Everybody knows that you should send a thank you note to a donor. Along with the fundraising “ask” letter, these two kinds of letters are the bookends. However these not be the only times you make contact with your supporters.

The following is a list of ten reasons you should stay in contact with your existing donors, without hitting them up for another donation.

1. Birthday Wishes

You should make an effort to find out your donors’ birthdays. It shows that you are considerate and thoughtful when you remember them on that special day with a nice card. Set up a tickler in your appointment calendar to remind you at least two weeks in advance, so you have time to buy a card, write a short note, sign it, and mail it. To be better prepared, I suggest you buy a stash of cards and stick them in your desk drawer, so you’ve always got one handy. Also, a quick, handwritten note shows a great personal touch.

Along with the birthday cards, sympathy and congratulations notes are a nice gesture, as well. It is a good habit to scan your local paper for obituaries and announcements. In the case of a donor or a donor’s relative passing away, you will be alerted so you can send a sympathy card right away. You can also use this information to update your database.

If your donor gets his name or photo in the paper for a special award or a new position, remember to also send a note- this time for congratualtions.

2. Regular Updates on Your Organizational News

Do you produce a monthly or quarterly newsletter? Do you send out communications that are important to your families? If you do, you should consider including your donors on the mailing list. By receiving the regular newsletters, the donors can stay “in the loop” about what’s happening and feel included.

While this seems like this would be a no-brainer, I do think you should ask each individual donor if he would like to receive your newsletter in the mail (or by email). Some donors may feel that although they made a donation, they don’t want to be bothered on a continual basis. There are those kinds of donors out there. However, my experience is that the majority like to be kept up-to-date on issues concerning the organization they contributed to.

3. Advice on an Internal Matter

If a person is able to make a donation to your organization, chances are that that person has some wisdom and life experience. I have found that many donors like to be consulted for advice now and again. Be careful not to become a pest, but if you are facing a situation that needs careful deliberation, think about asking for some outside advice from your donor base. Most of the time, you can be sure that since they have already given you their money, they will also be willing to share some of their wisdom, as well. It goes a long way toward erasing any feelings a donor may have that you only care about their money.

You may want to consult your board of directors before sharing any sensitive issues with the donors. Be careful not to treat your advice request as a gossip session. This can turn donors right off.

4. Update on a Previous Contribution the Donor Made

Many times, an organization will receive a donation, the donation will be put to use, and the donor will never hear about the effects of the donation again. You have to remember that when your donor was thinking about whether or not he would donate to your group in the first place, he must have been excited by what you were planning or else he wouldn’t have given. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the donor would like to be kept abreast of any developments within the scope of his donation. Many times, a quick note, an email, or a phone call will do fine. The point is to let donors know what a significant difference their gift made.

5. Interesting News Item to Pass Along

Once you have gone through the initial process of working with a donor, you have established a bond with him. In many cases, you probably had several conversations with him, shared your own personal story with him, and learned about his life a little. In some ways, you have begun to cultivate a friendship. And just like any friendship, you have to pay attention to it or else it will wither. Therefore, I think it is wise to occasionally pass along an interesting piece of news to the donor that you think he might find interesting. This news can have absolutely nothing to do with your group or any kind of donation. It could be about sports or culture or something you know the donor likes. You know- “Saw this and thought of you” kind of note.

Be careful, however, not to send something potentially controversial and be very careful with any use of humor. People can be easily offended, and the last thing you want to do is offend one of your donors. Never go for a laugh unless you are 100% positive you’ll hit the mark.

6. Personal Story of How a Person in Your Organization Achieved Something Great or Overcame an Obstacle

One of the reasons your donor was drawn to your group in the first place was the community of people. Organizations, in and of themselves, are non-living entities. It’s not until you fill it with people that the community springs to life. At some point, your donor must have made a connection with a person or a group of people there.

For instance, if you are running a school and you have a student who won a county spelling bee or got a silver medal in ice skating at the state level or made Eagle Scout, it’s very possible that your donor would love to hear about that. Even better, make sure to share a story of a student at your school who was struggling mightily in some capacity, but through hard work and the teacher’s perseverance, overcame the challenge.

By being included in these success stories, your donor will keep that personal connection alive with your school.

7. Invitation to Go to Lunch/Meet for Coffee

Everybody’s got to eat lunch, right? I think it is wise to plan a time each month where you take a donor out to lunch or meet them for coffee. Set up a rotation schedule for yourself. During this time together, don’t ask for anything for your organization. Just keep developing the relationship you have with the donor. The more often you get together and the more often you talk about other issues, the easier it will be to go back to the donor when you need something. The donor will have seen a pattern of continuing and sincere communication from you, and that will ultimately work in your benefit.

