Sample Fundraising Letter

This letter is kind of an appealing message that is sent to companies and individuals to ask them to donate money or anything i.e. household products, or services by an organization that is working for the deserving people. This organization can be a profit or non-profit firm and in the second scenario it may requires the people of the community to donate their time too for the work of the organization as it can’t pay its employees and everyone has to work for free. A fundraising or donation letter is a personal letter sent to businesses and individually 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 that 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 donations 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.

Fundraising Letter for Social Welfare:

Social welfare organizations and welfare foundations send fundraising letters when there are needy people out there somewhere in the world. These funds can be used to buy new clothes for children in Somalia or to help the victims of floods or earthquakes 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 donations that’s not it, when a company is going bankrupt and doesn’t have any money, the administration arranges a fundraising event in which all the employees and the general public are 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 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 for Writing a Fundraising Letter:

Don’t forget to give the reader an 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 commonly drafted letter and that the organization actually sent him this request. This will make him think that he has an actual place in 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 society, you should provide the reader with a list of previous donors who donated to 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 a preview of this Free Sample Fundraising Letter created using MS Word,