How To Write Successful Fundraising Letters

You'll learn all the essential components of writing for success from this go-to book for writing for fundraising! Mal Warwick, the nation's premier letter-writing tutor and direct mail expert, shows you the essential tools for making your direct marketing program a success. He gives you both general advice about the most effective direct mail strategies and specific guidance. Learn his step-by-step model through all the critical stages -from laying the groundwork for a prosperous campaign through the importance of thanking donors. Includes new chapters on E-mail solicitations, monthly and legacy giving and free downloads on josseybass.com. Refreshed and Revised: Gain insight into current trends in the field with updated cases, samples, and examples Access more content for small to medium NPOs with limited budgets and resources Learn the latest technology with new sections on typography and lay out

With more than 1.4 million nonprofit organizations in operation in the United States and an estimated 100 million fundraising letters mailed out each year, you may find yourself wondering how you can separate yourself from the hordes of nonprofits clamoring for donations. If you employ the techniques provided in The Complete Guide to Writing Successful Fundraising Letters for Nonprofit Organizations, you will ensure that your letter stands out and achieves its goal. In this new, exhaustively researched book, you will learn everything you need to know about formatting a letter, using the word you, structuring a letter, emotional triggers, what works, what does not work, asking for year-end contributions, asking for the right amount, and common pitfalls to avoid. You will learn about follow-up letters, thank you letters, front-end premium letters, back-end premium letters, survey letters, special event letters, petition and protest letters, special appeal letters, renewal series letters, major donor letters, sustainer letters, and lapsed donor letters, as well as letters for recruiting new donors. Additionally, you will learn how to generate the best response, how to phrase your appeals, how to address your letter, how to write strong leads, how to open and close your letters, how to structure your letter, how to use compelling stories to your advantage, how to be personal, how to write with a sense of urgency, and hundreds of other writing tips. The Complete Guide to Writing Successful Fundraising Letters for Nonprofit Organizations provides you with a wealth of sample letters, examples, writing exercises, and forms all of which are included on the companion CD-ROM as well as detailed advice and instructive case studies. By reading this book, you will come to understand your donor and his attitudes. You will ultimately create a successful fundraising campaign and achieve your organization s goals. Whether you are a nonprofit focused on the arts, charities, wildlife protection, religion, health, science, literature, or any other field, you will find valuable information in this book. The companion CD-ROM is included with the print version of this book; however is not available for download with the electronic version. It may be obtained separately by contacting Atlantic Publishing Group at [email protected] Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president's garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.

How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals Now in a completely revised third edition, this classic book shows how to create winning appeals that will realize the full potential of direct mail and online fundraising. Written by fundraising guru Mal Warwick, with assistance from Eric Overman, this comprehensive resource gives nonprofit fundraising staff the information needed to write compelling fundraising appeals for any medium. If you follow Warwick’s guidelines, your direct mail and online fundraising campaigns will produce better results, year after year. Written in an easy-to-read style, the book is filled with practical techniques, proven approaches, and illustrative examples of both successful and unsuccessful appeals based on the authors’ wealth of experience fundraising for hundreds of nonprofits. Step-by-step and appeal by appeal, the book shows how to navigate the fundraising appeal process with ease. To meet the demands of today’s socially connected donors, this new edition explains how to mesh today’s online technologies with direct mail to produce optimal fundraising results. You’ll learn how to use e-mail, websites, Facebook, Twitter, and mobile technology to recruit more donors and raise more money. The book includes current research on timely topics such as online vs. offline behavior, online giving statistics, demographics, and best practices in integrated fundraising. If you’re a nonprofit professional eager to master the latest methods in fundraising, or simply need to write direct mail appeals for your organization, How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals will help you hone your skills and create appeals that will hit the mark every time.

"The Storytelling Non-Profit is a portable consultant for fundraisers, communicators and executive directors who want to tell great stories. In this book, professionals will learn a process for telling a story that inspires and resonates with a target audience."--Back cover.

