Sample Fundraising Letter

This letter is kind of an appeal message which is sent to companies and individuals to ask them to donate money or anything i.e. household products, services by an organization who is working for the deserving people. This organization can be a profit or non-profit firm and in second scenario it may requires the people of community to donate their time too for the working of the organization as it can’t pay its employees and everyone has to work for free. Fundraising or donation letter is kind of a personal letter which is sent to businesses and individual addressed persons. In this letter the organization introduces itself, gives a short motivational speech and explains the goals and strategies of the firm. After that it describes a scenario for which the donation is required and at the end asks for an amount of money which the reader can afford. Sometimes it’s the only thing the organization wants is the money but there are some situations in which the people are welcome to donate almost anything, clothes, utensils, grocery items and household appliances. Some of these organizations send letters and go door to door and ask for some donation and the others arrange a fundraising event in which all the members from the community are welcomed and asked to donate money or items which will be later auctioned to raise the money.

Social welfare organizations and welfare foundations send the fundraising letters when there are needy people out there somewhere in the world. This type of funds can be collected to buy new clothes for the children in Somalia or to help the victims of flood or earthquake in Japan or China. This money can also be used to provide shelter to the local homeless persons and families. Although trusts and foundations usually use this letter and ask for the donation but that’s not it, when a company is going to be bankrupt and it doesn’t have any money, the administrations arranges a fundraising event in which all the employees and general public is invited to donate some money to save the company. Some of the companies offer shares in the company in return of a huge donation and some of them offer something else like an asset of the company i.e. equipment or piece of property as a thank you gift.

These types of letters are very tricky and it takes a very professional and experienced person to write a fundraising letter. you should keep this in mind while writing this letter that you are actually asking people for money and convincing someone to do this type of thing is not a piece of cake. You have to create a letter which presents the real picture of the needy people and the previous contributions of your foundation in these types of situations so that the reader trusts you with his or her money. Here are some important factors that you should keep in your mind before writing this letter:

General guidelines to write a fundraising letter:

Don’t forget to give the reader and opportunity to feel an emotional bond with the needy people and this will make it easy for them to decide to donate the money immediately.
You have to address the individual to make him realize that this is not a common drafted letter and the organization actually sent him this request. This will make him think that he has an actual place in the society and the organizations think that he can make a difference.
You should present a picture of the needy people and the consequences of leaving them in their hard times. This way the reader will feel an attachment with those people and think twice before rejecting the request.
Although it’s not possible to know every person in the city but if it’s a small community, you should do some research on every big fish and then send them the fundraising letter. This way when you ask them for donation and remind them about their previous social contributions and donations, you make them realize that the society has remembered their services and appreciate their involvement in this type of matters.
In case your foundation is not that famous or well known in the society, you should provide the reader with a list of previous donors who donated for your organization which makes you a solid and real organization and the reader can trust you with his money.
Always present a number of ways to donate the money such as cash, check, security bond or the facility to donate something other than the money i.e. food items, clothes etc.

Here is preview of this Free Sample Fundraising Letter created using MS Word,