8. Bounce a Creative Idea Off of Them

I always loved to call up a donor and share with him a crazy new idea I had for my organization. Even if it was a “pie-in-the-sky” plan with no real shot of ever getting done, I got a charge from brainstorming with donors. As I alluded to earlier, most donors became donors because they had the ability to make lots of money. This implies that many donors have an entrepreneurial streak in them. And entrepreneurs love to brainstorm- even if it never goes anywhere- it’s just how they’re wired.

Whenever I have made these kinds of phone calls and have been really enthusiastic about my idea, I have always been met in kind with energy, enthusiasm, and support. Besides, you never know, one of your crazy ideas might really appeal to the donor, and he may decide to fund it!

9. Share Marketing or Enrollment Material with Them

Whenever I would come out with a new marketing piece, I would always make sure my donors got a copy of it as soon as possible. By doing this, the donor is able to stay current with any new slogans, pricing structures, or programs. I have found that many donors like to be able to talk about your organization out in public. If they have the latest version of your marketing material, they will be able to be better salespeople for you.

10. To Inform Them if There’s Been Some Sort of Problem Within Your Organization

While this is the least pleasant of all of my suggestions, I do think it is important that you alert your donors whenever something significantly negative happens in your group. You’ll have to use your best judgment as to what the donors should know and when they should know it, but it is often better that a donor hear from you about a potentially negative incident personally, rather than by rumor or even possibly on the news.

By hearing about the situation from you first, you can explain the entire story and offer your solutions. The donor will not get this kind of thorough message in any other manner. Bad news happens- it is inevitable. However, if you desire to keep the relationship with your donor stable, you must remember to keep in touch during both the good times and the bad.

Again, you never know, a donor may actually have experience in handling a situation like what you’re going through and could offer great wisdom to you. In any regard, it’s much better to get in front of a story than to be chasing behind it every step of the way.

Conclusion

I strongly believe that your relationship with each donor needs to be sincere, active, and dynamic. When a person makes his first contribution to your group, it is vitally important that you develop a strategy to get to know that person much better. Don’t let an initial “ask” letter and a thank you note be the extent of your relationship with him. Look for every opportunity to make your donor a part of your community. In the long run, everyone at the school will be much richer for it.

One of the most important tools available to any leader of a non profit organization is the fundraising letter. With a finely-crafted missive, the leader will be able to clarify the mission, excite the audience, and deliver on the stated need.

However, getting the letter to the point where it is “finely-crafted” is the hard part. I believe there are five key components that should be implemented to give your letter a much better chance of hitting its mark.

Before you begin writing, I recommend that you jot down a quick outline. This will help you plot your individual points, provide your supporting evidence, and generally keep you on track.

The outline should be broken down into five sections. These are: attention, interest, desire, conviction, and close. By following these five “guideposts” you are taking your reader on a directed journey, exactly where you want him to go. And fortunately, since this progression makes rhetorical sense, the reader will actually be happy to go along for this ride, as opposed to a letter that is all over the place and never really gets to the point.

Let’s break down each of the sections.

1. Attention

First, there is “ATTENTION”. This is where you really grab your readers. Give them something to chew on right away. Most of us read thousands of words each day, so the competition for our readers’ attention is great. Don’t mess around with long winded introductions- get right to the point. Use words and word-pictures that have real impact with the readers. In the case of school fundraising, I like to focus on the benefits to the children.

Let’s say, for instance, you were writing a letter in hopes of raising enough money to subsidize a trip to Washington D.C. for the eighth grade. I would start by writing:

Dear Parents, Our school has the amazing opportunity to provide your child with an incredible hands-on learning experience, right in our nation’s capital. For four days and three nights, our students will be in the epicenter of our executive, legislative, and judicial activity. With behind the scenes tours, meetings with our local law-makers, and admission to some of the most significant historical sites in our country, your child will have the experience of his or her life.

Ok, there’s the first paragraph. We were aiming for grabbing their attention, and I think we have it. We emphasized the benefits to their children and even touched on a bit of patriotism!

2. Interest

Next, we come to “INTEREST”. This is where we expand a little bit more on what we wrote in the “attention” paragraph. The goal is to raise your readers’ interest by more specifically highlighting the benefits and features of the event. By the end of this section, your reader should really be primed to hear your pitch.

To continue with the sample letter:

All year long, we have been studying how bills become laws, how our government operates, and how our democracy was created. By planning this trip to Washington D.C., we will be able to take this theoretical knowledge and breathe life into it for our students. Instead of just reading about the Library of Congress, we’re going to go there! Rather than just watching CSPAN, we are going to enter the U.S. Capitol and observe Congress actually in session! What better way is there to really learn about our country than to see it up close and in person?

3. Desire

All right, this is where we start to really sell, sell, sell. Your job in this section is to place such a strong desire for this experience in the hearts of your readers that they’ll do just about anything to make the goal a reality. To accomplish this, you only need to remind them of the idealistic things they already hold dear. Do this with the right stroke, and you’ve got them.

