Simply obtained an attention-grabbing piece of junk mail fundraising, and I wish to present you some issues about it. Essential truth about it:
- It’s from Covenant Home. That is the group that some years in the past had the legendary junk mail pack that included a small paperback e book crammed with highly effective tales of homeless children.
- It’s donor acquisition; I’ve not donated to them earlier than.
- It might be a management: I feel I keep in mind receiving it earlier than.
It’s an attention-grabbing pack, with lots happening in it. I’m simply going to focus right here on using storytelling within the letter.
It’s a four-page letter. It opens with a narrative:
It was simply after darkish, and I had gathered with our youngsters, our donors, our employees, and my household on the shelter. We shaped a circle to mark the evening collectively in prayer and thanksgiving for each other and the reward of God’s love on the planet.
And the story goes a full three pages. All in italics. The story ends on the primary line of web page 4.
That’s when it lastly begins addressing the reader and stops being in italics. The one handle to the reader earlier than that’s half-way down the primary web page, within the fifth paragraph:
I pray this story, an embodiment of the spirit of what Covenant Home can do, strikes you to be part of blessing our youth this winter.
An oblique ask.
The final three paragraphs are a extra typical ask:
Please … will you assist us present shelter and like to the droves of homeless children who will come to our Covenant Home disaster shelters this Christmas? Your Christmas reward at present — no matter you possibly can afford — will give children like Jeremiah meals, counseling, drugs, and a protected place to sleep away from the damaging streets. However most of all, you’ll be giving them the love and dignity each little one deserves. Please assist should you can! We merely can’t take care of the hundreds of youngsters who will come to us this Christmas with out the assistance of excellent individuals such as you…
The P.S. is nearly an entire attraction by itself:
P.S. Tonight, greater than 2,400 hungry, scared, and all-alone children will sleep in our shelters. We’re seeing extra children in disaster than ever and will actually use your assist at present. There’s no different technique to say it — the necessity is pressing. Please assist our youngsters this Christmas. Your reward shall be put to rapid use to supply much-needed protected beds, wholesome meals, instructional help, counseling, job coaching, and extra for our youngsters. Thanks once more for doing what you possibly can and for believing with us that each younger individual deserves a protected place to sleep, particularly at Christmas.
This letter does various issues I typically don’t suggest in fundraising:
- It opens with the story. (Although I’d say this story earns that method.)
- It’s a quasi-complete story — a few child who is available in for assist who finally ends up donating all he has to assist different children. We don’t study if he broke free from homelessness or not. However he’s clearly higher off on the finish of the story than at the beginning.
- It goes almost three full pages with out addressing the reader. For those who did the I/you pronoun depend, it wouldn’t look good! (When it does speak to the donor on the finish in within the P.S., it does an excellent job of it.)
But when it’s a management as I believe it’s, which means it’s working.
This tells us two issues:
- Tales are very highly effective in fundraising. So highly effective that in some circumstances they’ll overcome the “guidelines” we attempt to comply with.
- Even with a tremendous story, you continue to must do a bunch of different issues proper to succeed!
For those who’d wish to learn the total letter, you possibly can obtain a scan right here.
Extra on Storytelling for Fundraisers.
