Breakthrough Fundraising Letters

Your fundraising letters need to be different or you're dead. In no area of their lives do generous, faithful donors settle for vanilla. They don't watch TV reruns all day. They don't read yesterday's news. They don't return to websites that are updated monthly. Today's direct mail donors demand variety. Fail to give them variety and they will fail to give. Prepare for battle. The competition for your donor's attention has never been greater. Blame it on Survivor and American Idol. Blame it on cell phones, iPods, Blackberries, digital TV, satellite radio, junk mail, spam and telemarketers. Blame it on the thousands of other charities competing for your donor's loyalty. But don't blame your donor. Your donor, like everyone else, will only read fundraising letters that are, in a word, breakthrough. And breakthrough fundraising letters are different. Radically different. They aren't addressed to ''Dear Friend.'' They don't have a P.S. They don't have a premium. Breakthrough Fundraising Letters teaches you the proven techniques that professional direct mail fundraising copywriter Alan Sharpe uses to craft breakthrough letters for his clients. You'll learn the mistakes to avoid, the best practices to implement right now, and the tips, techniques and shortcuts that you can use for years to come. Study full-page, full-color examples of fundraising letters written by the author for leading non-profit organizations, including: Daily Bread Food Bank, Doctors Without Borders, Evangelical Tract Distributors, Greenpeace, Habitat for Humanity, Hope for Children Foundation, Metro Health Hospital Foundation, Saskatoon City Hospital, Street Kids International, Teen Challenge Farm. Learn how to write the three most important letters in fundraising (and study samples of each): (1) Donor acquisition letters; (2) Donor renewal letters, (3) Lapsed donor recovery letters. See samples of just about everything you could want to include in a fundraising letter package, including: carrier envelopes, letters, reply devices, reply envelopes, brochures, buckslips, liftnotes, freemiums, premiums, involvement devices and surveys.