It got me wondering just how big a negative effect these scams have on regular fundraisers by giving all fundraising appeals a black eye.

Next time you mail a donation request letter, better include proof of your nonprofit credentials on the envelope. Otherwise, you’ll make it no further than the wastebasket!

Whether it’s called an appeal letter, an annual letter, a membership letter or a desperate cry for help, almost all organizations have to send solicitation letters.

What is an appeal letter?
Like the Supreme Court said about pornography, a good appeal letter is hard to define but you certainly know it when you see it. An appeal letter is not a business letter or an essay. It must communicate your mission and compel the reader to invest in that mission with a check.

And it has to accomplish all that in about 500 words. The average reader will only spend two seconds reading an appeal letter before deciding where to file it: on the desk or in the trash.

Writing a compelling and successful appeal letter is an art — but lots of organizations still seem to be writing in crayon. Here are some suggestions that can move your masterpiece from the refrigerator door to the gallery wall.

Letter Writing Tips

Segment your list and write to the segment
Current members, large donors, prospects, one-time visitors, students, museum professionals — these are all different segments and need different approaches in the appeal letter. Divide up your list and write letters that will be compelling to each type of donor or prospect.

Click here to read the rest of the article on appeal letter tips.

Here’s how to get the most out of your fundraising letter:

Rule 1 - Use “I” and “you” (but mostly “you”).
In fact, “you” should be the word you use most frequently in your fundraising letters. Your appeal is a letter from one individual to another individual. You aren’t writing a press release, a position paper or a brochure.

Rudolf Flesch’s studies on readability supply the fundamental reason the words “you” and “I” are important: they provide “human interest.” Stories, anecdotes and common names (and capitalized words in general) have some of the same effect — but the most powerful way to engage the reader is by appealing directly to him or her: use the word “you.”

For example, in one fundraising letter, see how the author uses these powerful personal pronouns to establish intimacy:

You are a dream catcher.

I peeked in on some of the younger kids who were already asleep.

You protect our children from nightmares. You save them from poverty, illiteracy and despair.

I hope you’ll keep this card to bring good dreams to yourself and your family.

A singular salutation should be used even if the letter is addressed to a married couple. (Only one person at a time reads a letter!) Abolish the plural “you” from your vocabulary (as in “Dear Friends,” for example).

Try to avoid the royal “we,” too; it smacks of condescension and will detract from the personal character of your appeal.

Use a singular salutation
Use of the singular will require that you stick to a single letter signer. You’ll cause yourself two problems by using more than one singer:

(a) You won’t be able to enliven your letter with the personal details and emotional asides that might come naturally in a letter from one person to another.

(b) With multiple signers, you’ll sacrifice “suspension of disbelief,” to wit: your reader’s willingness to accept that your letter is actually a personal, one-to-one appeal.

Think about it. How am I to believe that two or three busy people who don’t live together or work in the same office have collaborated in writing a fundraising letter to me?

Which one of them typed the letter? (Or was it really someone else?) Did they both actually sign it? These are not questions you want your readers to be asking!

When to break Rule Number 1:
You may write a letter in the first-person plural if - but only if - there’s a very special reason to do so. For example, if the letter is to be signed by a married couple or your organization’s two venerable co-founders or a famous Republican and a famous Democrat.

Even in such exceptional cases, however, I advise you to craft the letter as though it were written by only one of the two signers, in much the same manner as one of those annual family letters that arrive by the bushel every December. Something like this:
Howard and I had a terrific time at the yak farm, but the same can’t be said for the yaks. (Yep, you guessed it: the kids were up to their old tricks!)

Rule 2 - Appeal on the basis of benefits, not needs.
Donors give money because they get something in return (if only good feelings). To tap their generosity, describe what they’ll receive in return for their money - such benefits as better government or attention to important issues or larger causes served. (Remember: most donors read your letters in the privacy of their own homes. They don’t have to admit their own mixed motives to anyone - not eve themselves.)

When to break Rule Number 2:
If you’re sending a genuine emergency appeal, you’ be a fool not to write about your campaign needs - and graphically so! But if it isn’t a real emergency - and you’re really in trouble if you habitually cry wolf - then write about benefits, not needs. In the long run, you’ll raise a lot more money that way.

Rule 3 - Ask for money, not for “support.”
Almost always, the purpose of a fundraising letter is to ask for financial help Be sure you do so - clearly, explicitly and repeatedly. The “Ask” (pardon my jargon) shouldn’t be an afterthought, tacked onto the end of a letter: it’s you reason for writing.