As parents, we know you always want the best for your children. You want their schools to be first rate and be able to provide them with only the finest instruction and guidance. We at Al Gore Middle School share this desire, right along with you. For years, the eighth grade has been making this annual journey to Washington D.C. And, year after year, we have witnessed first- hand how this experience changes lives for the better. This is truly a monumental event for our young people.

4. Conviction

So far, we have excited our readers, we’ve got them genuinely interested in our cause, and we’ve done all we can to convince them that they, too, want what we want. Now it’s time to prepare them for the challenges that stand in our way and get them to commit themselves to the hard work that will certainly follow on our way to the goal. This is called “CONVICTION”.

But getting to Washington D.C. is never easy. Moving an entire grade of children is expensive and logistically difficult. Making this dream a reality is a daunting task, but it is also one that many parents before us have successfully undertaken.

Through our research, we have determined that this trip costs $400 total per child. This includes everything- transportation, lodging, food, and admission to all the sites. The only thing beyond this is spending money, which you and your child can determine privately.

$400 is a lot of money. We understand that this can be a burden to many. Therefore, we have a goal to help subsidize this amount by at least 50% per student. Between now and the time we leave for Washington, we plan to hold several mini-fundraisers within the community.

Your involvement with these fundraisers is vital. We need every parent of an eighth grader to volunteer his or her time to help us reach this overall target. This will mean planning meetings, committee meetings, volunteer recruiting, organizing, decorating, etc. This is a significant commitment.

However, when we remember why we are doing this, we know that in the long run, all the time and energy will be worth it for our children.

5. Close

At this point, our hope is that parents are ready for the fight. They believe in the cause and are prepared to enter into battle. Now, they just need to know specifically what is being asked of them. In each school’s case, this might be different, but it is crucial to work in an effective call to action. And that comes in the “CLOSE”.

On Tuesday November 5 at 6:30pm, we are holding an organizational meeting in our school auditorium. We will be talking a lot about the upcoming trip, as well as how we plan to pay for it. We sincerely ask that at least one parent from each family come to this gathering. If you can not attend, we ask that you contact our school office, so we can get you all the pertinent information.

Thank you for your consideration of this journey, and we can’t wait to give your child the memories and experiences that will help shape the rest of their lives. See you at the meeting!

And that’s it. Now, please remember that I completely fabricated this above scenario, so some of the details may not make sense, but I wanted to illustrate the path a persuasive fundraising letter should take. Start with getting your readers’ attention, heighten their interest, stir their desire, strengthen their conviction, and close the deal with a call to action.

Plug your own specific information into this plan, and you’ll be well on your way to sending out a fundraising letter that will produce results!

It’s always helpful to study how the big boys do it, even though most of us aren’t in that league. Most of us struggle with small budgets and only a local outreach.

However, if we look carefully enough, the “big boys” do teach us many important lessons that we can scale down and apply to our own situations.

Like millions of other people, I have had the occasion to use the online resource, Wikipedia. I’ve needed to research something quickly, and Wikipedia has done an adequate job in providing me the information I require. I’m aware of the arguments against Wikipedia and the kind of user-generated and edited facts it offers. However, in my own limited experience, I’ve never really had a problem with it.

In the past few months, however, whenever I’d visit Wikipedia, I’d notice a very prominent message displayed at the top of every page I searched for. The message is placed inside a box, and there is a picture of a very hopeful-looking man. The bold text next to him says, “Please Read: An Urgent Appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales”. The text is also a link to his donation request letter.

When I first read the letter, I was impressed by many things, right off the bat. Here is the text of the letter. Take a minute to scan it and see for yourself if there’s anything that stands out to you. (There should be. The guy has raised 12.5 million dollars so far this year!)

I’m a volunteer.

Like the thousands of others who write and edit Wikipedia, I don’t get paid a cent. But I have been here from the beginning, and I can tell you, we weren’t prepared to get this big.

We are a non-profit, but we are the fifth most visited website in the world. Last year we operated with around 30 staff and dangerously few servers. The other top ten websites are hundreds of times bigger than us.

This year we are finally adding critical technology and people we’ve needed for years. We can’t wait another year to take this step.

Last year about one in 1,000 people who use Wikipedia donated. To reach our goal this year, we need two in 1,000.

It’s a stretch. We’re the only major website in the world that is primarily supported by its users. It’s worked for 10 years, but this year we are struggling to reach our goal with only 7 days left of 2010.

Please help us keep Wikipedia free and stable with a donation of $10, $20, $35 or whatever you can afford.

Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia Founder

Ok, so what do I like about this letter? Here are eight things that I think smaller non-profits can learn from Wikipedia’s example for effective donor solicitation through an online appeal letter. Please feel free to add your own thoughts in our comment section.

1. The “ad box”. It’s clean, simple, and to the point. No wasted words or unnecessary fluff. I also like his picture- I know it’s a little corny, but he’s looking up, toward the future, with a very hopeful look in his eyes. That’s something we can all do. It sends a good, subliminal message to potential donors.

