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This direct mail appeal, from Cancer Support Community at Gilda’s Club, shares the deeply personal story of one family, the mother’s diagnosis with cancer, how it affected the family, and how they found help through Cancer Support Community. The callouts, family photo, and children’s artwork add to the appeal. And it draws it all nicely back to you, the donor, and the support you’re providing.
Beth Starrantino, Development Director, writes: “Back in the spring, we were considering adding a paddle raise to our annual Gala and wanted to share a moving story about our programs and their benefits from one of our participants. Our children’s program coordinator recommended Matt and Jenny, and they graciously wrote up their story to share with us.
We ultimately decided to go a different direction with the paddle raise, but I was so moved by Matt and Jenny’s story that I asked for permission to use it in our year-end appeal efforts. We went through several rounds of drafts as I took the narrative they’d created in their own words, reformatted it into an appeal with actual asks, and then worked with Matt and Jenny to refine it to the point that they were comfortable with it.
I also benefitted immensely from the advice of two of our board members, Ashley Tobin and Craig Peters. Ashley has significant non-profit development experience, and is currently the principal of Work Better Consulting (a non-profit consultancy) and the program development director for Turning Points for Children. Craig has significant experience in marketing, including a strong background in content development and copywriting. He’s the founder and president of CKPcreative.
Since most of the appeals were going to current or fairly recent donors, we wrote the appeal to address that audience and didn’t do any customization (beyond addressees and salutations) for the bulk of the job, which was handled out of house by our printer. I did have a separate list of major prospects that we were soliciting for the first time, and rewrote the letter slightly to address that audience (removing all references thanking them for their past support, for example) and printed their letters in house.”
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