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10 Tips: The Fundraising Letter
Being able to write a compelling fundraising letter is imperative to being a good development director, but it’s not as simple as it seems. The function of the fundraising letter is to catch the reader’s attention and hold it just long enough for them to make a decision about whether or not to give. Here are 10 tips for preparing direct mail. (these ‘tips’ are excerpts from “The Fundraising Letter” written by Kim Klein which was published in the September/October 2004 edition of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal)
- Before you start, really think about the kind of people you are writing to. Be as specific as possible.
- Consider, how crucial or relevant is your message given what else is going on in people’s lives and in the world?
- Keep in mind that recipients of a fundraising letter read the letter on their own time, for free, as a volunteer.
- People have very short attention spans, particularly for the written word. A person should be able to read every sentence in your letter in six to fifteen seconds.
- More than anything else, people love to read about themselves, so the letter should speak to them personally, referring to the reader 2-4 times as often as the organization sending the letter.
- Use the opening paragraph to tell a short positive story. There is a saying in fundraising, “People buy with their heart first, and then their head.”
- Use the middle to tell more stories, provide back-up statistics, describe philosophy and stress the need for money. Use 2-3 pages in order to provide all the information the reader might want, and to make the letter easy to read with wide margins, decent sized type and space between the paragraphs
- Use the closing paragraph to tell the reader what to do. It should be straightforward and specific.
- The P.S. can tell another story that adds additional incentive to act immediately
By using mail carefully, you will not only gain new donors, you will also build a network of people who have heard of your organization and might support its work in the future.
With Julian Griggs