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You are here: Home > Business > Marketing Direct > Effective Fundraising Letters Are About People, Not Projects (Includes Samples & Examples) |
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Main Subject - Effective Fundraising Letters Are About People, Not Projects (Includes Samples & Examples)
Have you ever met a donor who liked funding infrastructure? I have. Once. When I served as Director of Development for a national non-profit, my organization needed a new heating and ventilation system for the national office. The cost was around $75,000, as I recall. The executive directo According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product r approached one of our major donors, a businessman who was also a faithful supporter, and asked if he would like to partner with us. The donor promptly wrote a cheque for the full amount. Later on, that same donor made a commitment to pay for the parking lot to be re-paved, a renovation th ; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug. Examples of combination products may in t would cost over $25,000. That donor was the exception. Most donors do not get excited about paying for sheet metal ducts or fresh asphalt. Donors give to people, not programs. Donors don’t send donations by mail to support a mission statement. They don’t respond to appeals because of you lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together. vision statement. Or simply because your general fund is depleted. And they are not (with rare exceptions) inspired to pay for electrical bills, staples, travel costs and plumbing repairs. Donors are people. And people give to people, usually to help people. This basic fundraising truth m here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe eans that you must state your organizational needs in human terms whenever possible. You must translate your case for support from non-profit-speak into flesh and blood. Donors want to know how their gift will help the people that you serve. This fundraising truth still applies even if you d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations. Combination pro do not serve people. If your non-profit promotes nuclear arms disarmament, for example, your donors want to know how their gift will end nuclear weapons testing. If you are an animal-rights charity, your donors want to know how their financial gift will rescue animals from laboratory experi ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc ents. How to say “people,” not “programs” If you are raising funds for a specific project that aims to help a particular people group (children, seniors, single mothers, children with cerebral palsy), then your job is straightforward. Ask yourself these questions: 1. What is my cl easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi ient’s need? 2. What do we presently lack to meet that need? 3. How will my client benefit if we meet that need? Here is an example. Imagine that your non-profit organization in South Africa runs an orphanage for children whose parents have died from AIDS. The children are suffer nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically ng from dysentery because the local water supply is contaminated. Your solution is to drill a well. You need $50,000. You could send an appeal letter to your supporters, asking for $50,000. Mistake. You could send an appeal letter to your supporters, asking for $50,000 for a new well. Ano and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ her mistake.
Remember, people give to people to help people. Your donors want to help orphans, not drill a well. Drilling the well will help the orphans, but your ask needs to concentrate on the orphans. Here’s how you would answer the above three questions. Q. What is my client’s need? ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi >
A. To avoid deadly dysentery. Q. What do we presently lack to meet that need? A. A well that supplies fresh water. Q. How will my clients benefit if we meet that need? A. Live rather than die an excruciating death. Continue enjoying the benefits of full-time schooling. Continue t ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it. Following aspects would a o reach their potential physically, socially and emotionally. Avoid many medical complications later in life. Be productive members of society in a few years. Be able to help others. You get the idea. Your job now is to ask for funds to drill the well so that the children will benefit in t dd to the challenges in developing combination products: Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well? Which combination prod ose ways listed. Don’t just ask for money for a well. That’s just a project. Don’t show a photo of the well in its packing crate. Show how the donor’s gift will help the children you serve. That’s the people. What about the “general fund” ask? The greatest challenge in this area is cts are meaningful and rational? Which therapeutic categories to select? Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients? Do combin when you are requesting funds for your general fund and not for a tangible project, when you cannot describe any specific benefits that are tied to a particular initiative. In these cases, you still need to describe your need in human terms, and you do this by showing your donors the view f tions increase the patient compliance? What would be the developing cost? How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen rom 10,000 feet instead of 10 feet.. Let’s say you need to raise money by mail for your general fund, to pay for salaries, administration, office supplies, postage--all the things that are needed to run a non-profit. The view from 10 feet says you need to raise $20,000 this quarter to meet t? As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel general fund expenses or you’re in trouble with your board. But the view from 10,000 feet says you need to raise $20,000 to continue meeting the needs of the people you serve. So instead of saying this: “Please donate to our general fund." You say this: ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality. Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust te>“Please send a gift today to our ‘Sequoia Sender’s Fund.’ From this fund we draw the monies needed to promote our service to environmentalists at large, train teams, send them overseas, and handle all the tasks involved in getting those volunteers onto the field and back again in a way t y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products hat promotes responsible forestry practices, encourages and equips local activists, and blesses the volunteer who goes.” See the difference? The fund is no longer a general fun but a fund set aside to accomplish the goals of the organization. It serves the same purpose, it jus . As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de has a more compelling name. This ask is worded in such a way that it covers every office expense from paper to payroll, yet in a way likely to inspire and motivate donors. Your role as a writer of effective fundraising letters is to always be looking for the human interest story that lies elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements. Companies that provide selfless information through particip beneath your immediate financial needs. Capture that, and you’ll capture the hearts and minds of your donors. © 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "About the author" message) tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products
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