"Frank, a very impressive study. Having been in direct mail for more than 30 years, your research is a window to the craft of words and how important copy is to successful direct marketing. In fact, given that twitter only allows 140 characters, I think the ability to write clearly and concisely is even made more important through social media."
Yale, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, The New School
Mal Warwick & Associates
"Fantastic. Great job in dignifying what I have also practiced: ‘Write the way you talk.’ I still do it and still dictate all my letters."
Giuseppe Nespoli, Director of Seaver Associates
Habitat for Humanity, Formerly Sr. VP CARE
Katya Andresen, C.O.O.
Research Affiliate, MIT
"What an interesting extension of narrative research, Frank! Indeed, there are hardly any studies (that I know of!) that deal with the effectiveness of story-telling in fundraising—though it's taken for granted, somehow, that without a "good story" one's appeal for funds will not get you far. Let me hear more about what you're up to. It's very "consciousness raising."
Jerome Bruner, PhD
Second Harvest
"Frank, I tend to throw away many fund-raising letters and I never thought about analyzing the content and determining what works. I am pre-conditioned to favoring certain charities and causes and pay little attention to other solicitations. But your language analysis and findings are critical to practitioners."
Network for Good
Roger Craver, Founder
New York University School of Law
"Frank, this is amazing work, just the kind of thing we should be doing more of."
Jerry Huntsinger, Founder
"Wow, we are true soul mates when it comes to fund raising. Terrific. This stuff is great. I can’t wait to highlight it in my work."
Craver, Matthews, Smith
John McIlquham, CEO
Grant McCraken, PhD
Pepperdine University
"I am interested in referencing your findings in The Nonprofit Marketing Guide. Thanks so much for your contribution to the field!"
The Goodman Center
Asst. Dean & Director of Advancement, University of Houston Law School
"Dr. Dickerson, as part of his doctoral studies at Claremont Graduate University, in California, recently analyzed more than 1.5 million words of online and printed fund-raising texts to determine how effectively fund raisers communicate with their audiences. While his findings were enough to fuel a 350-page dissertation, his thesis can be boiled down to a few short words: Most fund-raising copy stinks."
Philip Kotler, PhD, Professor of Marketing
Kivi Leroux Miller, Principal
Tom Ahern, Principal
Andy Goodman, Principal
Peter Panepento, Asst. Managing Editor
"This research agrees with what almost anybody who spends any time looking at the way nonprofits communicate already knows: Most fund raising copy is wooden, artificial, dull, and ineffective."
Huntsinger & Jeffer
NonProfitMarketingGuide.com
Russ Gibbs, D.Min, CFRE
Gail Perry Associates
Northwestern University
"Dr. Dickerson, I enjoyed hearing that you are another language vigilante struggling to keep everyday writing clear and plain. The subject of fundraising writing has never crossed my path in all my years of teaching various forms of writing. Thank you for your contributions to this craft."
"Thank you for sharing your research. This is very interesting work and of course extremely relevant for a large nonprofit organization like CARE. We know the importance of language in delivering our message to donors and the public, and it is both interesting and helpful to read your analysis of the current problems that plague written fundraising communications. We've also been testing similar variables that you mentioned in your study, such as simulated hand-written fonts and nonprofit stamps vs. first class rate to name a few. And, we continue to learn from our testing and tweaking of direct mail copy as well. Your research will be invaluable to us as we continue to try to 'crack the code' on what motivates individuals to take action through our direct response vehicles."
"I am a better fundraising writer today thanks to the Narrative Fundraising workshop at Vanderbilt. Dr. Dickerson revealed the science behind crafting a successful fund appeal, using simple, direct language that tells a compelling story."
Michael Margolis, President
Datapreneurs, London
"This research is a wake-up call based on solid evidence, and it couldn’t come at a better time."
"Frank, thank you for providing such an insightful workshop. I walked away knowing what I need to work on and how to improve my storytelling. This was the most useful training I've had as a fundraiser. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge."
"I was pretty impressed. We need more research into the ‘soft side’ of fund raising. Story telling is where it’s at!"
Kymberly McElgunn Wolff, Sr. VP of Development
"Frank, wonderful stuff and we’d like our 7000+ readers of The Agitator to benefit from it."
Future Fundraising Now & TrueSense Marketing
"Imagine my pleasure realizing you’re the author of the piece I read a few days ago that I hoped to commend in my e-newsletter. One of my chums in the nonprofit world said: ‘Look, we’re NOT all nuts; and here’s the research to prove it!’ Thank you. You've done everyone a big favor. Lousy written communications are costing the industry gazillions in lost revenue."
John Sauvé-Rodd, Principal
Mal Warwick, Founder & Chair
Gail Perry, Principal
"I completely agree with your take on the way we write. So much communication sent by great organizations is poorly crafted. And that
makes it difficult to get people to listen to very important messages."
"OMG Frank! Your work is brilliant! This research is profound and needs to be shared widely.
William Zinsser, Author of On Writing Well
The NonProfit Times
Joan Smythe Dengler, Sr VP
Ahern Commmunications Ink
"Frank I'll be brief. Awesome, as my young Canadian associates say. Keep it up and if you get to London--well, if you don’t call me for a pub-crawl you’re not half the man you think you are! Here is to the preservation of wisdom."
Bill Smith, Sr. Director of Grants and Fundraising Services
Covenant House
Get Storied
"Dr. Dickerson shared the results of his exhaustive analysis of more than a million words of fund-raising copy. He explains why nearly everything he studied came up short."
Jeff Brooks
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Frank, your workshop was the best seminar on effective fundraising communication I've ever attended! Thanks. I will definitely recommend your workshop.