Repeat the “Ask” several times in the body of the letter as well as on the reply device. It may even be appropriate to lead your letter with the Ask.

The Ask should appear at least twice in the letter and twice again on the reply device. The request for funds should be clear and explicit.

When to break Rule Number 3:
Many direct mail packages are structured not as appeals for funds but as invitations to join a membership organization. Others feature surveys or other donor involvement devices. In these cases, de-emphasize the financial commitment, and highlight membership benefits - or stress the impact of completing the survey or mailing the postcards you’ve enclosed.

Click here to read the rest of the eight rules for fundraising letters.

Grab their interest by creating a villain, flatter their wisdom, use guilt to appeal to their conscience, or appeal to their social status with an air of exclusivity. A letter of appeal that fails to quickly stir up the reader’s emotions is destined for the wastebasket.

In fact, write each sentence of your letter with the knowledge that people read their mail within six feet of a trash can. Knowing that will imbue a sense of urgency in each paragraph that will make the reader continue on to the next paragraph and then the next and the next and so on.

What To Say
A fundraising appeal letter that speaks to their heart will get read. You want what you say to pack a powerful emotional punch. Anger and guilt are two very powerful triggers, so how do you use them in your appeal?

Simply write from your heart with passion about what makes you so angry that you’re trying to fix it. Sprinkle in a little personalized guilt about what happens to those that didn’t receive help because of a lack of funding.

Expose your reader to the dark side with a vivid portrait of the problem you’re attacking. Make it personal and make it come alive in their mind’s eye.

Click here to read the rest of the appeal letter article and view a sample fundraising letter.

Successful fund raising letters share a number of things in common. Once you know what these things are, your letter is already half-way written. Before I share what they are, let me explain what I mean by a “successful” fundraising letter.

I mean a letter that generates a gift, certainly, but I also mean a letter that builds upon the relationship you have with your supporters. You can easily craft a guilt-inducing letter that brings in a donation for now, but repels a donor forever.

Successful donation request letters take the long-term approach, knowing that donors need to be nurtured and educated over time. So here are eight things that all successful fundraising letters have in common. Include as many as possible in each letter you write.

Be personal
Effective fundraising letters sound as though they are written by a human being, not an institution. Unlike grant proposals or special events, they are person-to-person pieces of communication. With the exception of a phone call, fundraising letters are the closest thing that you can get to a face-to-face meeting with a donor.

Click here to read the rest of donation letter tips.

If you want your direct mail donors to respond to your letters in greater numbers and with larger gifts, learn the craft of storytelling. Learn how to write human-interest stories that inspire, motivate and move your donors—to give.

As a gospel preacher and one-time university instructor, I’ve learned over the years that the safest way to make your point stick is to tell a story. As UK fundraising consultant Ken Burnett observes in his book, The Zen of Fundraising, fundraisers should tell stories because “we have some of the best stories in the world and the best reasons of all for telling them.”

Jesus Christ revealed complicated truths about God’s character, God’s prophetic plan for the ages, and moral absolutes by telling parables. The Prodigal Son. The Good Samaritan. Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. These phrases are in common use today because the person who coined them 2,000 years ago told stories. Memorable stories. Stories that reached the hearts of His hearers.

Your fundraising letters need to do the same. And the quickest way to a donor’s heart is through the adrenal glands. Consider, for example, this opening paragraph from a fundraising letter mailed by Covenant House:

“She stood on the curb looking scared and lonely in a skimpy halter top and bright red lipstick. It was two in the morning. A chilly breeze whipped up in the street and seemed to make her shiver. She was a child . . . just a child. We pulled our Covenant House van up to the curb and rolled down the window . . . .”

Or this opening story from an appeal letter mailed by The Cousteau Society:

Click here to read the rest of donation letter storytelling.

40 Tips On Putting Together A Grant Request

1. Don’t use a committee.
The fewer writers involved, the better the writing.
Preferably, the project innovator should be the author with editorial assistance by a grants coordinator.

2. Write in the third person. It’s easier to brag about “they” than “I”.

3. Select an appropriate and interesting title of ten words or less, and don’t be cute or hammy.

4. If the proposal is ten pages or more, prepare a Table of Contents.

5. Use contractions. That’s the way you talk, isn’t it? It’s the key to more effective, personal writing.

6. Use quick openers (like newspaper openers).

7. Don’t make a mystery out of your proposal. Start right in on the most important point.

8. Accentuate the positive. Emphasize opportunities rather than needs. Funders would rather know where it’s at rather than where it isn’t.

