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Write A Fundraising Letter

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Your envelope serves two functions and two alone. It must:

* deliver your appeal to your donor

* persuade your donor to open and read your package

Getting your appeal into the hands of your donor is not hard if you mail to a good list, either your own house list or a rented list of quality prospects. But persuading your donors to actually open your envelope and read your appeal—and respond to it with a gift—that's the difficult part.

Your envelope faces a number of challenges.

Your donors are busy

Like you, your donors are busy. They are preoccupied with meeting their sales quotas, finding a good paediatrician, fixing the leak in the roof, spoiling their grandkids, finishing college with an A average, buying a more reliable vehicle, meeting their deadline, meeting their life partner, and making ends meet. In the middle of their busy life, your fundraising appeal drops through the mailbox. Should they open it, lay it aside for later, or chuck it? Your envelope will likely decide which.

Competition from other charities

If your donors are typical, they receive solicitations from other non-profit organizations each week. Your envelope will likely be one among many. How will you stand out? How will you persuade your donor or prospective donor (or former donor) to open your envelope first—if at all? Your envelope is your first chance, maybe your only chance.

Competition from other mail

Your package is also competing with electricity bills, bank statements, pizza flyers, credit card statements, personal letters, credit card offers and junk mail. Your reader will open these pieces of mail in a particular order, starting with the most pressing. The size, shape, weight and look of your envelope will determine if it gets opened or not.

Competition from other media

You are also competing with door-to-door fundraisers. And telephone canvassers. And telethons (television fundraisers). Not to mention the evening news, sitcoms, today's newspaper, CNN.Com and a literal host of radio shows and satellite TV channels. How can you get your fundraising appeal letter package to break through this noise and reach your donor? You need to start with your envelope.

The benefits of getting your appeal letters opened and read are tremendous:

* you will likely immediately boost your response rate, since more donors will read your appeal and respond with a gift, all other things being equal

* you will increase your gift income, since higher response rates mean more gifts

* you will reduce your cost to raise a gift, because the increase in revenue will offset your mailing costs

* you will improve your renewal rates, since more of your first-time donors will open, read and respond to your subsequent appeals

* you will reduce your attrition rates, because you will keep more donors engaged and interested in your cause

None of these benefits will be yours unless your donors open your envelopes. That's where the battle for your donor's head and heart begins. Don't lose the battle there. Create envelopes that are simply irresistible. Here are some tips.

Oversize Window

If you are mailing a premium, have it appear through an oversize window.

Unusual or Unexpected Dimensions

Switch from a #10 window to something larger or smaller.

Unique Addressing

Address the letter by hand.

Use Every Inch Available

Put a dramatic photo on your envelope that stretches from one side right across to the other.

Tease the Donor Inside

Ask a question or pose a riddle that is answered inside.

Multiple Windows

Put another window on the envelope and have something interesting show through from the inside.

Don't Use an Envelope

Mail your letter in a box, a cylinder or something else that stands out.

Postage

Use a commemorative stamp.

Lumpy Mail

Put something three-dimensional, like a wrist band, in the envelope.

Put the Donor on the Envelope

Put a message to the donor on the front or back, using their first name.

Add a Personal Touch

Hand-write a note.

The possibilities for creative and compelling envelopes are limited only by your imagination (and your budget, of course!). Strive to create the most irresistible envelopes you can, with every package you mail, and you will be rewarded with higher response rates and higher income.

© 2006 Sharpe Copy Inc.

Write A Fundraising Letter

But before you rent a list of names or drop anything in the mail, examine the people you are approaching with your direct mail appeal to make sure they are good prospects for a donation today—and tomorrow. You should look for three qualities in potential direct mail donors.

1. Capacity to give

Good direct mail fundraising prospects have the resources to support your organization with gifts. They do not need to be millionaires (since you will accept small donations). They do not even need to be employed (since many pensioners donate a portion of their fixed income to their favourite charities). The criteria you are looking for is simply the capacity to give.

2. Affinity with your cause

The best prospects have a natural liking for your organization. They identify with the people you help or the cause that you champion. You are more likely to attract financial support and gain new donors when you mail your acquisition letters to people who already believe in what you stand for.

3. Long-term, profitable relationship

Raising funds through the mail is a long-term proposition. What you are looking for is donors who will support you over time. One-time donations are welcome, of course, but if they are too small they do not even cover the cost of acquisition. You want donors, not just donations.

One reason that charity sweepstakes and lotteries are such an expensive way to raise funds is that they tend to raise money in the short-term only, and do not attract long-term, faithful, loyal donors who are committed to your cause.

So you need to look at every source of potential donors and ask yourself this question, “What is the likelihood that these prospects will not only respond to my mailing with a gift now, but will also follow through in the years to come with others gifts?”

One mistake to avoid

One mistake that inexperienced fundraisers make is thinking that their best prospects for direct mail appeals are big businesses and well-known, wealthy people. When they think of who to mail their appeals to, they immediately think of Bill Gates of Microsoft—not Bob Gates down the street. They think of extraordinary businesses—not the ordinary business owners that operate all around them.

This is a mistake because it concentrates attention on only one obvious criteria of donor acquisition—capacity to give—and ignores the other two.

Take Bill Gates by way of example. He meets your first criteria, since he is the wealthiest man in the world. He has the capacity to give you a donation, the largest you've ever received. But if your organization is at all typical, Bill Gates has little or zero affinity with your cause and does not even know about you. Which means Bill Gates is not a long-term prospect, or even a prospect at all, for a direct mail solicitation.

So the thing to bear in mind whenever you are looking for new donors is that they should meet all three of the above criteria. They should not just be wealthy (with no affinity). And not just have an affinity (they may believe in your cause but be bankrupt). When potential donors pass all three tests, you will avoid disappointment, and save a lot of money in donor acquisition and donor renewal costs.

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