Letters, letters, and more letters. Can you just imagine how many letters you write in a year!
You write lots of letters and always wonder: “Is anyone really reading my letters? Am I getting through to people? Is there a better way to write my letters?”
From the fall to year-end you are called upon to write a number of donor letters. Nonprofit year-end appeal letters, congregational stewardship appeal letters, and holiday giving letters, to mention just a few.
In this 2 part series, I’m going to share with you some valuable research about nonprofit donor letter writing that I have found helpful…and yes, has much improved my donor letter writing.
- Make sure there are a lot of ‘you’ and ‘your’ in the copy. If there are too many ‘we’ or ‘I’, you’re not connecting with the letter recipient. Keep it about who you are writing to, always!
- Font size is important. Absolute minimum is 12…and 14 might even be better.
- Story is king – set the stage for your donor to take the spotlight and be the hero.
- You, you, you – circle the word “you” in your letter copy. It should look like swiss cheese. If it doesn’t, go back and rework it.
- Give me an opening that gets me to the next paragraph, give me a next paragraph that gets me further down the letter, and so on.
- Write as a human to a human – we’re personal people who want to be seen; that will never change. No robot sounding copy, please!
- People give to people – not to organizations. People don’t give to us, they give to make a difference in someone else’s life (and be specific about what that difference is so you don’t blend into every other church or organization out there).
These observations will much improve your donor letter writing. More next time!
PS. Vote, vote, vote! It is your privilege and civic duty!
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