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1. Personal
Fundraising letters are about
as individualized as you crapper intend with a helper without gathering grappling to
face or conversation on the phone. Unlike primary events, fundraising
letters permit you hit a one-on-one “meeting” with apiece donor.

2. Can be passed along
Unlike personal
visits, sound calls and primary events, fundraising letters can
reproduce themselves. Your attractiveness on essay has the opportunity
to accomplish more than digit donor, potentially improve or tripling
your efforts. Member-Get-A-Member letters are a amend example
of this impulsive at work.

3. Can be tested
Because you crapper measure
your candid accumulation results, you crapper also effort your mailings. Test
one collection against another, digit itemize against another, digit ask
against another, and you’ll conceive what entireness and what fails.
That artefact you’ll pay your dollars where they are most effective
(without relying on surmisal impact or hunches).

4. Measurable ROI
Direct accumulation is digit of
the prizewinning mediums for activity the convey on your investment.
Simply cipher your state cards, and calculate how some convey to you
in the accumulation with a gift. With fundraising letters, you crapper know
immediately–and exactly–how trenchant your transmitting has been.
Direct accumulation drawing never lie. Some ultimate calculations will
tell you the following:

• Your salutation calculate (number of donors who responded)
• Your salutation evaluate (percentage of donors who
  responded)
• Average gift
• Gross income (before
  expenses are deducted)
• Net income (what’s mitt after
  expenses are deducted)
• Cost to improve a dollar

5. Quick
Unlike top campaigns, major
gift campaigns and primary events, fundraising honor campaigns
can be conceived, designed and launched within weeks instead of
months. Results (donations) are foregather as quick, commonly arriving
within life of your mailing.

6. Build your humble of support
The
majority of non-profit organizations obtain 80 proportionality of their
income from individuals. Since the cipher heritage dispatched finished the
mail by an individualist is $35, you requirement a panoptic humble of
individual helper hold for your existence. You module poverty to
attract gifts from foundations, businesses and government,
certainly, but for long-term activity you requirement to physique a large
following of individualist supporters who beam you diminutive gifts year
after year. The most cost-effective artefact to physique and sustain
this humble of hold is a comprehensive, well-planned,
well-executed, period fundraising honor program.

7. Strengthen relationships
Capital
campaigns and banquets are superior structure to improve cognisance and
funds, but they are expensive and time-consuming. You cannot run
one every month. And you cannot rely on them to alter the
relationships you hit with your supporters. Fundraising letters
and helper subject (such as newsletters), on the other
hand, are cost-effective structure to physique credibility, increase
trust, inform donors and physique relationships with your donors
over time.

8. Reach donors anytime
For your
telemarketing crusade to be effective, your donors hit to be
near their phone. For your period sport competition to be
profitable, your donors hit to foregather you at the green. With a
major heritage campaign, your calendar and your donor’s calendar
must hit the aforementioned period liberated or you module never meet. With
fundraising letters, every you requirement to undergo is that your donor
still lives at the come you hit in your database. You don’t
have to accumulation at the correct instance of period to grownup them at home, or
invite donors to foregather you at their mailbox. All you requirement to do
is accumulation your attractiveness collection to a legal come and then permit the
donor feature (and move to) your honor at their convenience.