How to Write a Fundraising Letter to Prospects

The only way you are going to persuade someone to support your organization is by effectively illustrating how your programs and services solve a problem. That’s hard to do in just one page, which is why two-page fundraising letters typically get a better response. Try this outline for a fundraising letter to prospects that has a proven rate of success.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Introduce the prospect to the problem that your organization helps solve in the first paragraph. For example, “More than 200,000 families in our community are food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal is going to come from.” Provide further detail of this problem in another sentence or two.
2. Tell the prospect about your organization’s role in providing for the need you just described in the second paragraph. For example, “Thankfully, AAA Food Bank exists, a non-profit organization that has been providing emergency food assistance to hungry families in our community for more than 20 years.” As in Step 1, provide further detail of your organization’s work in another sentence or two.
3. Tell the prospect about the ongoing challenges that your organization faces in raising the necessary resources to meet the need in the third paragraph. For example, “Though we are the largest provider of emergency food assistance in our community, the need still far exceeds our resources.” Again, provide further detail of the challenge in another sentence or two.
4. Recognize the prospect as the ideal person to help in the fourth paragraph. For example, “You are among a select group of generous, compassionate community members who have an opportunity to help. Will you please send a gift to AAA Food Bank today?”
5. Write a subhead—a short, one-line statement bolded and centered in the middle of the page, such as “Struggling Families In Our Community Need Your Help.”
6. Quantify the need among the recipients of your services by introducing a bulleted list of three to five facts or statistics that illustrate the problem. Close the page with another appeal for the prospect’s help.
7. Write another subhead as in Step 5, such as “Your Gift Helps a Family Like the Smiths” at the top of page two.
8. Introduce your prospect to one of the recipients of your services. Tell their story from beginning to end-—what they needed and how your organization helped. Ideally, you should be able to tell this story in four to six paragraphs. If you do not have enough information on any one recipient of services to fill four to six paragraphs, share two or three stories.
9. Write another subhead, this time asking the prospect to act immediately. For example, “Hungry Families Cannot Wait For Help.”
10. Ask the prospect to send a gift of support with the enclosed reply card today, telling her about all the programs and services that her gift will support. You may list them in bulleted or paragraph form.
11. Quantify the impact of the prospect’s gift. For example, “Your gift of just $25 will provide enough food for 100 meals. That means $50 provides enough food for 200 meals and $100 provides enough food for 400 meals.”
12. Summarize your letter in the P.S. as it may be the first thing your prospect reads, including 1) the problem, 2) how the prospect can help and 3) the urgency of her response.

Tips & Warnings

• For the salutation in your fundraising letter to prospects, “Dear Friend” or “Dear Community Member” are ideal unless, of course, you are able to personalize each letter with the prospect’s name.
• Write to your prospect as though you are having a conversation with him. As you write the letter, read it aloud. If anything is hard for you to say, it is probably going to be hard for him to read.
• It’s important to vary the length of your paragraphs, some three or four lines, others just one or two. None should run longer than five lines.
• Since many prospects will only skim your letter, underline or bold the most important points.
• For the sake of privacy, be sure to change the name or names of the people used in your stories. Indicate this name change with one line at the bottom of the front page, such as, “Name changed in the interest of privacy.”
• On the reply device, remind the prospect of what you have asked of her in the letter. For example, “Yes, I want to help local families in need of emergency food assistance. Enclosed is my immediate gift.”
• Entice your prospect to open your letter by using an intriguing teaser and graphic on the carrier envelope, which you may also include at the top of the letter, such as a photograph of a family with the caption, “The Smiths do not know where their next meal is going to come from. Will you help?”