Guide · 1 min read
How to write the story of one person in a fundraising letter
A problem only becomes real when the donor meets one person who has it. That is why a fundraising letter should be about one person, not about many and not about the organisation.
One person, not many
Give the problem a human angle. Choose a story about one person we can get to know, and who shows the problem.
It is much harder to turn your back on the suffering of someone you know than on a stranger. That is why the reader has to get to know the main character.
Describe the experience, not the event
When we tell what happened, we abstract the experience away. Describe instead how it feels to the person it concerns, and the reader gets the experience herself. Emotional communication slides into the emotional life without friction.
Start with an earthquake
Tom Ahern, referred to at the DM Lab, turned the headline “Anik, 9, child of tea pickers in Bangladesh” into “Anik, 9, and a tea slave!”. That is a name, an age and a serious matter in a few words.
A story should start with an earthquake and work its way up to a climax.
Turning point and end point
The emotional curve needs a turning point where hope arrives and the solution feels like a natural release. It also needs an end point where the donor knows exactly what she can do.
Make sure nothing lets the air out of the curve before the ask. Then the letter never becomes what it could have been.
Four traps that take focus off the main character
- The focus moves away from the main character.
- The letter uses rational or abstract arguments.
- There is more than one story.
- The organisation takes up too much room.