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Don’t Leave Them Behind: Writing And Designing To Truly Reach Older Donors
Ask An Expert
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Updated - 05/08/2025
Our Ask An Expert series features real questions answered by Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, our very own Fundraising Coach, also known as Charity Clairity. Today’s question comes from a nonprofit employee who wants advice on how to reach older donors:
Dear Charity Clairity,
Our donor base is aging, and I’m wondering what guidelines you might suggest to assure our print and digital mailings are easy for folks to read and interact with? Also, if we use best practices for older donors, will these turn younger donors off? I’ve seen all sorts of advice, and could use something definitive to share with my boss.
— Seeking Inclusivity
Dear Seeking Inclusivity,
You are right to be thinking about this! The fastest growing demographic worldwide is age 60+. You want both your offline and online appeals designed in a way that makes them accessible to this group, because these are the folks at a phase in life that makes them likely to be your most generous supporters. And people have reading difficulty at even younger ages as well.
Did you know that by age 45, seven in 10 adults will need to wear glasses? Some also experience a decrease in color vision, which is the ability to distinguish between different colors. So, it never hurts to make things easier for folks. That’s what a good “philanthropy facilitator” does!
Donor-centric fundraising rules apply
Just like everything else you do, at the forefront of your strategy should be making would-be donors feel good.
When people feel good about their engagement with you, it’s something they’ll likely continue. This extends not only to writing emotional, relatable copy, but also to your writing and design style. You don’t want people feeling old and stupid because they can’t easily read your appeal or navigate through your email links, buttons, disappearing pop-ups, or website forms.
Writing and designing for older donors checklist
1. BIG type
Stop using 9-point type in an attempt to squish everything onto one page. More pages are generally better anyway, and it doesn’t matter how long your letter is if your readers can’t read it! When I started in this business in my 20’s, we defaulted to 10-point type for mailed letters. It looked fine to me then (today, I couldn’t even read it by squinting). Currently, the default is 12-point (probably requires reading glasses for older donors). That’s why I generally use 14 or even 16-point – because so many major and mid-level donors are older. Large type applies to both digital and print.
2. Oxygen
Early in my career I learned the importance of white space. It lets donors breathe a bit as they read through your copy, giving them places to take a bit of a rest while they process. This is especially important for aging eyes (and also shorter attention spans). Indent paragraphs. Vary their size. Use headlines, subtitles, bullets, boldface, and underlines as signposts. Judiciously, of course. You still want it to be simple to read.
3. Contrasting colors
Black font on white background is best. Blues and purples become difficult to distinguish for many as they develop cataracts and a yellow film forming over the eye. Yellows and greens can also be tricky. (Or if you use color background, watch the strength – and please use a busy background sparingly or – my preference – not at all).
3. Matte paper
It’s more difficult to read print on glossy stock. Plus, when it comes to filling in a remit piece, the slickness may require donors to use felt pens that smear. And, having nothing to do with ease of use, glossy paper looks expensive (even though this is not always the case). It’s not a good look when you’re trying to show how effectively you steward your resources.
4. Amply-sized reply forms
Per veteran direct mail fundraising expert Jeff Brooks, stop using remittance envelopes with large flaps. Testing shows a separate reply form + envelope significantly improves donor response rates – for all donors. Plus, the larger size – a full page — enables ample form fields so no one has to use microscopic print to fill in their information. Not only is it difficult for them, it’s difficult for you to read and decipher. Lose/lose.
5. Simple, not busy
Designers love to put visuals under print, but this just makes everything harder to read. They also love to mix up lots of different fonts. Remember: The purpose of your mailing is to communicate, not to wow folks with your artistry.
6. Clear call to action
Make it easy for folks to find what you want them to do. Your best bet is to offer one option at a time. For example, if you want a donation don’t also offer the opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter, volunteer, or “learn more.” This will simply be a distraction from your main purpose. Of course, this checklist item applies for donors of any age!
7. Emotional copy
The more you cultivate awe, gratitude, altruism, and meaning, the more you’ll boost your fundraising success. See Lisa Sargent’ primer on how to write with emotion that results in awe-inspiring gifts. Again, this strategy applies to all fundraising.
Digital matters too
Many age-60+ donors are capable online users. Here are some digital design tips:
1. Let people close messages themselves
Assure folks have time to read and process every word.
2. Heed contrast
Even for those with 20/20 vision, black/white is easiest to read. As eyes age, blue-purple and yellow-green shades are difficult to distinguish. And sometimes screen contrast or placement of a laptop or desktop near a sunny spot can cause a glare that impedes color perception. On the web, contrast is measured as a ratio that ranges from 1:1 to 21:1. The first number refers to the relative brightness of light colors. The second number refers to the relative brightness of dark colors. 1:1 would be white on white (no contrast or invisible). 21:1 would be white on black (high contrast). The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend body text with a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 (AA rating). This will allow most users to read your content. However, increasing the contrast ratio to 7:1 (AAA rating) improves usability by more people. [To check contrast, you can use any number of free online tools.]
3. Label icons
This assures they make sense to everyone, regardless of their vision. Red may mean “warning” or “stop,” but not when it’s perceived as pink.
4. Limit options per screen
This is especially important when asking folks to complete forms. Too much on a page is daunting, and may lead folks to “abandon cart.” And, remember, one call to action at a time. It’s recommended to strip the header menu from your donation landing pages so people are not distracted by other options.
Hope this helps you meaningfully include older donors in all your communications!
— Charity Clairity (Please use a pseudonym if you prefer to be anonymous when you submit your own question, like “Seeking Inclusivity” did.)
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