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How community and residents’ groups can write a winning fundraising letter when there isn’t much spare cash around (01 Dec 18)
Try to sound like a dedicated bunch of ordinary people who care deeply. Because unless that comes across, you’ve got no hope
We have a couple of students Kara and Sarah who work for us in the summer. They are great as they are very hardworking, have loads of energy and most importantly for me just get on with things.
They are also remarkably good at picking up on what interests and motivates people, which is absolutely crucial to the day to day marketing of our courses.
So when Kara sent me a fundraising letter that she had written for her university squash club I was surprised that it wasn’t that great. Then I suddenly thought, fundraising is actually THE most difficult thing to do.
That’s because the benefit you are selling is not obvious.
You’re not saying, “this will make your life easier, or do some thing better for YOU. It’s all about other people.
It got me thinking about what makes or breaks those hundreds of begging letters that land on donor’s desks everyday.
But it’s not those professionally written letters from charities that we all get that I am thinking of (many of which are not very good actually). It’s those community and residents’ groups who make one off applications to local companies and organisations.
Theirs is one of the trickiest and most difficult funding applications that can be made, as was Kara’s.
Tricky because unlike applications to the national lottery or the major charitable giving trusts no one is obliged to even read your application. And difficult because there are no standard forms to follow and fill in. Instead it’s all down to your ability to put across a convincing case in a letter.
And in today’s frightful economic climate an awful lot of community groups are chasing a decreasing amount of money. So to stand a chance you really have to have your wits about you and you have to use every trick in the book.
But let’s first look at the letter that Kara sent me.
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