Letting the Little Stuff Slide

Tom Ahern's newsletter last week struck a chord with me. He wrote about a fundraiser going toe-to-toe with a board member on indented paragraphs.

Small potatoes, right? So the board member finds indents superfluous -- why not just let that little thing slide in hopes of hanging on to the bigger picture?

Confession: I've done this.

I've let non-fundraisers and non-direct-mail experts dictate small things about our letters and mail in order to expedite the process. Sometimes, it feels like it's just not worth the fight, other times, I'm really, truly not sure that my regular direct mail practices are actually the best way to go.

As I've said here and here, when you're not sure what to do, you should probably test.

So if you can't fight for what you know (or think) is right, then fight to test it. Let a pool of your donors give you the information you and your board member (or boss, or other person who is pushing you) need to make decisions that will make your fundraising efforts the best that they can be.

And really, that's what we all want -- even if that gets lost in arguments about indents: successful fundraising.