Here’s a great post from Marc Pitman, aka The Fundraising Coach.  Today, Marc writes about how to write effective fundraising letter.

Marc also has a great new post on his site, entitled ”Are you as creative as Red Box?“, which you should check out.

Marc is a great friend of Step by Step Fundraising.  I hope you take the opportunity to get to know him as we have!

Oh, if you are inclined to Tweet, you can follow @marcapitman.  Thanks, Marc!

3 Tips for Effective Fundraising Letters

Every other Tuesday, I send out my free email newsletter. I’m amazed that next year will be it’s tenth year in publication! I bet that makes it one of the oldest email newsletters in the industry. (10 years ago we called them “Ezines” so this is still called The Extreme Fundraising Ezine!)

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.

Alright, so your major fundraiser event is over. Your self-imposed deadline has come and gone. Now comes the part when you add all the donations up, subtract your expenses, and find out if you met your goal.

Hopefully, you have not only met your goal, but you have wildly exceeded it. However, that isn’t always the case, is it? Sometimes you launch a campaign, and it flops. The imagination of your audience is not captured, and as a result, they didn’t give in either the depth or the breadth that you had hoped.

So, what do you do next?

First, you need to decide if you want to do anything at all. I mean, it’s possible to just ignore the shortfall. You could do the best with the money you did raise and then just move on to something else. Perhaps none of your donors would follow up with questions or concerns about the way their money was used. Maybe nobody will inquire as to whether you hit your target amount. You could get lucky like that.

But, I’m guessing that’s not going to be an option for you.

If you are actually spending time reading this blog, then you are probably committed to your own organization and will want to do things right, even in difficult situations like not meeting your fundraising goal.

Ok, so here are the things I would do if I ran a fundraiser that fell short of the goal my organization had set for it.

Looking Toward the Board

The first thing I’d do is gather my board of directors and tell them everything. I would present to them the amount we did raise and tell them how far short we fell of the goal. I would lay out exactly what we did to raise that money. I’d show them copies of all the communications I sent out during the campaign and share with them any feedback I gathered during the process from employees, volunteers, and donors. I’d also briefly let them know about any other fundraisers in the community that ran at the same time as ours and which may have had a negative impact on our ability to hit our target. The board has to have a complete picture of why the goal was not met in order to figure out a solution.

Your First Ask

Once I had put all this information out there for them to digest, I would ask each one of them to consider adding to their own donations. I know this can be a sensitive topic, but board members are expected to lead their community in financial contributions. Not every board member will be able to do this at a high level, of course, but I think the board should be the first group of people you approach.

Hosting a Power Meeting

After the board members have added to their personal donations, I would talk about them hosting an intimate gathering with specifically invited guests, on whom they can put the squeeze. Again, this is a responsibility of the board members- to use their personal and professional networks to raise money for your non-profit. If a board member is squeamish about giving money him or herself or asking friends for money, then he or she shouldn’t be on the board.

This intimate gathering could be something as simple as a dinner at a board member’s house. I’ve actually held one in a small room at a local country club. The people who are invited to this “party” will know that they should come prepared to write a check.

At the gathering, I (the executive director) would make a passionate case for the purpose behind the fundraiser. I’d really “sell” the mission. However, the responsibility for making the ask should fall to the board members who made the invitations. Some, or maybe all, of the people in attendance may have already given to this fundraiser, so I’d have to be ready with a very good explanation as to why I didn’t reach our goal in the time allotted. I don’t necessarily think this will be a turn-off for the donors, as long as I can tell them I understand what happened and now have a plan to fix it.

One possible strategy to employ at this meeting would be to ask the guests to offer a matching gift that can be leveraged with the community at large. From my experience, many wealthier individuals like the idea of inspiring others to give, which a matching grant does.

An aside- If you are going to go to this length, it should go without saying that this must have been a pretty important fundraiser. In my mind, this would be one of, if not the, most important fundraiser of your year. For the purposes of this article, I wouldn’t think that you’d go to this trouble if you were just trying to raise a thousand dollars for equipment or something. I just wanted to make that clear.

The Next Step: Taking It to the Streets

If, after I’ve asked the board members and their friends for their “enhanced” donations, I am still short of my goal, it’s time to go public.

