10 Tips for Effective Fundraising Letters

by Stephen Hitchcock

1. Write a letter - not an essay

2. Write a letter to just one person - not to "Dear Friends" or "Dear Members"

3. Write a letter that looks like a letter

4. Be friendly and informal

5. Ask for a specific gift ... within a specific time period ... for a specific purpose

6. Always use a P.S.

7. Before you begin writing, be sure you know who's getting this letter -- major donors? loyal donors? regular members? prospects?

8. When writing to donors, praise their generosity and loyalty

9. Organize your letter around one central concept about why the reader should send you a gift today

10. Observe the standards of readability

11. Use "direct mail sentence structure"

12. Remember how direct mail letters are read: signature first, then the P.S. ... then the first paragraph, perhaps indented paragraphs and underlined words - repetition is not redundant

More articles on Copywriting
• 8 steps to writing successful fundraising letters
• Getting started: a copywriter's checklist
• 11 cardinal rules of copywriting (and how to break them)
• How to find an effective writer for your Direct Mail