9. Use simple words, but don’t insult the reader’s intelligence.

10. If you have trouble getting started, begin with the budget.
Money has a strange way of defining our methods and objectives.

11. KISS - Keep It Short and Simple.

12. Fill in all blanks on application forms completely. Write N/A (not applicable) if appropriate.

13. When responding to a specific request for a proposal (RFP), follow the suggested format as closely as possible.

14. Don’t try for perfection on your first draft. Get down your ideas, then edit and rewrite.

15. Have a strong first sentence.

16. Have a strong ending.

17. Let a client or expert state your need through a quotation. This lends more credibility than if you state it yourself.

18. Use a title that suggests the results you hope to achieve rather than what you plan to do. (Improving Reading of the 5th Graders is better than A Proposal for Reading Machines for Our Schools.)

19. Write your budget first, then make sure your proposal supports each item in that budget.

20. Write your summary last after you have finished the major parts of your application.

Click here to read the rest of the grant proposal tips.

A grant application generally consists of three parts: the application form or forms, the narrative, and the budget. Grant writers and grant givers alike caution applicants to give equal weight to all three sections, and they provide the following advice for completing each part successfully.

Fill out application forms meticulously and completely. Read the questions carefully — read them again — and then proofread your answers. Type answers, if possible; otherwise print them neatly and legibly.

The narrative section of the application usually includes:
a statement of need, including the project’s purpose, goals, and measurable objectives. This section can also include background on how and why the project was conceived and should include a compelling reason why the proposal should be funded.

Here are some grant application tips on what to include:

1 - The planned approach, including an explanation of how the project’s goals and objectives will be met, what activities will be used, what personnel will be needed, and how that personnel will be utilized.

2 - A discussion of the assessment procedure, including how the project will be evaluated and specific measurement strategies.

3 - A timeline that includes the start and end dates of the project and a schedule of activities.

4 - The applicant’s credentials, including information that demonstrates his or her background and ability to carry out the project successfully.

5 - A clincher. You won’t find this on the funder’s guidelines, but it’s the critical aspect of your narrative. Provide information in a way that clearly demonstrates to the reviewers why the project is needed. Clearly define why it is an important funding opportunity for their business or organization.

Click here to read the rest of the article on grant application tips.

And why is that?

Because ultimately, everyone’s focus is on themselves.
As the saying goes, “We’re all starring in our own movie.”

You need to design your fundraising campaign so that all the individual “movie stars” receive feel-good roles, ones that bring out the best in everyone.

There has to be real value delivered along the way for your fundraising efforts to elicit the desired response from your supporters.

A true value proposition needs to exist for your volunteers and for your participants as well. Your fundraising plan needs to clearly answer the question:

“What’s in it for me?”

Create a value statement

A good place to start is by crafting a concise statement of the benefits that your fundraising campaign will deliver.

This is not a monetary amount or goal. It is the intended positive result that will be created by the funds that are raised.

For example, a PTA fundraiser needs to communicate what the net proceeds will be spent on - teacher supplies, playground equipment, etc.

By being specific, your results will be dramatically higher than just saying that you are doing a fundraiser without specifying what the funds will be used for.

This statement of benefits is the first variation of answering “what’s in it for me?” because you have defined how your group and your community will benefit from the proceeds.

Utilize your value statement

Next, you need to include that value statement into your group’s communications with potential supporters.

Volunteers and other members participating in your fundraiser need to understand this value proposition.

As group members, the benefits resulting from the fundraiser are one portion of the “what’s in it for me?” for your participants.

Explain the resulting benefits

In addition, there are often other individual benefits for those actively involved in the fundraising effort - the satisfaction of helping reach the goal, the future enjoyment of the resulting benefits, and possibly winning an incentive or sales prize.

Ultimately, the success of your fundraising efforts hinges on getting the maximum level of “buy-in” from the maximum number of supporters.

Having your workforce - your volunteers and your participants - understand “what’s in it for me?” will boost your results tremendously.

The reason is that their belief and understanding of what benefits will result will be communicated strongly and clearly to each potential supporter.

Furthermore, that stronger belief will motivate them to approach additional prospects. So, you get better results from both improved communication and increased effort.

Express benefits by showing as “What’s in it for me?“

Lastly, those supporters that you’ve carefully cultivated will be more likely to contribute to your cause if they know “what’s in it for me?” very clearly.