The first piece of advice I’d offer in this regard is to make sure you are clear that you are trying to cover a shortcoming from your fundraising campaign that just ended. It would not be wise to suddenly throw a new fundraiser out there and not explain that it’s part of the same goal you were just working on. That could be very confusing to potential donors. They would scratch their heads and ask, “Didn’t I just write a check to them?” I would much rather admit that we didn’t meet our goal than to drop an unexpected fundraising bomb on their heads right after we just wrapped one up. Therefore, in everything you say and do, be sure to link this follow up to your unsuccessful campaign.

Honesty is the Best Policy

In addition to being honest that the goal wasn’t reached, I would be very plain in telling people the amount you still need to raise. The community deserves to know what they are being asked for. This would also be the right time to introduce the matching grant that you hopefully secured at the board of director’s gathering.

I would start by putting all this information into a well-crafted solicitation letter that would be sent, along with a donation envelope, to my entire mailing list. Time is of the essence with this letter. I would not want too much time to pass between the end of the fundraiser and this follow-up letter. Any delay will be perceived as a lack of urgency on the organization’s part by potential donors. It will dramatically lessen the impact of the ask.

In the letter itself, I would focus not so much on the fact that the fundraiser was unsuccessful, but rather I would put an enthusiastic spin on the matching grant, if I had it. Even if I didn’t have the matching grant, I’d write the letter with a grand sense of optimism and celebrate the opportunity for the community to rally together and do something special. I think it would be appropriate to have a greater than normal sense of urgency in this letter. The organization’s back truly is against the wall. It’s ok to “fight” to meet your need.

I would also take this impassioned plea to the electronic side of our organization- mass emails, Facebook, Twitter- any way that the audience would see and respond to. I would also make sure that my website had a large “Donate Now” button prominently displayed on it that linked to a working PayPal account.

Conclusion

As you can tell, I am of the mind to be very direct in this situation. If you fall short in the amount you need to raise, it is my opinion that you should just go out and ask for more. I don’t think you should suddenly plan a car wash or decide to sell some sort of product to cover the deficit.

My experience and my pre-disposition tells me that this honest, straight-forward approach will work. I think that people will respond to your need, as long as you show that you are being a careful steward of the organization and that you tell your story with passion, enthusiasm, and vision.

What do you think? What would you do if your organization didn’t meet an important fundraising goal? I’d love to read your suggestions. Please share them in our comments section!

Photo by: jeffk

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!

According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) 2009 State of Fundraising Survey, only “43 percent of charities raised more money in 2009 than in 2008, marking it the worst year for charitable fundraising in a decade.”

The survey states that declines were consistent regardless of cause. However, several of the food banks that I have talked to actually did well last year.

In 2009 food banks across the country had to step up to fill increased needs cause by the recession. Thankfully, many of them had a strong donor base in place that recognized the need and were willing maintain funding.

Canned food drives continue to be successful

Canned food drives are an ongoing effort for food banks and pantries. They provide a way for supporters to give something tangible and they can feel good knowing that they literally provided food to help those in need.

Deborah Talbot, Development Coordinator at Bread of the Mighty Food Bank in Gainesville, Florida said that food donations in 2009 were way ahead of the previous year. In a special drive the week before Thanksgiving they took in over 8,000 pounds in 2 days. “The Gainesville community historically has been very good about responding to publicity about the needs of their neighbors, and we’ve had exceptional local media coverage this year, too.”

The food bank proactively solicited groups to help. “At the beginning of October we sent out a letter to all groups/individuals who conducted food drives for us during the past year (including through the 2008 holidays) asking them to consider doing so again over the holidays.”

Direct mail is a strategy that Bread of the Mighty uses wisely.  In fact, one of their thank you letters is even included as a sample in the book 7 Essential Steps to Raising Money by Mail.

Talbot continues, “We’ve had a 28% response with repeat food drivers. From October to December we had 164 food drives, with 88 repeats from the past year. From the 200 letters we sent out October 1, we had a 44% response. I was amazed and thrilled. We had a 15% increase by weight in the amount of food received through food drives.”

Direct mail appeals prior to holiday season

Sandy Rees, with whom I co-authored the above mentioned book, has worked with food banks for several years. “The holiday season is prime fundraising time for food banks, particularly Thanksgiving. Most TV and radio stations will help promote fundraising or foodraising campaigns, especially if you get them on board early enough.”

Rees notes that the most important thing is to tie the amount you’re asking for to a meal. For example “your gift of $5.00 will provide a Thanksgiving basket for a family in need.”  Food banks can raise money with a Thanksgiving theme from early October to late November.  Just be sure to word the appeal appropriately, whether the donation will go to a restricted fund just for holiday meals or goes toward a general fund.

Year-long follow up with supporters

Talbot sees direct mail as an ongoing project. “The other things we’ve done more diligently is to follow up with donors (financial & food) throughout the year. This is my third holiday season with the food bank and the consistency with me coordinating food drives & acting as a food drive point of contact has improved partnership relationships with the various offices and groups.”

This year Bread of the Mighty prepared an annual report for the first time.  They included information about how holiday giving went and the impact it had. “This went out with our 2009 tax receipt letters, which we sent to everyone who gave us finances (no matter how little or how much) during the year. It will also go out with every thank you letter and other reasonably appropriate piece of correspondence until the next one is prepared for April. Time will tell on the effectiveness.”

Capital campaigns fund long term goals

The Wichita Falls Area Food Bank in Wichita Falls, Texas was successful with a capital campaign in 2009. Executive Director Mary Stengel emphasized that the dedication of board members and volunteers early on made a big difference.

“We had a capital campaign chairperson and co-chairs. Each co-chair had 5 captains and each of them had 5 volunteers.  We went to our database and identified donors who gave at least $500 in the last 3 years.  Then each of these teams got a list of people they would call on.”

In addition to one-on-one personal asks, the board and staff looked to foundations for grants. By the time the public phase of the campaign kicked off in October, they already had $660,000 pledged toward the goal of nearly 1 million.

When asked about how they were able to be so successful Stengel replied, “People knew how bad the economy was and the impact the food bank has on the community and the hungry people we serve. People recognize the needs growing from agencies in the 12 counties that we reach. We would never be able to grow or meet the increased need without increased warehouse space.”

Optimism for the future

Working through partner agencies and the national Feeding America network, food banks continue to do great work to serve those in need during economic tough times.  Continuing to build relationships with supporters and demonstrating effectiveness on mission will continue to help them, and other nonprofits, stay funded for years to come.

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.

Maintaining a sufficient amount of donors is vital for a charity organization. Whether it is those who donate separate of an event or those who return year after year to your race, keeping them is a priority.

We want to gain new supporters and initiate more funds, but if we let our veteran supporters slip out of our grasp we’ll never reach our monetary goals.

So how do we keep people loyal to our specific cause and organization?

The 2008 Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA) survey and research conducted by Indiana University professor, Adrian Sargeant found evidence of a few key practices that may lead to maintaining donor loyalty.

At least one part of your efforts to communicate with donors should be customized whether this is a phone call, email or similar method. Organizations that made this a priority saw lower attrition rates than those who didn’t customize.

According to Sargeant, customizing is really the key for retention. Survey respondents reported using calls, texts, emails, newsletters and incorporating more face-to-face interaction such as planning activities and asking for volunteer help as a way to customize their efforts.

Contacting donors three to eight times per year appears to be the magic number range. Charities who maintained this level of contact were able to retain more of their donors as opposed to those who made contact fewer times per year. The information I reviewed didn’t mention anything about the effects of contacting them more.

I gave this some thought considering the organizations to which I most often donate. I like to know what is going on, how funds are used and information about goals reached, but if I don’t get a letter or email that specifically has my name at the top of it I can’t say I’m swayed to stop supporting them.

I support the organizations I believe in because the cause is close to my heart and I know they are a trustworthy entity with standards in line with my own. Then again, compared to some I am certainly not considered a major donor. Everyone likes to be appreciated so perhaps those who give large sums prefer this kind of communication.

What do you think? What have your experiences been either as the charity organization or the donor? Is personalized communication and the number of times per year you give/receive it making a difference?

Here are two articles that have additional reading about the research:

Regular customised communications reduce face-to-face donor attrition at UKFundraising

Personalised communication ‘means lower drop-out rates’ at ThirdSector