How to Write a Fundraising Letter to Donors

Your donors need and deserve a different fundraising letter than what you send out to your prospects—a letter that recognizes their past support, emphasizes how that support has helped and urges them to give again for the need that still remains. Though there may be times when a one-page letter is appropriate for your donors, two-page letters almost always get better results. What follows is the basic outline for a two-page fundraising letter to donors that they will read, appreciate and respond to.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Remind the donor of the issue that inspired her to give to your organization in the first place in the first paragraph. State a statistic, ask a question or create a hypothetical situation. You may wish to incorporate all three of these strategies. For example, “How can children in our community do well in school when 1 in 4 of them go to bed hungry at night?" Provide further detail of the problem in another sentence or two.
2. Remind the donor that your organization helps solve the problem you described in the second paragraph. For example, “Thankfully, AAA Food Bank provides food to 20,000 children in our community every single week.” As in Step 1, provide further detail of your organization’s work in another sentence or two.
3. Tell the donor how dependent your organization is on gifts from friends like him, and ask him to give again today in the third paragraph.
4. Write a subhead—a short, one-line statement bolded and centered in the middle of the page, such as “Hungry Children Like Mary Need Your Help.”
5. Fill the rest of page one with the story of someone who your organization has helped. First, share what life was like for them before they received your services. Then, share what life is like for them now. If you do not have enough information on any one person to fill four to six paragraphs, share two or three stories.
6. Write another subhead as in Step 4 at the top of page two of your fundraising letter to donors, asking again for the donor’s help, such as “May We Have Your Continued Support?”
7. Remind the donor of the role that compassionate people like her play in supporting the organization’s mission and history of success in a paragraph or two. Then, introduce a bulleted outline of the specific programs and services that the donor’s gift will support. Close this section with another line or two asking for her help.
8. Write one more subhead, as in Steps 2 and 4, this time focusing on the urgency of the donor’s response, such as “Please Send Your Next Gift Today” or “Time Is Running Out.”
9. Explain why the donor’s immediate response is so important, such as “To meet the needs of hungry children in our community, AAA Food Bank must raise an additional $200,000 over the next 60 days.” Provide further detail of the immediate need in another paragraph or two, closing the letter with one more ask for his help.
10. Summarize the letter in two or three sentences in the P.S. as this is often what is first read, including 1) the problem, 2) how the donor can help and 3) the urgency of her response. For example, “Every dollar of support you send to AAA Food Bank can provide enough food for 5 meals, so if you want to help a hungry child in need of immediate help please send your next gift of support today.”

Tips & Warnings

• Personalize the salutation in your fundraising letter to donors. Whether you use “Dear Mrs. Smith” or “Dear Sally” is up to you. If your list is too long and printing too costly for this much personalization, “Dear Friend” is the ideal alternative.
• Write to your donor in a conversational tone as though you are speaking to him. Read the letter aloud. Anything that is not easy for you to say will be hard for him to read.
• Vary the length of your paragraphs. Most will probably be three or four lines, but one- or two-line paragraphs here and there make the letter look like an easier read. Paragraphs should never run longer than five lines.
• In the interest of privacy, it is advisable to change the name or names of those whose stories you share. Simply tell the donor you have done so with an asterisk at the bottom of the page, such as “Name changed in the interest of privacy.”
• For the reply device, carry the theme of your letter into the copy, such as “Yes, I want to help hungry children in my community. Enclosed is my immediate gift.”
• For the envelope, write an intriguing teaser alongside a graphic or photograph that suggests the theme of the letter, such as a photo of a child with the headline, “She doesn’t know where her next meal is going to come from. Will you help?” You may include this graphic and headline at the top of the letter. Or send a plain envelope, as the donor has given to your organization in the past and simply seeing its logo and name on the return address may be enough to entice her to open it.