It’s that time of year again, school is back in session and the holidays are going to be here before you know it! This is the time of year in which development teams across the land start to put their attention to sending out appeals to their members and donors.
Here at Red Sun Press it’s a busy time too. With our emphasis on providing communication solutions to the progressive community through print, design, and outreach, we know what it takes to achieve a successful fundraiser.  Much of this depends on good design, quality printing and targeted mailing, but the content of fundraising letters and newsletters is key.
Red Sun Press not only prints for the progressive community but we also advocate on behalf of our customers and promote their campaigns and causes. Our founding mission of providing a voice for those who advocated peace, equality, and a sustainable world is still going strong almost 40 years after our founding!
In our media saturated world, getting your message out in the most effective way possible is more important than ever. Print is still the most powerful tool for communicating your message. In this age of social media and email overload, the letter is still the most effective way to engage a donor. Tactile and visual, it can sit on your kitchen table or desk, and it can be rediscovered after living in a pile of papers. As a physical presence in your home or office, it has the potential to be more meaningful than an email, tweet, or text.
We regularly print fundraising letters and newsletters for our customers and this is the time of year when most appeals are being prepared. There is always room for improvement in how we reach out to our supporters, sustainers, and members. Does your fundraising letter contain the most effective appeal possible? Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly sighted points about how to craft the best message in your letter.
Even with all the available social media and online methods of communication in the world today, when it comes to raising money, the fundraising letter still proves to be the most reliable method for generating the resources necessary to achieve your mission.  Here are a few tips for writing an effective fundraising letter.

• Personalize the Greeting & Signature – Mail merge with your contact list so that the reader will see their name on the letter. While the reader knows perfectly well that it is not a direct letter just for them, they will feel recognized in a more meaningful way than “Dear Friend”. Sign the letter with an individuals name as opposed to a committee or organization name. Put the emphasis on the reader and refer to them 2-3 times in the letter.
• Get to the Point – Don’t beat around the bush. Get right to your core message  in the beginning of the letter, ask within the first paragraph or two for a donation and tell the reader how important their support is to you. Be passionate about your mission. Have a goal and a very clear message about what you are asking for. People have very short attention spans when it comes to poorly constructed fundraising letters.  Engage them from the start and allow the readers who want more details to get that information as they delve further into your text.
• Use Space – There is nothing worse for a fundraising letter than a page full of text that looks like it will take a lot of effort to get through. Less is more; don’t be afraid to leave big open spaces between paragraphs. Keep the paragraphs short, about 5 lines or less on average and avoid a uniform look. The reader should be able to skim the letter and get the main message.
• Content & Goals – Obviously, the aim of the fundraising letter is to generate a donation. But keep in mind the longer range goals of building a relationship with your supports and making them more informed about your work and message. Even if the reader doesn’t reach for their checkbook, did they learn something or did they become more passionate about the issue at hand?
• Photos – A picture is worth a thousand words. Visuals spark the imagination and communicate your message. Put some effective and powerful images into your letter, similar to an article in newspaper or magazine.
• Underline, Bolded, Italicized – Most readers are only going to skim the letter. So don’t be afraid to draw their attention to your most important points throughout the letter. They will be scanning the page for the parts that are the most important to them. Don’t be afraid to make your points jump out by underlining, bolding, and italicizing portions of the letter.
• Pick the Right Font – Sans serif fonts like Arial are good for headlines but hard for reading. Serif fonts like Times New Roman, Courier, Bembo, or Garamond are easier on the eyes and give the impression of a typed letter, plus the little serifs at the bottom of the letter helps keep the eye moving along the sentence line. For older readers or people with poor eye sight this can be very helpful. Also, as a general rule, do not use more than 2 fonts.
• Big Letters – Do not use anything smaller than a 12 point font. Older readers are typically more inclined to make a donation, be kind to them and make the letters big enough to read. Again, we don’t want to fill up the page with too much information and scare readers away. So bigger fonts are your friend, some people even say go for 14 point.
• P.S. – Use a Post Script in your letter. Studies show that this is the second thing that people look for in a letter; some say it is even the most important thing in the letter! Summarize the message of the letter in your P.S. What are you asking people to do? How much are you asking? Is there a deadline? What is the money going towards?
• Frequency – The good thing about the fact that most people don’t read the entire letter is that you can then send it out several times a year. Each successive letter does not need to be completely different than the previous one. Repeating your story will help the reader internalize the message. You should mail your appeal out about 3-4 times a year. There should be two mailed out between the beginning of September and the end of December.

One thing that we have learned is that it is important to reevaluate the goals, content, and purpose of your letter from year to year. You may be able to change a few things and increase the effectiveness of your appeal to a level that you did not think was in your reach.
Recently one of our customers decided to focus on reexamining the categories that their donors fell into. They created highly customized letters that spoke directly to the recipient, not only in the greeting but in referencing how much they had given previously and what that money help accomplish. The idea is to encourage the reader to build on the support they have previously given. They also made a specific appeal to lapsed donors with a different letter than the letter that was going out to the main group.  By putting the primary emphasis on the donor and the level of their support and making a specific appeal to increase their support, this organization greatly increased the amount of money generated by this mailing.
Is your organization getting ready to send out a fundraising appeal? Let us know what you are working on. We would love the opportunity to work with you to make your appeal as effective as possible.
Contact us today, we are here to help. It’s our mission.
Brian O’Connell
Red Sun Press
617-524-6822 x23
boconnell@redsunpress.com