3 Essential Ingredients for Every Great Fundraising Appeal

Here are the number one, absolute essentials for writing a hard-hitting successful appeal:

1.  Use I and you words.  Keep it personal. Keep it between you and me. Make it intimate.

2.  Give them detail regarding what exactly you need and exactly how the money will be used.

3.  Show how the money will make an immediate and lasting difference.

OK – an  example:  a ballet company can write and ask for:

1. general support, OR

2. Help us pay our dancers; they make less than $xx/year and can’t even afford xxx.  If we can reach our goal to cover our dancers’ salaries, we’ll be able to (do this, and this and this)  and with more dancers, we can stage the ballets you know and love. Without enough dancers we’ll have  to eliminate dances from our repertoire.

Another example: A community college program helps foster youth when they transition out of the social services program to go on their own:

You can ask for a gift to “fund the foster youth program,” or

• $25k to expand the program, employ another coach/social worker, and bring in an additional 20 kids into the program. These kids are much more 40% likely to become incarcerated or pregnant than others of their age group.  Helping them transition to college gives them a new hope for the future. And they return as coaches to inspire the foster kids currently  in high school who may be thinking about dropping out.

You tell me which type of appeal works!