Novel Fundraising Letters.

Workbook and audio CD-ROM set.
Cost: CAD$136.94, shipping included. Applicable taxes extra.

Learn how to use creative writing techniques to make your appeal letters more dramatic, interesting—and profitable.

Novel Fundraising Letters is a six-session workshop that teaches you how to tell original, real-life stories that involve and inspire your donors. Using dozens of examples from successful appeal letters, this practical, hands-on workshop shows you step by step how to get the attention of today’s distracted donors, arouse their interest, draw them in with gripping human-interest stories, and motivate them to respond with a gift.

You'll learn:

• how to grab your donor’s attention with original envelopes
• how to start your letters in dramatic ways so that your donors simply can’t put them down
• where to find exciting and inspiring stories within and outside your organization—even if your case for support seems mundane
• how to dramatize the dull by harnessing the power of fascinating facts
• how to use intrigue, suspense, dialogue and other simple fiction techniques to keep your readers reading

Learn the Insider Secrets of Writing Blockbuster Fundraising Letters.

Your donors will not respond to—never mind read—boring appeal letters. Today’s busy, distracted donors won’t donate to unexciting causes.

Blame it on Survivor and American Idol. Blame it on cell phones, iPods, Blackberries, digital TV, satellite radio, junk mail, spam and telemarketers. Blame it on the thousands of other charities competing for your donor’s loyalty. But don’t blame your donor.

Your donor, like everyone else, will only read fundraising letters that are novel. Different. Original.

Your direct mail appeal letters shouldn’t be as long as a novel but they should be just as interesting to read. You need to use the novelist’s creative writing techniques to make your appeal letters more dramatic, more interesting—and more profitable.

Learn how by listening to this exciting six-hour workshop on audio
CD-ROM and following along in the workbook (50 pages of sample direct mail packages and 28 pages of class handouts).

You’ll discover:

• how to persuade your donor to take that kitchen knife and slit open . . . your envelope
• how to enter shooting (with an irresistible letter opening)
• how to use fear and loathing and other emotions to your advantage
• where to find the victim, villain or vexation that’s essential to every appeal
• how to arrest your donor—with your copy
• how to build up to a climax (and a donation)

What you get:

1. 50 pages of sample direct mail packages, including sample envelopes, letters, lift notes and reply devices
2. 28 pages of class handouts, including 6 exercises, containing step-by-step, practical guidelines for using the vital skills you've just learned
3. 6 CD-ROMs containing audio recordings of six live sessions
4. Three-ring binder to hold all your materials together for quick and handy reference

A special message from your trainer . . .

Dear fundraising professional,

The most successful fundraising letters today are gripping. They take donors to crack houses, battlefields, logging protests, prisons, famines and other places they would never set foot themselves.

They show non-profit organizations engaged on the front lines in the battle to right wrongs, correct injustices and make the world a better place.

Even organizations that have seemingly mundane mandates are finding creative ways to weave facts and fiction techniques to create vivid, captivating letters. You can, too.

During this riveting one-day workshop that I delivered, participants learned the simple, proven fiction techniques that professional direct mail fundraising copywriters use today to make their appeal letters more appealing. Now you can enjoy this workshop from anywhere in the world by listening to the live recording of each session, and following along in the class materials.

You’ll learn the mistakes to avoid, the best practices to implement right now, and the tips, techniques and shortcuts that you can use for years to come. All that you'll miss is the Thai food that we had for lunch!

Yours sincerely,

Alan Sharpe, President
Raiser Sharpe

Remember: Picture Mark Twain sitting down to craft a fundraising letter. It wouldn’t be dull! If you want to make your appeal letters novel, buy the Novel Fundraising Letters workbook and CD-ROM set. Learn the creative writing techniques you need to make your next appeal a smash hit. 

Workshop Outline

Six live sessions, each one roughly 50 minutes long, lead you through the process of creating novel fundraising letters.

Session 1: 49 minutes
Start with a gripping plot

• where to find compelling themes
• why conflict and turmoil work in appeals just as well as they do in novels
• where to find your victim, villain, vexation or calamity

Session 2: 43 minutes
Enter shooting

• why your envelope is the opening scene you can’t mess up
• how Agatha Christie would start your fundraising letter
• how to use questions, anecdotes, narrative, statistics, facts, jokes, teasers and other literary devices to grab your donors

Session 3: 46 minutes
Grip your reader like this . . .

