How to Include Humor in Your Fundraising Content

All right, first things first: this is not a post on how to be funny. (In fact, if you aren’t “funny,” you should stay that way. Unfunny people are the often the funniest of all, just not in the ways they want.)

This is a post, however, about how to include more humor in your Facebook posts, tweets, blogs, and other items of creative content.

Laugh at minor mistakes and struggles

One way to include more humor is to talk about minor glitches in the everyday workings of your organization, provided they aren’t tragic and you can look at them in a lighthearted way:

• If water.org got locked out of their building in the rain, it would be funny to post a photo of the team looking like drowned rats, with the message, “Alright, mission accomplished. Now does anyone know how to turn OFF the water?”

• If you prepare a cake for an event and it comes out looking terrible, you could say, “We’re definitely feeding the hungry today. More specifically, I’m probably feeding this to my dogs.”

The point is to be able to laugh at your own obstacles and screwups, and to share them with supporters. It humanizes your organization and gives people a window into it.

Silly Time

Need to blow off steam? Get silly. Make a ridiculous, low-budget costume and post a photo. Or just indulge in office pranks. Or toss a friendly jab or challenge at another organization on Twitter. Your cause is serious, but not every moment has to be.

Don’t Force It

If a joke seems forced, or you’re uncomfortable with it, leave it out. This is not the kind of thing where you really want to push your boundaries. Humor is a nuanced thing and it’s best to seem to stuffy than to throw out a cringe-worthy attempt at humor (Someone clearly has been putting off running the updater on Mr. Romney’s pop reference module. This is the danger of clicking “Remind me later” all the time, kids!)

Also, humor in person and humor in messages posted on social media platforms or in emails are two very different things. The speaker knows what tone was intended. The recipient may not. Tread carefully.

Find the funny guy/gal

Your organization is guaranteed to have at least one comedian in its ranks. You likely already know who this person is. If not, go out for beers and he/she will quickly reveal him/herself. Then, ask that person to help with funny social media stuff and punching up longer pieces or speeches with humor.

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Did your org “make a funny” recently? Or did you crash and burn? Let us know below so we can laugh with/at you. Title photo by SunnyUK