Fundraising Letter

Fundraising letter

Purpose of Fundraising letter

The legitimate process of collecting money by requesting donations from individuals and businesses. Fundraising is a significant way that non-profit organizations may obtain the money for their operations. These operations can involve a very broad array of concerns such as religious or philanthropic groups such as research organizations, public broadcasters, political campaignsand environemental issues.

Element of good Fundraising letter

1. Write a letter – not an essay

2. Write a letter to just one person – not to “Dear Friends” or “Dear Members”

3. Write a letter that looks like a letter

4. Be friendly and informal

5. Ask for a specific gift … within a specific time period … for a specific purpose

6. Always use a P.S.

7. Before you begin writing, be sure you know who’s getting this letter — major donors? loyal donors? regular members? prospects?

8. When writing to donors, praise their generosity and loyalty

9. Organize your letter around one central concept about why the reader should send you a gift today

10. Observe the standards of readability

11. Use “direct mail sentence structure”

12. Remember how direct mail letters are read: signature first, then the P.S. … then the first paragraph, perhaps indented paragraphs and underlined words – repetition is not redundant