2. I like the very fact that he’s asking for donations online. How many of us really use our website to raise funds? I know Wikipedia is entirely Internet-based, and most of us operate in the real world, but we should not ignore the power of a “Donate Now” button on our sites. PayPal works.

3. He starts the letter right off with a statement- “I am a volunteer”. He avoids using the “Dear Friends” platitude. If you have one New Year’s resolution this year, let it be to never write the words “Dear Friends” again.

4. The letter is thankfully short- only 183 words. We should all strive for more brevity.

5. He makes himself identifiable to the readers by claiming, “I’m a volunteer.” Right away, he’s putting his arm around us and saying in effect “We’re all in this together.”

6. He sets up his need very effectively, basically saying “We grew unexpectedly. Not enough staff. Not enough servers.” Sound familiar? He reminds us that sites of similar size are “hundreds of times bigger” We read this paragraph and realize that his need is legitimate.

7. He gives us an excellent way to visualize his goal. He says that 1 in 1000 visitors donated to Wikipedia last year. Then he issues a seemingly “do-able” challenge- make it 2 in 1000 who gives. Even though that’s a 100% increase in donors, the scale seems reachable. Heck, it’s only 2 people out of 1,000. That’s nothin’.

8. Lastly, he leaves us with a sense of urgency by saying that they are still short of their yearly goal, with only a few days remaining in 2010. Then he clearly asks us for money. He is specific in what he’d like. We know he’s not seeking the $1 million donation. His goal is achievable in increments of $25 gifts.

Well, I think there is a lot in letter to like. If you’re struggling with how to craft a donation letter, this isn’t a bad place to start thinking about it. Really, it’s not too complicated. There’s nothing fancy about his ask. But it has proven effective to an incredibly diverse group of donors, so there’s something working for it.

Do you have any thoughts? We’d love to hear them!

Halloween was this past weekend and we turned deep into the dark side.  Goulies and ghosties walked the streets in my neighborhood.

So let’s turn to the dark side of your year-end fundraising campaign – and shine a light on mistakes many organizations make.

Here’s my Top 10 list of ways to sabotage your year-end fundraising effort.

1.  Send a letter that’s hard to read, with ponderous sentences, long paragraphs and no white space.  (This fails the “easy to read” test, which is the first hurdle for your reader, who is skimming your prose for the highlights only.)

2.  Send a letter much like last year’s with tired messaging, no visuals, no metaphors, no stories.  Your reader is unlikely to keep reading if it is not interesting.  You are not writing an academic treatise; instead you are writing marketing copy.

3.  Bury The Ask deep inside a paragraph at the end of a sentence. (Your reader must be able to easily find out how much you are asking for and for what purpose.)

4.  Don’t include a  reply envelope. (you’d be surprised how many organizations leave out this VITAL component – you have to make it easy for people to give!)

5.  Don’t update your web site. (Studies show that donors – even those who give by writing a check and sending it in the mail – will most often check out your web site to research you before they give.  And your website MUST look professional and up-to-date!)

6. Only send out one appeal letter. (this is the kiss of death for many campaigns.  Studies show that one letter will typically get a 15% response – NOT enough to make your year-end goal. Your donors are too busy and need repeated reminders. And no, it is not tacky to keep reminding them!)

7.  Don’t do phone followup. Studies show that a followup phone call can double your results.

8.  Don’t do an email push to non-donors the last two days of December. Studies show that a majority of on-line donors give in December and most of them are on the last two days of December.

9. Don’t send a PROMPT, warm, personal thank you immediately to your donors. And “warm, personal” does not mean “on behalf of the board of directors we thank you for blah blah” – this impersonal bunk doesn’t warm your donor’s heart.

10. Don’t have your board members call donors to thank them within 24 hours of the gift’s receipt. Penelope Burk’s landmark studies showed that when board members made this type of followup call, then subsequent gifts from the donors rose by 39%!

Fundraising letters communicate a specific message to potential donors and call them to action. Creating an attention getting opening paragraph is important in making a good first impression and in getting the rest of the letter read.

Here are 5 Attention Getting Strategies for Fundraising Letters:

1. Headlines

Even though a fundraising letter should be in the format of a letter with a salutation, body and closing, a headline at the top of the page can be an attention grabber. Headlines are usually just 1-2 lines and are printed in larger type that the rest of the letter. For added interest, use a different font.

2. Attention Getting Words

Using very specific words as sentence openers grab the readers attention. Notice that many of these sample phrases ask the reader to do something. Here are a few examples:

Just imagine if…
Right now…
Think about…
Why is it that…
Without a doubt…
For instance,
Please don’t overlook…

3. Questions

Open ended questions are great ways to begin a letter. Questions are designed to get the reader to think. When asked a question, people automatically try to answer it. Avoid using yes/no questions, because this is too easy an answer and the conversation in the reader’s mind stops.

