Capturing attention

Many non-profits in Lancaster are emailing businesses people and individuals to remind them to make contributions during the day called "The BIG Give." I help a veterans program so I wrote a startling statistic, a few words of explanation about the program, added part of a quote and sent it out to a dozen companies who attended the Veterans Expo. I assumed they would reply considering where I met these people. Instead I received "I am out of the office right now" from most of the emails. I then made some changes since testimonials/stories are powerful. So then I sent a member's story with a photo of people paddling in kayaks in the water. Since that is the purpose of the program, I felt good about the slew of emails I sent. I still received a lot of the same type of responses. I hope a few emails were read and will result in financial contributions. I will keep trying more effective ways.