writing a donations letter to local buisnesses HELP

michellen34

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask for your help in how I put together a letter to local businesses asking for a small donation for a Christmas raffle. We are a small charity and quite new, and have never done this before. Any help would be great as I'm not really sure where to start,

Thank you in advance.

fengirl_2

In my long experience, letters go in the WPB. More effective to ring the managers of the businesses and ask if you can come and talk to them for 10 minutes about the work of your charity. Arm yourself with some simple, strightforward leaflets which state clearly what your aims and objectives are and what the funds raised will be spent on. Expect a low rate of return = there is a lot of competition out there Im afriad.

michellen34

Ok, thanks for your advice and help

Savvy_Sue

One good place to start is the FunderFinder website, you can download two simple programs called Budget Yourselves and Apply Yourselves which help with drawing up simple budgets and give you a template for writing applications. They are in the Free Resources section on the RH side of their home page.

MarsdenCuckoo

michellen34 wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask for your help in how I put together a letter to local businesses asking for a small donation for a Christmas raffle. We are a small charity and quite new, and have never done this before. Any help would be great as I'm not really sure where to start,

Thank you in advance.

Hi michellen,

First of all, do you have a letterhead? If not, jig one up asap with the Charities name, address (could be the charities HQ, where it operates or put a c/o address of one of the officers/treasurer or whoever (presumably you...) is going to be responsible for collating all the donations.

2. Make sure your letter looks as professional as possible (spelled correctly, etc)

3. Include in your letter the purpose of your charity i.e. why you are wanting/needing to raise money

4. Good idea to include in your letter that whilst you appreciate there is a credit crunch and things are difficult all round, you would really be grateful for a contribution - however small - whether that be old but still useable stock (every business has some stuff stashed away somewhere that are not just 100% for putting on their shelves for sale but are good enough to be included in a raffle) or a voucher i.e. 20/40% off (that could mean a new ongoing customer for the retailer and won't actually cost them that much being that they could just be donating something 'profit-free'). A good one is to approach restaurants for a 'meal deal' voucher - ideally a 'meal for two' (chances are the food costs are met by the accompanying wet sales).

Basically, it's all about how to make the most of things that other people have but don't want and/or promote the donor business to help them attract more sales. Once you view it in that light then you'll be surprised how much you'll end up with.

After the event, very important to do another letter to every donor, thanking them for their donation and advising them of how much was raised and what it will be used for.

Hand deliver your letters if possible (saves on postage) and adds a personal touch so it also gives you the opportunity to 'encourage' people to give you something. Flutter your eyelids and smile sweetly. (Also surprising how much that helps too!)

More than happy to help you put a letter together. PM me with further details of your charity, the event and why you're fundraising if you'd like me to help.

Good luck!

Christine

MichH

As someone who works for a company that receives at least 5 charity letters / phone calls per day I would like to say please put on the official charity number if sending a letter. We receive so many letters that look like con letters, even if they aren't, and these are the ones that will not even get looked at.

We dont accept cold calls regardless of who they are from, so a call wouldn't work with us - this is purely as we are a small company that if we accepted every cold call would spend half our day on the phone.

Every charity is deserving, but it is the ones that give a little background that get noticed (as stated by a previous poster) but without being too long. A well written letter with an explanation will get you noticed and not thrown in the bin, also dont send the letter on very thin copier paper.

I know it is not always the case but we always reply to charity letters, even if it is to say no.

Good luck!

Savvy_Sue

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

First of all, do you have a letterhead? If not, jig one up asap with the Charities name, address (could be the charities HQ, where it operates or put a c/o address of one of the officers/treasurer or whoever (presumably you...) is going to be responsible for collating all the donations.

All very good advice, but make sure that you show the charity's registration number in all your correspondence, so make sure that is added to the letterhead! As MichH says, it's a very important piece of information!

Savvy_Sue

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michellen34

Thanks everyone for the great advice, I really appreciate it. Christine, thank you i will pm you soon