Here’s an example: “How many people in our city go hungry at Christmastime each year? Statistics say that on average 357 will miss at least one meal between Christmas and New Year’s Day because their cupboards are bare. Many of these are senior citizens. This year let’s keep this statistic from becoming a reality.”

4. Bold Statements & Exclamations

Another way to open the letter is by using a bold statement, often related to shocking situations or statistics. For example, “Every day 7,400 people become infected with the HIV virus”

Sentences using exclamation points work well for a letter with a light hearted tone. For example, “It’s that time of year again – the Clark County Yam Festival is almost here!”

A few well placed exclamation points at the beginning and/or other sections of the letter add energy. Just be sure to use exclamation points sparingly in the overall letter. Having too many of them gives the impression of hype or insincerity.

5. Narratives & True Stories

One of the most successful ways to get your message across is to describe a story of a specific person or situation that your organization has helped. If your group has made some major achievements and successes these can also be of use. Always remember to include stories that will engage the reader, not just show off accomplishments.

In the guidebook the 7 Essential Steps to Raising Money by Mail you’ll find many more creative ideas for your fundraising letters. In fact, there are 321 sample words, phrases and sentence starters to add spice to your letter, fill in some of the missing pieces or just help get your own creativity flowing.

Following up on Lori Rice’s article, Customize Communications to Increase Donor Loyalty, I’d like to explore three practical ways that you can personalize your fundraising letters.

In other words, the logistics of how to get away from “Dear Friend” and other impersonal elements that take away from the power of direct mail.

Steve Maggio of DaVinci Direct, writing for FundraisingSuccess Magazine says:

Every message you send to your donor should sound like a one-to-one conversation. Talk to the donor as if you know her, and are cognizant of her interests and giving preferences. I like to have a personalized salutation on my letters, and I often use the donor’s name and state and/or town name in the body of the letter.

Inserting custom elements like these helps create a letter that is more personable and appealing.  So, now you might be thinking “this is too complicated” or “this is too expensive for our nonprofit.”  Personalized direct mail communications can be easier and more cost effective than one might assume.  All of this customization is done through an automated process of some type, using your database or spreadsheet with the details for each donor.

Also keep in mind that when using personalization, your response rate will go up — more donations coming in the door!  You’ll also likely build more trust and goodwill by sending more targeted communications.  Building lasting relationships with supporters and getting more donations are our real goals, right? (Not cost or administrative concerns.)

1. Take Advantage of the Power of Group Mailouts

One strategy is to print letters in bulk that will be used in several mailings.  Then you can run the shells through for customization as you need them.  This is often done with newsletters and is the basic concept of ordering letterhead in massive quantities.

Another option is to actually do a combined mailout with another nonprofit. One company that’s made this concept work well is Starfish Marketing.   They create a complete, professionally written and laid out mail package.  Each piece is created by a team of pros who constantly test to see what works and what doesn’t, so you can get the highest response rate possible.  Nonprofits from across the country participate in the same mailing, so the cost of printing and postage is greatly reduced.  In fact, your nonprofit can use this service even if you are only sending out 1,000 letters!

Don’t get the wrong idea though.  Your mailing will not really look like anyone else’s other than the basic framework.  You provide them the custom elements like your logo, photos and mission statement.  You can start with their letter template and tweak it, or use your own letter.

You can personalize with the donor’s name or or other specific information in the letter (front and back pages) and the reply piece.

This system takes out a lot of the guesswork and the postal, data, and creative hassles that can make direct mail so difficult and time-consuming for you. You’ll have a high quality mailing that has the best chance of success.

Starfish Marketing produces a different mailing each month. In November the theme will be a holiday card that uses handwriting style type. (As example of how customized you can make your mailing, use your own photo for the greeting card, not just the stock winter scene they provide!) For more information on this or any of their other scheduled mailings, call Margaux Parento at 954-943-7740.

2. Tricks for Going the DIY Route

If you are sending just a hundred to a couple thousand letters at one time you can still opt to go the DIY (Do it Yourself) route.

In our one hour telesmeminar earlier this summer, Sandy Rees and I talked about a couple of ways that you can personalize each letter and print them at a local copy shop to save money.

Of course one of the drawbacks to this approach is that you have to do all of the customization fields yourself, check to make sure the merge from the data file to the letters was successful, and weed out duplicates.  You may also be limited to black and white only printing (though you could use your own stationary with your color logo.)  Then there’s the hassle of stuffing envelopes and sorting for postal service bulk mail requirements.

Depending on just how many letters you are sending, I’d advise pricing the DIY option ahead of time.  You may not be saving as much money as you thought.  But, in a pinch this is still a step up from sending out the Dear Friend letter!

3. Choose Your Printing / Mail House Carefully

Many nonprofits work with printing companies that both print, stuff and mail out their direct mail campaigns.  There are three vital requirements that you should look for when choosing a service provider.

