Top Five Ingredients of a Successful Fundraising Letter

By Alan Sharpe, CFRE
Direct mail fundraising will be harder in 2011. Postage rates are increasing. Attention spans are decreasing. And discretionary income, which is to say, the money your donors use to support their favourite causes, is tighter. So, if you want to succeed at raising funds with direct mail letters, follow these five timeless tips.

1. Write About a Person, Not a Problem
Take your case for support and translate it into flesh and bone. Give it a name. People give to people to help people. Your donors don’t want to change the world. They want to change lives. Show them how to change lives by featuring one person in each fundraising letter. Tell your story through one person.

2. Tell a Story
The quickest way to grab (and keep) your donor’s attention is to tell a story. Follow the method novel writers employ: conflict > development > resolution. Start with conflict. Develop the conflict. Resolve the conflict.

3. Write as a Person, Not an Institution
At the bottom of your letter is a signature of a person, not an institution. That’s because fundraising letters are written by individuals, not by committees. Write your appeal letters so that they sound as though they are coming from a person. Don’t write “we, us, our.” Write in the first person. Just as I am doing right now.

4. Write to an Individual
Don’t write to donors, plural. Don’t speak in general terms about “our supporters” or “our alumni.” Treat your letter as a piece of warm correspondence between one person and another, not between an institution and a group of donors. Always address your donor as an individual. Which means using the word “you.” A lot.

5. Show what a Donation Buys
Make your case for support concrete, not abstract. Tell your donor, as specifically as possible, what you will do with her donation. Don’t write, “support our Thanksgiving Drive” when you can instead write, “buy a Thanksgiving dinner for a family of four with your donation of $23.”

Treat these tips as a checklist in the coming year. With every letter you write, run it against this list to make sure you are following the top five ingredients of a successful fundraising letter.