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Fundraising Letters: Where To Find Creative Ideas For Your
Appeals
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By Alan Sharpe
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How do you make your fundraising letters creative and fresh yearafter year when your needs don't change all that much? I am nottalking about new initiatives. I'm talking about the programsthat you run year after year. The membership drive that you runyear after year. The funds that you must raise to coveradministrative expenses and salaries year after year. How canyou request funds for these things over time without boring yourdonors into apathy? Learn a lesson from Jack Foster.
Jack Foster spent 35 years working in creative departments ofadvertising agencies in the United States. One of his challengeswas doing the advertising for Smokey Bear. Here's how hedescribes his predicament:
"The first thing the writers and art directors had to do everyyear was come up with a basic poster.
"The rules for the poster never varied: It had to be a certainshape and size; it had to feature Smokey; it had to be simpleenough to grasp at a glance, clear enough for even a dunce tounderstand, and (if it had words) brief enough to be read inthree or four seconds.
"The mission of the poster never varied either: It had toconvince people to be careful with fire.
"In other words, every year we had to come up with the samething only different.
"And we did. Indeed, every year we came up with 20 of 30different ideas for posters. Every year. For over 20 years. Over500 posters, all featuring Smokey and all trying to do the samething and not a one of them the same."
I faced similar challenges when I worked at advertising agenciesas a copywriter, and as a freelance copywriter for directresponse agencies that create fundraising letters forinternational non-profits. The work was tough, but I discoveredthat writers and art directors could indeed create originalfundraising appeals year after year for the same clients whoneeded money for the same things.
Here are some lessons I learned along the way, tips that willhelp you present your case for support to your donors increative ways over time. The secret is knowing where to look forideas. Here's where I look.
Challenges in the field
One place to lookfor original ideas is the field. If your charity is involvedwith child welfare, then your "field" may be the homes of yourfoster parents. If you are a small but internationalhumanitarian organization, then the "field" for you is the townsand villages where you operate overseas. As you sit down tocreate a brand new appeal letter, look to your field and askyourself what challenges you are facing. These challenges canoften be translated into a compelling ask. Let me give you anexample.
Doctors Without Borders is an international aid organizationthat sends volunteer doctors and nurses to places where nomedical infrastructure exists, usually because of war or naturaldisasters. Since they never know where the next tsunami or civilwar will strike, they need to have sufficient funds on hand atall times so they can respond quickly to a humanitarian crisisanywhere in the world. This means their fundraising letters mustask for funds for no particular emergency, but for emergenciesin general. A tough challenge.
Doctors Without Borders has met this challenge year after yearin creative ways. Here is just one. They realized that theyoften sent their volunteers into emergency situations that werecreated by water. Either there was a flood or there was adrought. Either there was too much water or not enough. In abrilliant move, Doctors Without Borders crafted an originalfundraising package that presented this global need. They toldtheir story in such a way that the need was obviously great,though not necessarily looming.
Donors who received the appeal understood that Doctors WithoutBorders needed funds on hand to meet the challenge of floods ordroughts at anytime. But they also understood that their gift tothe organization might be used to help victims of a choleraepidemic, or people displaced by a civil war. By looking to achallenge faced in the field, Doctors Without Borders created amemorable fundraising letter campaign that did nothing more thanraise money for their general fund in a novel way.
Your frontline staff
Another source ofcreative ideas for fundraising letters is your staff,particularly those at the front lines of your ministry. The menand women who carry out your work face to face with the publichave dozens of stories to tell about the needs that yourorganization meets and the people it helps. Many of these needscan be translated into an appeal, not for a special project, buta request for general funds to meet a given need. Here's anexample.
In talking with the staff of a ministry that works with inmatesin Canada's prisons, I discovered that most inmates have aproblem with anger. Their tempers often land them in prison.And, while inside, they grow even more angry. As you canimagine, a compelling theme for an appeal letter would be inmateanger, and how a donor's gift supplies the funds that thisprison ministry needs to help inmates conquer their anger andlead productive lives upon release.
Milestones
Is your organizationcelebrating a 10th or 100th anniversary? Then you have theingredients for a compelling appeal, provided you link pastsuccesses with your plans for the coming months and years. Haveyou just served your millionth meal? Or planted 500,000 trees asof this week? Translate your milestones into compelling proofthat your organization needs your donors' continued support,then put your proof on paper in the form of a persuasivefundraising package theme and mail it.
Recent successes
Similar to milestonesare recent successes. One organization I wrote for won the NobelPeace Prize. That became a theme for one mailing. Anotherorganization I know of retired their debt early, and announcedthe fact with an appeal for funds.
The key to keeping your fundraising letters engaging and a joyto read with each passing year is to present your work in newways. As Foster put it, "to come up with the same thing onlydifferent." And the best places to look for those creative ideasare your clients, volunteers and staff, and the challenges theyface each day in carrying out your mission.
??2005?Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online andin print provided the links remain live and the content remainsunaltered (including the "About the author" message).
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