First, make sure you are working with a company that has extensive experience with direct mail, not just an all around printer who mainly does brochures or stationary.  Even further, ask the printer what nonprofit organizations they have worked with.  If they have experience with nonprofit clients they will likely have a stronger understanding of your goals and what you need from a mailing.

Next, ask the printer what additional services they offer.  Will they print envelopes too? Do they stuff and mail for you as well?  The services of a full service print and mail house can be a big advantage in time, hassle and cost savings for you.

Finally, make sure they can do the personalization of each mail piece that you need and get a price quote on this service.

Earlier this year I had an enjoyable visit with Chris Smith (left in photo) and company founder Doug Johnson (right) of Inline Digital Image in Arlington, Texas.   As I toured their printing facility I was amazed at the lightning speed of this huge printing press.  But it’s not the speed that makes this particular machine so impressive.

To accommodate personalization fields on letters, most printing processes will have to run a piece through twice.  They print a standard shell, then run through with the variations.  With this particular printer, the piece runs through just once, printing all of the custom elements and standard elements at the same time.  This is actually how the company got its name — all of the customization is done inline on a single press.  This process results in time and cost savings for the customer (you!)

Actually the folks at Inline find a variety of ways to make mailing more efficient and cost effective for their customers.  They work with commercial and nonprofit organizations, mostly in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but can work with customers nationwide. If your organization is sending out at least 20,000 pieces, you can take advantage of the unlimited personalization this special press offers. For more information, contact Chris Smith at 817-640-1984.

Take Action with Your Next Mailing

With these three strategies, your group really has no excuse not to personalize fundraising letters and other communications.  If you are already doing this, maybe one or more of these strategies will help you take your efforts to the next level.

So what do you think?  Post a comment below how you’re using personalization in your mailings or how you will use one of these strategies in the future.

You may have heard of the three R’s of education – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Today we’ll look at what I call the “Three R’s” of Fundraising Letters and hear from one nonprofit who uses all three of these ideas.

1. Reading

In our case reading means being able to read, or understand, your target audience. Get to know the people who are most likely to respond to your letter.

Find out what motivates people to make donations to your particular organization. Is it a membership? Is it personal satisfaction of helping the cause? Discover all you can about how you can connect with your constituents.

Here are some ways to use better read your audience:

1. Short surveys asking specific questions and for feedback. This could be a written survey, a discussion group or a few questions or checkboxes added to response cards.
2. If your organization purchases a mailing list to find new donors, be sure that recipients are those who will be most likely to be interested in your organization by specifying location and/or interest groups.
3. Mailings can be done for specific niche interests. For example, a humane society could send a special mailing to dog owners with a specific offer just for them.

2. Writing

While it’s easy to state the case of why your organization needs support, show the reader why it matters to them.  Speak directly to the heart of the reader, to his or her interests. What motivates them to be connected to your cause? How can they directly benefit from giving donations to help?

Effective writing techniques include:

1. Personal stories from those who have benefited from your organization’s efforts.
2. Quotations from volunteers, donors or constituents.
3. Photographs – a picture’s worth a thousand words.
4. Emphasize the benefits the reader receives by donating.

3. Relationships

Building relationships with donors, volunteers and the community is the most important thing that you do in any of your efforts.

A letter can help build relationships with your donors by demonstrating your organization’s effectiveness, thus showing that the reader’s past donations have been used wisely. Asking for feedback, informing about volunteer opportunities and thanking supporters for past donations also help to develop an ongoing, two-way relationship.

The Three R’s in Practice

An e-mail that I received from Dale A. Albertson of Quest Outreach Society, a hunger relief agency, illustrates all three of these points.

Hi Sandra,

You know we are not very adventurous with our fundraising techniques, and typically, we do the quarterly campaign letter with our Newsletter. We keep it grassroots, yet professional, with human interest stories, and a few facts and stats woven into a narrative. The campaign letter is bit of a tug on the heartstrings, mixed with a bit of success and lots of potential. We emphasize the multiplication aspect of donating to our organization – your donation goes further.

We see our revenues grow steadily with this approach. We know our constituents though, and this is the key. We have built relationships with them based on shared values and interests. There simply is no substitute for that. Our success is not an “exciting” read, it is methodical, strategic and planned.

We supplement fundraising campaigns with grants from foundations and companies, again, methodical, strategic and planned. This grows steadily as well, and some funders are now multiple year donors, with only a friendly reminder required to receive annual grants. These are also relationships that have been carefully built and nurtured.

I hope this helps, and all the best to you and your readers.

Regards,

Dale A. Albertson
Director of Public Relations
Quest Outreach Society “Rescuing Food, Reducing Hunger”

As Dale’s description of Quest Outreach’s methods shows, the three R’s of fundraising letters often overlap and reinforce one another.

When you have a strong understanding of your audience, you can write in a way that speaks to their interests and desires. Human interest stories and evidence of your organization’s effectiveness strengthen the relationship with your donors.