It’s a scientific fact that people most often act in their own self-interest first and then consider the needs of others second.

That’s why society places a high value on such selfless acts as the heroism of the firefighter or the courage under fire of a soldier.

Appealing to a potential supporter’s self-interest in in your fundraiser’s best interest!

So, how can you appeal to a potential supporter’s self-interest?

Click here to read the rest of “What’s in it for me?”

Getting elected to any type of local, state, or national office is hugely expensive. As a result, most politicians are beholden to special interest groups who contribute heavily to fund their election and reelection campaigns.

There are plenty of ways that political candidates could raise money the right way, but that requires work and quite frankly, a lot of them take the easy way instead.

If they’d only use their brains and build grass roots fundraising organizations, leverage the power of the internet, and avoid wasting money on ineffective advertising, they could get elected without compromising their beliefs.

Remember how Howard Dean shocked everyone in 2003 with his fundraising prowess? Well, that success is a huge arrow pointing at new ways to raise funds online.

12 tips for online political fundraising:

Website name capture
Your candidate website should be designed to capture the names and email addresses of as many visitors as possible. Use the technique known as name capture that presents a special page to visitors asking them to be added to your mailing list. That way, you can add as many as 50% of your site visitors to your follow-up messages.

Offer RSS feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) distributes new website postings to everyone who’ve signed up to receive your info. This is great for getting media coverage, creating a lot of links back to your website, and keeping supporters updated.

Blogging
Add a blog to your website explaining your positions on the issues. Blogs are all the rage these days and having one will get you additional exposure within the political community. Be passionate in your postings! Allow visitors to add comments, but set them to be approved.

Podcasts
Doing podcasts explaining your positions on important issues is another great way to push information out to the public. Create multimedia presentations for others to view such as speeches, hot topics, requests for donations, etc. You can get setup to podcast for under $100.

Click here to read the rest of the article on political fundraising online.

Well, the good news is that eFundraising, a division of Reader’s Digest, will send you the fundraising sample you want without a big hassle. All you have to do is fill out a simple form, tell them what you’re looking for, and you’re in business.

Fundraising Samples Available
There are free samples available for most of the product lines they carry. The fastest way to get yours is to order them right now by phone at this toll-free number (866) 884-8804.

Available samples:

Popcorn
Fundraising popcorn is packaged in your choice of youth sports styles, so specify what type of team you are raising funds for. It’s available in four delicious flavors and in nine fun themes including baseball, soccer, band, cheer, football and more!

Cookie Dough
One of the best selling fundraising products in history, cookie dough has mass appeal and delivers big profits. Plus, this cookie dough is the non-refrigerated mix where you just add butter and eggs, so there’s no delivery hassles.

Click here to read the rest of the article on fundraising samples.

Make it personal
Refer to those who you know who are battling cancer or have lost the fight. People respond and relate to a personal cause.

Tell them where and how to donate. If your event has on-line registration, give them on the on-line link to donate. Lots of people love to donate online!

Be original
An original letter – including photos, a unique spin, etc. will get people’s attention.

Early on, make the ask
Don’t limit your donors, but ask for a specific range. A good phrase to use is to ask for “$10, $20, $50 or whatever your budget will allow.”

Balance fact with feeling
Include items that match reason with emotion:

Include a receipt on the back or bottom of the letter and a luminaria sign-up form. Also, remind them to seek a company gift-match if offered.

Click here for the rest of the Relay For Life donation letter including a sample letter you can copy.

The message should come from your heart, so please take a little extra time and personalize it with your own words. The key points to remember are:

1- The thank you note should be about them, not you. You are thanking them for their support, not boasting about how much money you helped raise.

2 - Tell the person the good things that their donation helped to produce. Be specific rather than general. For example, if they donated $100 to an AIDS fundraiser, you could say that their donation helped a deserving person get a much needed blood transfusion.

3 - Thank them in the same words or tone as if you were speaking face to face. For example, “Joe, I just wanted to say thanks for helping out. Your contribution means a lot to me and it really helped a great cause.”

4 - Offer to reciprocate in kind. Chances are that they might have a favorite cause that could use a boost. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have money to spare because your offer can be couched in terms of being a willing volunteer whenever the need arises.

Thank them again at the very end of your thank you note!

Click here to read the rest of the article and view a Sample Thank You Letter

They were doing a story titled Parents Balk At Kids In School Fundraising and discussing alternatives to doing time-consuming product fundraisers. As they wrapped up the story (which I agreed with 100%!), Susan McGinnis stated “Another site offering innovative ideas for school fundraisers is Fundraiser Help.”

