“Need a story for that fundraising appeal you haven’t had time to draft? Fear not. Your letter might be done already—and it’s sitting in your mailbox.
Check out the fundraising appeal (below) that the McCall Center for Behavioral Health sent out last week—perhaps pulled straight from their mailbox. The image of the short, handwritten, personal note from their grateful client is a winner.
It’s authentic, eye-catching, emotional, and the note overflows with gratitude to McCall—and, by extension, its donors. Their attached remittance envelope includes options for monthly giving, memorial gifts and one-time gifts.
McCall checks many boxes for readability, too. The jargon-free note is legible and formatted with enough spacing and indents to be easily read. And the font size makes older eyes happy.
A few more tweaks to the text under the letter might have scored even more points for this appeal (e.g., keeping the focus on the people they help rather than “programs and services”). But, this idea is always worth replicating—and the concept is straightforward for time-crunched communicators.
Besides your mailbox, where else can nonprofit communications pros mine for good stories?
- Ask your front-line program staff regularly (remind them that great storytellers are often “proxies”—parents, caregivers, colleagues of people they serve)
- Add a standing “Share your story” page to your website like the one used by Connecticut Food Bank
- Create a “stories” Google doc. Train your colleagues on adding story ideas to it.
- Events hosted by your nonprofit. As you dive into the buffet and mingle with donors, program and community folks, ask them this question: “How did you get involved with [organization]?” You are guaranteed to get at the heart of what touches people about your work.