When a person believes strongly in your organization and sees it as a partnership, they are more likely to be motivated to donate.

Fundraising letters sent through the mail are one of the most popular ways to request donations.   However, if you’ve never written a fundraising letter before, you may have lots of questions…

How do you start the letter? How can you persuade the reader to donate without being too pushy? What will make someone take notice of your cause and want to give? Who should the letter be mailed to?

This short guide will help answer some of your questions.

Choose the audience

Before you start writing the letter, be clear about who will be reading it. Knowing who will be reading the letter will impact your decisions later on about what to say and how to say it.  So if you haven’t decided on a target audience, do this first before even starting to write.

In general the audience will fall into one of two categories:

House (or renewal) mailings which are sent to your current supporters. After you have mailed to your donors a few times, you will get a good feel for your organization’s response rate. Some organizations have response rates in the 5 – 10% range while others have 25% or more.

Acquisition mailings are intended to acquire new donors. Typically, letters are sent to names from a rented or borrowed “cold” list with the hope that individual recipients will make a donation. Response rates on acquisition mailings can be quite low, usually less than 1%. Because of this low response rate, you will need to calculate the number of letters that need to be sent in order to reach your goals.

Create a compelling letter

Keep in mind that your goal is not really to write a letter. It is to communicate the essence of your mission and vision in an insightful and compelling way, so that readers will respond with a donation.

One of the most successful ways that you can get your message across is to tell a story of a specific person or situation where your organization has made a difference.  When writing a fundraising letter remember to include stories that will engage the reader, not just show off accomplishments. Take a look a these suggestions for attention getting openings for fundraising letters for more tips.

As you write remember to speak to the interests of the reader. So you have a great cause… why should they care? Appeal to them based on what benefits they personally receive from donating, either tangible benefits or the intangible sense of satisfaction they will have when they support a cause they believe in.  An effective writing technique is to address the reader directly by using the word “you”.

You’ll want to proofread your letter to make sure you have not left out any important elements.  Take a look at this letter template which describes all of the sections and important pieces of information that need to be included in a fundraising letter.

Make it easy to respond

Besides the letter itself, you need to consider and coordinate all the other pieces that are printed and mailed along with it.  A typical direct mail fundraising package consists of:

1. an outer envelope
2. a letter
3. a response card
4. a return envelope

The response card and return envelope are important elements of your mailing. These two pieces further encourage them – and make it super easy – to mail in a donation. The response card takes out all doubt in the reader’s mind as to what to do next, including how to make out the check, what level of donation levels are suggested and whether they can specify a particular project.  The envelope removes the hassle of figuring out where to send the gift.

Finally, if a reader wants to respond but for whatever reason cannot do so that day, it’s likely that they will throw away the letter and keep just the card and envelope.  In this case it’s even more important to have a response card.  It helps remind them why they wanted to donate in the first place.  Just the envelope may not be enough, especially if they are not current supporters.

A Step by Step Guide to Writing Fundraising Letters – Your Direct Mail Fundraising Campaign from Start to Finish

I’ve collaborated with Sandy Rees, a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), to write a guidebook called 7 Essential Steps to Raising Money by Mail. Even if you have “writer’s block” or don’t feel creative at all, this new resource provides step by step instructions, ideas and phrases that will help unlock your inspiration.

Most of all, you will be able to communicate persuasively with current and potential donors and increase the number of financial gifts you get in return from your direct mail campaigns.

Find out more about this guidebook

The first step in having a successful direct mail fundraising campaign is having an understanding of the fundamentals — what direct mail is, what it is not and what to expect with a direct mail campaign.  These are three typical questions that many nonprofits who have not done a fundraising letter campaign before may ask.  The answers are important to any direct mail effort.

1. What is direct mail?

Direct mail is the fundraising technique of sending a letter with a focused message to a targeted list of people, with the express purpose of eliciting a response in the form of a financial donation. It’s commonly used by hundreds of thousands of nonprofits around the world to generate funds for general operations, for specific projects or campaigns.

Fundraising letters can be sent to a large number of people or a select few. Results can vary greatly, depending on whom the letter is sent to, when it is sent, and what is asked for.

A direct mail fundraising letter provides:

• A cost-effective way to introduce your cause to new people.
• A way to communicate with current donors.
• An opportunity for supporters to make a financial gift.
• The chance to renew relationships with donors who haven’t given in awhile.

While informing your supporters, introducing new prospects to your organization, and publicizing your efforts are useful, at the end of the day, you must ask people for a donation. Direct mail offers you a great vehicle with which to do just that.

You want to send a letter that:

1. Gets into the hands of the right people.
2. Grabs the recipient’s attention and gets the envelope opened.
3. Compels the person to respond by sending a gift.

People are busy. They will decide in a matter of seconds whether or not to open the envelope and in a few more seconds, they will decide whether or not to give. You need to provide solid information in the letter and present it in a remarkable way. If you’ve created interest, a prospect may go online to learn more about your organization. The end goal is for the prospect to send a check through the mail or make an online donation.