Let me tell you I about choked on my coffee! A mention from a highly respected news organization really means a lot to me and then there’s the ongoing surge in site visitors. Within an hour, over 120 visitors had followed the link from the CBS News website to mine.

Wow! talk about a nice present from the Easter bunny…lol!

If you’ve been asked to write a letter to help with fundraising for a group or charity that you’re involved with, you may be staring at a blank piece of paper wondering just what to write.

Here’s an actual letter that was used to raise a substantial sum towards a refit of church equipment and was sent to local trusts and grant-making bodies.

It’s important to keep your letter to just one page, with supporting information of no more than two pages. Include one photo if you wish and if it’s relevant.

Don’t resort to begging, but write an informative letter which helps the donor to understand what your projects aims and goals are.

Although this is an actual letter, names and information has been changed, for obvious reasons.

Dear Mr Bentley,

I am writing to Bentley Charity Trust on behalf of Finedown Baptist Church, as your guidelines indicate that you offer support for churches. Finedown is a rapidly growing town situated in central Flintshire. It has a thriving business centre, with some of the top financial companies in the country being based locally.

Do ensure that you print this on headed paper, if you have it.It’s important that it’s signed by the person whose name is on the bottom of the letter, this is not the time to be in a hurry and “pp” the letter on someone elses behalf.

If you would like an acknowledgement that your application for funding has been received, add a stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope.

Only send off letter to trusts that offer funding in your area and your type of project.

Once you’ve sent off your applications, be patient! Most of these boards only meet every two or three months, so it may be some time until you hear whether or not you’ve been successful.

If you are offered a grant, always write and say thank you. Write again once the project is up and running to let them know of your progress.

About the Author

Jennifer has successfully submitted fundraising applications for several major projects and been a successful school fundraiser.

For further fundraising ideas and further sample letters, visit her fundraising ideas website.

Click here for more sample fundraising letters.

So I spotted a very nice post about The Official London Marathon Top Ten Fundraising Tips which gives some helpful advice for raising additional funds online with your blog or personal web page.

Definitely recommended reading!

Here’s a list of more fundraising event ideas.

Seems that fundraisers experience that same warm glow of satisfaction at a biological level as do those who avidly pursue self-pleasuring activities.

In a paper published last fall, researchers found that giving activated two specific areas in the brain. The first is the part activated by reward reinforcement (the same results as sex, drugs, and money). The second was the part of the brain that influences social attachments, trust, and economic interactions.

I don’t know what it all means, but groups might want to rethink their appeals of “Give ’til it hurts!”

Your new fundraising slogan: “Give ’til it feels good!”

And you just might want to combine all those pleasurable urges and throw that wild Mardi Gras fundraiser after all…

The most important letter in direct mail fundraising never asks for a donation. Thank-you letters increase donor loyalty, strengthen relationships and increase your chances of receiving more gifts in the future, including major gifts and legacy gifts.

But only if you get them right.

Direct mail fundraising is about relationships, not revenue. The only way to generate sustainable income through the mail is to thank donors promptly, personally, particularly and positively.

Here is a sample donation thank-you letter.

Friday, January 16, 2006

Samantha Yordvick
363 Blandon Crescent
Tulsa, OK 19188

Dear Samantha:

This is just a quick note, but it comes from my heart to yours as I head out the door for my flight to Bombay.

Thank you for your very kind gift of $100, which we received today. Your generosity will make an immediate difference in the lives of mothers in Calcutta. I’m going to make sure of that on this trip.

For one thing, we are going to use your gift to fund our early intervention program. Your generosity is going to help us buy the formula and fortified milk that our mothers give to their babies and toddlers. Good nutrition, as you know, is so vital in fighting off the diseases and infections that are so prevalent in Calcutta.

You can read about this exciting initiative–and your important part in it–in the upcoming issue of our newsletter, which we will mail to you in January.

Thanks again for your kindness,

[real, actual, live signature]

Bill Bladstone
President
CalcuttaConcern

About this letter

Here are a few things to notice about this letter.

1. Not “Dear Friend.” This letter is a personal thank you from the heart of the president to this donor. Even though the president does not know Samantha personally, he writes to her as a friend, which is to say, by name.

2. The opening sentence reveals the personality of the writer and clearly shows that this letter was written on a particular day, by a particular person, for a particular reason. Openings like this resonate with donors, who want to be acknowledged by a human being and not a computer.

