How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters (rev. ed.)

Citation

Burchard, S.S. (2002), "How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters (rev. ed.)", The Bottom Line, Vol. 15 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.2002.17015aae.003

How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters (rev. ed.)

How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters (rev. ed.)

Warwick, M.2001Jossey-BassSan Francisco, CAKeywords: Fund-raising, Grants

There it is. The e-mail you have been waiting for. Your director has approved that digitization project you have been pushing, but you will have to arrange the fund-raising effort. Now the ball is in your court, and you have never asked anyone for a dime. Where do you start?

Mal Warwick's book, How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters, is a great starting point. Warwick has over four decades of experience in the not-for-profit sector and, through his firm, Mal Warwick & Association, offers a wide range of fund-raising services including direct mail fund-raising. In his aptly sub-titled "Why you should read this book" introduction, Warwick sets the no-nonsense tone of the book and states exactly what he intends to write about "…the effective use of written English in the pursuit of charitable gifts". With his scope set, he organizes the book into four logical parts:

• •

  "Motivating your audience", Part 1.

• •

  "The letter writer's plan of action", Part 2.

• •

  "Customizing your appeal", Part 3.

• •

  "The letter writer's toolbox", Part 4.

Part 1 of the book consists of five chapters, setting the stage for what you are about to write. Warwick gives you basic insight as to why and when people give. He summarizes the research of direct marketing professor Siegfried Vogele, by comparing an in-person gift appeal with that of a well-crafted direct-mail gift appeal and illustrating how a direct mail campaign can bring the same or even better result than a personal appeal. After convincing you that a direct-mail campaign can be successful, Warwick gives a real-world example of how a campaign can be improved through the use of a focus group of likely contributors and then moves into the key elements of an effective fund-raising letter. Finally, Part 1 ends with a quick walk-through of a successful appeal pointing out all of the key elements. At the end of Part 1, the reader is well aware of why and when people give, what is key to a successful letter, and why a successful letter must be part of a well thought-out package.

In Part 2, we move into how to start writing our own fund-raising letter. This section lays out the "nuts and bolts" of how to approach the letter-writing process. It addresses the intellectual effort that should happen before we sit down to write and reaffirms the idea that a fund-raising letter is really an entire package and should be thought of as such. We are then taken on an eight-step journey to the creation of our fund-raising package. After assembling our "letter", Warwick has us examine our product in terms of his "cardinal rules of fund-raising letters" and culminates with a worksheet to be used in rating your product. This part ends with a reminder that we are writing to get results, not to win an award, and recommends we read some writing standards such as Rudolf Flesch's Rules of Effective Writing.

Now that we have written a successful fund-raising letter, in Part 3 we are shown through a wealth of examples of how to tailor our letters to specific types of appeals. From the start, we are told that only the eight most common types of appeals will be addressed, with an entire chapter dedicated to each. In these chapters, we are given insight into the unique aspects of each type of appeal with real-world examples.

Finally, the book ends with Part 4, which functions like an appendix and reference tool. It is meant to be used as needed to assist your efforts in completing single aspects of your letter. If you are working on the envelope, you will find 60 examples of successful teasers. If you are not sure of the best way to end your letter, there are "Forty-one powerful ways to end a fundraising letter". In the end, the author realizes he may not have answered all your questions and provides a list of other books he suggests may help you.

After reading this book, I feel I could design a successful fund-raising letter. I understand where to start and how to get to a finished product. The author's approach to the topic made me feel that writing a fund-raising letter was not rocket science, but it was more than a canned formula. I would need to put careful thought into what I was doing and then analyze the end product. Based on the focused nature of the book and how-to format, I would recommend it to anyone that was new to the process of fund-raising letter writing.

Shannon S. BurchardTechnical Services Librarian, Zief Law Library, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA