Denny Hatch isn’t a fundraiser. He’s an author, former businessman and army veteran. But with his expertise of marketing and advertising, his opinions and thoughts will be a treasure trove of knowledge that fundraisers can draw upon to make their campaigns better and more appealing to donors. We are incredibly grateful to Denny for letting us reproduce his wealth of blogposts on SOFII. 

From friend of SOFII Roger Craver: 

‘My Personal Pantheon of Great Fundraising Creative Curmudgeons is currently limited to three. (Those offended by not being included — yet — are simply too young). My three: Jerry Huntsinger, the late George Smith and Denny Hatch.

Why Denny Hatch?  Because he’s not only a great copywriter, he’s a great copywriter with a penchant for analysis, the ability to deliver that analysis based on 40 years’ experience and the detailed review of literally tens of thousands of direct mail packages.

Denny’s analysis is far from dull. It’s both truthful and inspiring. No wonder in commenting on Denny’s classic Million Dollar Mailings: the art and science of creating money-making direct mail exclaimed, "This remarkable book has inspired me to revive my life-long crusade to extricate the direct mail fraternity from the ghetto to which they have always been confined by the advertising generalists."

For 30 years my friend Denny monitored the testing and rollout of thousands of direct mail packages –including fundraising appeals—through his unique service Who’s Mailing What? Tracking, archiving and sharing winning control packages across the commercial and nonprofit sectors.

Good copy is not like this year’s latest fashion. Rather, it reflects in a proven and effective way the message and values that have motivated donors and triggered responses year after year.  So, as Denny often reminded me, when someone in the office says, “We’ve already used that, let’s get something new”, remember there’s not a single donor out there who says, “Oh, here’s that same old year-end appeal.”

If you want to know whether to treasure or trash a piece of copy or an entire package, the best advice I can give is “learn from Denny Hatch” and you won’t go wrong.’

Roger Craver, Editor, The Agitator

Welcome to the Denny Hatch Archive!