The Warick Fundraising set includes three titles, Revolution in the Mailbox: Your Guide to Successful Direct Mail Fundraising, Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3: Raise More Money with Direct Mail Tests, How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters Revolution in the Mailbox is an update of the most comprehensive survey of direct mail fundraising in the public interest. Fully illustrated and easy to read, packed with down-to-earth examples, it is an indispensable guide to direct mail fundraising for a nonprofit organization's staff, board members and donors. In Testing, Testing, 1,2,3 direct mail expert Mal Warwick shows how the cumulative value of thoughtful, systematic testing can't be over-estimated. Warwick's reader-friendly guide walks fundraisers through the scientific process of discovering the perfect combination of offer, package and postage. He explains how fundraisers often need several attempts, and months or years of step-by-step refinements, to produce a prospecting package that will build a large, responsive donor file. Writing letters of appeal can be confusing and laborious. How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters, a guide from the nation's premier letter-writing tutor-direct mail expert Mal Warwick-shows fundraisers what makes the best letters work. Warwick keeps fundraisers on track when he reminds them: "You're writing for results-Not a Pulitzer Prize." How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters provides both general advice about the most effective direct mail strategies and specific guidance for readers interested in the details of a direct mail campaign.

Praise for Fired-Up Fundraising: Turn Board Passion into Action "Fired-Up Fundraising is honest, realistic, practical, and inspiring. It transforms the whole concept of fundraising from obligation and drudgery into passion and fun. Every CEO, development director, development consultant, and board chair needs to have and use this book." —Charles F. (Chic) Dambach President and CEO, Alliance for Peacebuilding Former Senior Consultant, BoardSource "A breakthrough! Fired-Up Fundraising takes the mystery out of engaging your board in the ongoing work of fundraising. In this well-organized little book, Gail Perry lays out a commonsense, four-step process that will fire up your board and help you meet your fundraising goals, year after year." —Mal Warwick author of How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters "Fired-Up Fundraising: Turn Board Passion into Action is by far the best book I have ever read on how to involve board members in the entire process of fundraising, from identifying prospects, cultivating them, and finally making 'the ask.' Just as important, it is an invaluable guide on how to select, enlist, train and especially inspire board members so they take ownership of their institutions. Every nonprofit CEO and development officer should read this book." —Robert L. Gale President Emeritus, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and founder of BoardSource (formerly known as the National Center for Nonprofit Boards) "This is the book for which EVERY nonprofit chief executive has been yearning since time immemorial. Every nonprofit needs money to survive and thrive, and every nonprofit has a board of trustees to help raise it, but few nonprofits come anywhere near using their boards to maximum benefit. Fired-Up Fundraising, a reader-friendly, realistic, and practical playbook written by a richly experienced, highly literate fundraiser turned consultant, takes readers by the hand and leads them step-by-step through eminently doable ways of inspiring the greatest possible engagement of-and return from-their trustees. It will instantly become the gold-standard guide for building successful boards." —Joel Fleishman Professor of Law and Public Policy and Director, The Foundation Research Program, Duke University

Writing to raise money takes more than a few choice words. Highly profitable communications use a wide array of "trade secrets" to boost response. Things like emotional triggers, a working knowledge of reader psychology, the discovery of eye motion studies, and donor research ? all help writing pros reap big rewards from their appeal letters, newsletters, websites, case statements, and more.Now these trade secrets are yours, collected in one easy-to-understand volume: How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money ? The Art, the Science, the Secrets. Author Tom Ahern is recognized as one of North America's leading experts on effective communications. His workshops are in hot demand. Last year he released a first-of-its-kind book on moneymaking donor newsletters.Now, in his new book, Ahern reveals all: how top fundraising writers inspire their prospects to make that first gift ? and how they keep existing donors loyal and generous.Raising more money through words, via the printed page or online, is no accident. But anyone can do it well: you don?t need special writing talent. All you need is this essential guide to best practices in the fundraising industry.