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Write Fundraising Letter Overlines That Donors Can't Resist
(Includes Samples &
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By Alan Sharpe
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Write Fundraising Letter Overlines That Donors Can't Resist
The headline that appears over the salutation in a fundraisingletter is known as the overline. Overlines have one goal: topersuade your donor to read your letter.
According to direct mail copywriter and author Hershell GordonLewis, the best kind of overline to use in a one-to-one piece ofcommunication like a fundraising letter is a hand-writtenoverline, one that looks like a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm.Hand-written overlines, says Lewis, should not look "produced."I agree.
Your goal, then, if you decide to use an overline, is to work upmore enthusiasm in your readers than your letter can generatewithout the overline. Here are some guidelines to follow.
Don't give too much away
The goal of youroverline, like the goal of your envelope teaser copy, is toarrest attention and arouse curiosity. The quickest way todepress enthusiasm in your readers is to ask them for a giftright up front in your overline. Or to say that you will beasking them for a gift later on in the letter. Don't give toomuch away.
So instead of writing this:
Your gift today will help us stop gunviolence.
Write this:
How do you keep a pistol out of the hands of a 12year old?
Make the reader want to continue reading
You want to intrigue your reader, tease your reader into readingyour opening sentence, then your second sentence, right onthrough to the end. So your overline, if you choose to use one,should set up a predicament, or pose a question, or suggest aparadox, or in another creative way compel the donor to read on.
Think about signing the overline
Ahandwritten overline is a little like a P.S. It serves as anafterthought, a spontaneous thought that the writer had justbefore dropping the letter in the mail. One way to emphasize theone-to-one tone of a fundraising letter is to have the personwho signs the letter also sign the overline with his or herinitials. Your overline would look like this (handwritten, ofcourse):
Please be sure to read the important update I'veenclosed. A.J.S.
Consider a 3M Post-it Note
Recentadvances in printing and mailing machines let you attach ayellow Post-it Note to the top of your letters. To make thesenotes even more powerful, write them in the same color ink thatyou use for your signature, and address them to each donor byname.
Tie your overline into your envelope teasercopy
One way to use overlines is to make themanswer a question or riddle that you created on your mailingenvelope. But be careful here. Your letterhead overline isreally the beginning of your letter and not the conclusion ofyour outer envelope teaser copy.
Your overline must work on its own after the envelope isdiscarded. Your readers, once they have read your outer envelopeteaser copy, opened your envelope and started reading yourletter, will not likely read your outer envelope teaser copyagain. If they pick up your letter a week from now and startreading, they will not return to the outer envelope teaser copyand start reading there.
For this reason, your outer envelope teaser copy and your letteroverline copy must work on their own as two grammaticalthoughts. When your outer envelope teaser copy ends withellipses, for example, your letterhead overline must begin witha capital letter, even though the overline may be completing thethought that you started on the outer envelope. Make each letteroverline a complete thought on its own, one that begins with acapital letter.
? 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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