent sounds).
In addition, tests were conducted on memorization, speed, and attentiveness in reading. For several years, scientists have been looking for dyslexic musicians and finally they managed to recruit 25 people. No research was found on the prevalence of dyslexia among musicians. It is only known that dyslexia affects between one and ten percent of the entire population of the Earth, according to various estimates.
Dyslexic musicians passed most tests with scores similar to their healthy counterparts and higher than most normal people. Much worse was the case with tests of auditory working memory - the ability to memorize a particular sound for a short period of time. It turned out that dyslexic musicians with the worst working memory also had the lowest attentiveness in reading. Their colleagues with the best memory were more attentive.
In their paper in the journal Neuropsychologia, Aissar's group suggests that working memory may be a weakness for dyslexic people. This assumption is not unreasonable, says Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist who studies music and language at Northwestern University in Illinois. Learning a language involves actively making connections between speech, its meaning and spelling. "If you can't memorize the sound, you won't be able to make the connection," she says.
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