• learn how other organizations use intrigue, suspense and dialogue to keep donors on the edge of their seats (reaching for their chequebooks)
• borrow a lesson from Elmo's World and Dora the Explorer for keeping your readers hooked month after month

Session 4: 49 minutes
Convince your reader, or else

• why you must make your donor the heroine (or hero) of your story
• how to use flash-backs and foreshadowing to persuade donors to give
• why your donors, like novel readers, expect closure (and how to give it)
• how to ask for a donation without surprising your donor

Session 5: 37 minutes
Dramatize the dull

• how to translate your case for support into compelling human terms
• how to make your letter, like every good story, about people, not programs
• how to use testimonials to make your case for support vivid

Session 6: 55 minutes
Use the right ruse

• re-visit the writing rules you learned in school, and learn how to break them
• learn the proven techniques for turning not-for-profit-speak into vibrant prose
• use anger, irritation and other useful emotions that belong in your letters

What others are saying about your instructor

Comment from the workshop coordinator who attended this live workshop as it was being recorded:

"Thanks for another great day of training yesterday. The evaluations are very positive."

Comment from someone who did not even attend the workshop:

"Our development director and another staff member attended your workshop. My officemate thinks you were dynamite and very creative. You kept them awake the whole time. You probably can be tapped for the AFP Conference at the end of the year."

Comments from participants at Alan's 2004 direct mail fundraising workshop in Winnipeg, on direct mail fundraising letter writing, quoted verbatim from their Workshop Feedback Forms:

• "Most helpful seminar of the session" (anonymous).
• "Great tips for creative and effective communication" (anonymous).
• "Thanks for the great tips. Very applicable, practical" (Jessica B.).
• "Just what I needed" (Brian T.).
• "Terrific! Very beneficial" (anonymous).
• "Very practical and useful. Thanks" (anonymous).
• "Well done. Most informative" (anonymous).
• "Very helpful" (Len S.).
• "Very good! Well worth repeating! Very practical and user-friendly" (Graham G.).

Comments from participants at Alan's 2005 direct mail fundraising workshop in Mississauga, quoted verbatim from their Workshop Feedback Forms:

• "Excellent! A lot of food for thought + application. Very energizing!" (Diane P.).
• "The workshop was great. The room was inadequate to accommodate the audience. Choose a better room for this speaker." (anonymous).
• "Very useful information." (anonymous).
• "Very much enjoyed the high energy, interactive, informative session." (Keren K.).
• "Excellent session. Very useful." (anonymous).
• "Excellent practical tips! I was jotting down opening sentences all session long." Avril H.).

Another reason to buy Novel Fundraising Letters . . .

Your trainer, Alan Sharpe

Alan Sharpe didn’t discover that he wanted to write fundraising letters for a living until he had first fought in the Falklands War, travelled with the circus, lived in a snowhole, taught children with disabilities how to downhill ski and lived in Jane Fonda's old house in Paris.

Today, Alan helps non-profit organizations worldwide to raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors using cost-effective, compelling, creative fundraising letters. His clients include Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, Greenpeace and Medic Alert.

Alan has taught direct mail copywriting at the university level (at the University of Toronto) and has published over 200 articles on the topic. As a seminar leader and mentor, Alan coaches executive directors and directors of development to craft engaging, warm appeal letters that win the hearts and minds of their donors.

Alan’s popular email newsletter, Direct Mail Fundraising Today, is read weekly by thousands of professional fundraisers worldwide.

Alan served as Director of Development and Communications for two international non-profits, where he was responsible for strategic planning, annual direct mail fundraising campaigns, major giving, planned giving, major events, publicity and other enjoyable headaches. He lives and works in the other London (the one in Ontario, Canada).

Listen to the workshop on CD-ROM and you'll discover that Alan's teaching style is energetic, fun, helpful and memorable.

What you get:

1. 50 pages of sample direct mail packages, including sample envelopes, letters, lift notes and reply devices
2. 28 pages of class handouts, including 6 exercises, containing step-by-step, practical guidelines for using the vital skills you've just learned
3. 6 CD-ROMs containing audio recordings of six live sessions
4. Three-ring binder to hold all your materials together for quick and handy reference

Cost: $136.94, shipping included.
Add Goods and Services Tax of 5% if buying in Canada.