Direct mail should never be your only strategy for fundraising. It is one piece of a complete fundraising program. In other words, don’t rely on direct mail to generate all the dollars you need to fund your mission. Instead, use it as a tool with which to bring new donors into your
organization, upgrade existing donors, and identify potential major donors.

2. How many donations can we expect?

It’s important to have a realistic understanding of expected response rates before you get started planning a letter campaign. It will help you know whether or not mailing right now is appropriate for your group and if so will help you plan the most successful campaign possible.

First, let’s explore the two kinds of mailings: house and acquisition.

House (or renewal) mailings are sent to your current donors and typically result in significant gifts. After you have mailed to your donors a few times, you will get a good feel for your organization’s response rate. Some organizations have response rates in the 5 – 10% range while others have 25% or more. There is no way to predict how your donors will respond, except by
looking at response rates from previous mailings.

Acquisition mailings are intended to acquire new donors. Typically, letters are sent to names from a rented or borrowed “cold” list with the hope that individual recipients will make a donation. Response rates on acquisition mailings tend to be very low, usually less than 1%. Because of this low response rate, you will need to calculate the number of letters that need to be sent in order to reach your goals. In the next step we provide a calculation tool to help you find this number. Despite the low response rate, acquisition mailings are often an effective way to bring new donors into your organization.

3. Is direct mail right for our group?

After having a good understanding of what direct mail is and what kind of results can be expected, then consider how a direct mail campaign will fit with your other fundraising efforts. You also need to be prepared to spend time planning, writing, and working with outsource agents (such as printers).

1. You have money to spend on paper and postage
2. You or a volunteer have the skills to write a good letter (or can you pay a writer or copy editor)
3. You have the manpower to fold and stuff letters (or can you pay someone else to)
4. You can create a production schedule and stick to it

If your group is prepared to invest time, effort and some money upfront to then a direct mail campaign might be right for your organization.

This article includes content from the first chapter of 7 Essential Steps to Raising Money by Mail.

1. Failure to ask for a gift. Don’t assume that your donors will know what you want them to do. Ask for a gift.  And make sure to include a reply envelope to make it easy for your donors to send their gift to you.

2. Using a dirty list. Keeping your list clean is one of the most important things you can do to ensure the success of your appeal.  Run your entire list through an NCOA update annually (this is required by the USPS for non-profit rates and every six months on first class pre-sort).  Always correct addresses of donors who have moved. Make sure to exclude deceased donors from your list and anyone else who doesn’t need to receive your appeal.

3. “Dear Friend…” Failing to personalize your letter to each donor is detrimental to your appeal and can send the wrong message.  If someone has been donating to your organization for several years, you are insulting them by not using their name.  It could also send the message that you are looking for an easy way out in the letter preparation process. Using a window envelope with the recipient’s name and address showing through can reduce the labor involved in preparing the mailing and keep costs down.

4. Bad timing. Timing is everything in direct mail. Are you mailing at the best times of the year?  Are you coordinating your mailings with your other activities to maximize your media exposure?  Have you planned your mailing so that you have plenty of time to prepare it well or are you rushed for time?  If your mailing has a specific “reply by” date, have you allowed the recipient enough time to respond?

5. Asking for the wrong amount. Are you asking your donors for the right amount?  Base your ask string on the donor’s last gift amount so you aren’t asking for too much or too little. Are you tying the ask amount to something meaningful in your organization? “Your gift of $1.74 will provide a hot meal to a homeless person”.  Uneven amounts are more believable.

6. Ignoring automation benefits. In order to take advantage of the best postage rates, your return envelope must have the appropriate postal markings.  The size, shape, and color of your envelope must be considered for USPS regulations.  Planning your mailing with a knowledgeable mailer can save you money on postage.

7. “Support Our Annual Fund”. Donors don’t want to support your annual fund.  They want to make a difference in the lives of the people you serve.  Tell a story of someone you have helped.  Help the donor see how his/her donation will make an impact.

8. Poor quality letter. An experienced printing shop can help you get the best quality appeal in the mail.  You don’t want to send out something that looks like a copy of a bad copy.

9. Paying too much for postage. Are you taking advantage of pre-sorted nonprofit postage rates?  Did you know that you can use a stamp and still get lower rates?

10. Failure to measure. You should set goals for each appeal and measure its success. Are you measuring your success rates?  Do you know what your response rate was on your last appeal?  What was your average gift size?  Did you have any major donors who self-identified themselves?  What did it cost you to raise a dollar?

About the Author: Sandy Rees has served non profit organizations in Tennessee including Second Harvest Food Bank, and the Joy of Music School. She is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and has achieved the CFRE (Certified Fundraising Executive) certification.  She is a co-author of the book 7 Essential Elements to Raising Money by Mail.