I imagine that it makes a difference too describe what it cost to make real change happen. It might be better to say your money is supporting this kind of work if it costs $100,000 to do something. But if it costs $30 dollars it might make a bigger difference to say your gift supports an organization that is doing X and Y.

What do you think?

My concern tends to center around how they’re presented.

“Your gift of X will do Y.”

No. No it won’t. Any sufficiently sophisticated donor will know that’s not how
it works at all. My gift of X will go into a big pot with a lot of other gifts.
Out of that pot will come many,many Y’s, Z’s and other things. If I don’t make
my gift of X, Y will likely still happen.

I know I’m spliting hairs here, and perhaps being a bit pedantic, but I think
that when asking folks for donations it’s critical to choose words VERY
carefully so as to be accurate and never be placed in a position where you have
to say “well, what we really meant was …”. It’s a trust thing – if they can’t
trust your message, what else can’t they trust?

A list of:

“It costs X to do Y”
“It costs X’ to do Y’”

and so on followed by a more general statement such as:

“Your generous gift will help us to continue to do those, and much, much more.”

Seems more honest.

Is it as effective? That’s the part I don’t know.

That’s what makes this as much an art as a science – balance.

As a donor, I know it’s one thing that I’ve always kinda sorta noticed from
various organizations and occasionally reacted to negatively.

Leo