During my college years in the school of business at the University of Montana (go griz!), I took a communications class from a Mrs. Mary Ellen Campbell. We went over a lot of things - building a resume, giving presentations that don't put people to sleep, etc, etc. One of the most valuable lessons I learned from her had to do with accurate proofreading and the reason I remember it so well is because she gave an absolutely embarrassing example from her own career. She was sponsoring a public lecture to be given at the business school and had to sign off on the invitation that was sent out. She quickly gave her OK and hundreds of those little invites were sent out only to find out a couple of days later that the word "public" was missing the letter "l". I'll let that sink in for a second...

Now, mistakes happen, right? We are people of grace and understand that. Having said that, it is VERY important that you proofread all correspondence sent out to your donors.

1) It will communicate to them that what they are receiving was important enough to proofread, hence important enough for them to read.

2) The meaning of the text won't be misunderstood because of typhos.

3) Most likely, your text will be more concise as proofreading allows you to see redundant phrases, run-on sentences, etc.

Before you send staff monkey that great NSO update, remember to give it one last hard look!!