3. The writer acknowledges the donor’s gift by date received and amount given, specific details that make the letter personal instead of generic.

4. The writer shows in concrete, easy-to-understand ways how the donor’s gift will be put to work today, changing lives and making a difference in the world. Donors need to know that their contribution, however small, accomplishes the goals of the donor in supporting your organization.

About the Author

© 2006 Sharpe Copy Inc. Alan Sharpe is a professional fundraising letter writer, instructor, coach, author and newsletter publisher who helps non-profit organizations to raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors using cost-effective, compelling, creative fundraising letters. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at http://www.RaiserSharpe.com

More articles on Donation Request Letters

Learn a lesson from professional direct mail copywriters. They follow a time-tested format in their sales letters, a format that you can also follow when writing direct mail fundraising letters for your non-for-profit organization. All you need to remember is AIDA.

AIDA is an acrostic for the four things you need to do, and the order you need to do them in, to write compelling donation request letters.

ATTENTION The A stands for Attention. You need to grab it. Your envelope has to grab attention, and the opening line of your letter needs to grab attention. Your sole mission at this stage is to arrest their donor’s attention so that they ignore the television, leave the other mail on the kitchen table, and sit down and read your letter right to the end.

You can arrest attention in a number of ways:

* start with a gripping narrative * ask a provocative question * state a seeming contradiction or paradox * open with a scintillating (and relevant) quote * crack a joke * start with the word “you”

INTEREST The I in AIDA stands for Interest. Professional direct mail copywriters who make their living by selling on paper know that arresting a reader’s attention is not enough. That’s just the start. The letter has to immediately stimulate some interest in the reader so that the reader continues reading.

Plenty of headlines and photographs grab people’s attention as they leaf through newspapers and magazines, but they only read the stories that interest them. This means that as soon as you have grabbed your donor’s attention, you must follow up with content that stimulates interest.

So what interests your donors? Changing the world. Making a difference. Relieving suffering. Saving lives. Transformation. Stimulate interest in your readers by showing why your letter and your message are of interest to them right now.

DESIRE As advertising giant David Ogilvy said, “You can’t bore people into buying your product.” Your fundraising appeal letter needs to move the heart and mind of each donor. It needs to create in them (or, more accurately, awaken in them), a Desire to respond to the case for support that you present on paper. One way to awaken this desire is to offer an opportunity for the donor to make an impact. Show in clear ways how they can partner with your organization to impact their world for the better.

I’ll give you an example from a newsletter that I received during the week that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding area in 2006. This is what the publisher said in his introductory message:

“I’ve had the news on all day today as I worked on getting this issue out. I finally had to turn to a ball game. . . I was getting too depressed. It’s frustrating to see so many people in need and not being able to help (at least not right away). I hope and pray that all our readers in the areas hit by Katrina made it out okay.”

There is a man with a desire. The Category Five hurricane arrested his attention. The devastation kept his interest. And the human suffering, played out hourly on his television screen, created in him a deep desire to help. A desire so deep that he grew depressed because he could not satisfy it.

That’s the level of desire that you want to awaken in your donor’s, except that you want to give them a really easy way to satisfy it! And that’s where the final A in AIDA comes in.

ACTION The A in AIDA stands for Action, or Ask. Professional direct mail copywriters always ask for the order. They want their readers to buy, and buy today. This simply means that every fundraising letter you write has to ask for the gift. Informing donors is all very well, but your letter is designed to raise funds. You can ask for the donation in a forceful way or in a gentle way, but either way you must ask for it.

If you follow these four simple, time-tested steps every time you sit down to craft an appeal letter, you will find that your writer’s block doesn’t last as long. And you’ll find that your letters take on a more logical, compelling format, one that should increase your response rates.

About the Author

Alan Sharpe is a professional fundraising letter writer. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at http://www.raisersharpe.com/.

 

 
More About Fundraising Letters

You can use ChipIn ( http://www.chipin.com/ ) to create a “widget” that you add to your webpage about our event. The plugin works on all the popular social networking sites like MySpace as well as on regular websites.

It displays information about how much you want to raise and your progress is displayed in the familiar fundraising thermometer style.

The ChipIn site allows people to donate by credit card or PayPal and processes all the transactions for you.

Once your fundraising is complete, ChipIn will send you a check or do a direct deposit into your bank account.

It’s a great way to collect funds online!

 
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