Million-Dollar Thank-You Letters:

How, When and Why to Thank Your Donors So they Gladly Give Again, Give More, and Give More Often.

• Date: Wednesday, March 19 and Wednesday, March 26, 2008
• Time: 2pm Eastern time
• Duration: Each of the two sessions is 90 minutes long and allows ample time for questions
• Location: Anywhere with a phone
• Presenter: Alan Sharpe, direct mail fundraising copywriter, consultant and coach
• Price: $99
• Can't make every session? No problem. Each session is recorded for your convenience so you can listen to it by phone, anytime, day or night, from anywhere, free, for up to six days following each session. You won't miss a thing.
• Note: The dial-in number for this telephone seminar is not a toll-free number. You will pay regular long-distance charges. This extra cost has been factored into the price charged for this telephone seminar.

Learn How to Write the Most Important Letter in Direct Mail Fundraising.

The most important letter in direct mail fundraising never asks for a donation. Direct mail fundraising is about relationships, not revenue. The only way to generate sustainable income through the mail is to build relationships with your donors, relationships that are built on trust and are mutually beneficial.

This means that your goal with every letter you mail to donors is not to raise funds but to raise friends. Or, to put it another way, your aim with every fundraising letter is to retain donors first, and to raise revenue second.

The cost of losing a direct mail donor is tremendous. Donors who support your organization by sending you small gifts in the mail can contribute hundreds (even thousands) of dollars over their lifetime as a donor. To lose a steady, faithful donor is to lose a predictable source of income.

The cost of replacing a direct mail donor is also tremendous. With the costs of donor acquisition (writing, design, printing, list rental, postage) rising every year, many organizations do not break even on acquisition mailings until they receive a second or third gift from a first-time donor.

Re-soliciting existing donors is likely to perform five to eight times more profitably than acquiring the same number of equally generous first-time donors.

Your existing donors are always better prospects for gifts than those who have never supported your cause. So you can see how vital it is for your organization to keep the donors you have. Donor retention is all about loyalty. The donor’s loyalty to you, and your loyalty to your donor. And the most effective way to increase donor loyalty is to write heart-felt, personal thank-you letters.

In this two-part telephone seminar, direct mail fundraising copywriter, consultant and coach Alan Sharpe shows you how, when and why to thank your donors so they gladly give more, and give more often. You’ll learn tips, techniques and shortcuts that you can use right now.

Session 1: Why Thank-you Letters are your Key to Donor Retention.

• six lasting benefits of writing great thank-you letters
• how mistakes in thanking your donors will reduce your income, increase your donor attrition rate and harm your reputation
• why thanking your donors on time boosts donor loyalty
• why heartfelt gratitude, communicated in the right way, boosts your net income
• three things that today's donors demand from you before they will give you another gift
• why you need a gift acknowledgement program, what that program includes, and how to create it
• how (and why) to include your staff and board members in thanking and acknowledging your donors
• the difference between gift acknowledgement and donor recognition, and why today's donors prefer one over the other
• why you need to thank your different donors in different ways
• how to thank your donors for more than just their money, and why doing so is so vital to keeping them loyal
• how to decide when to visit, when to phone and when to write, and how best to combine two or more ways of thanking your donors

Session 2: How to Craft Effective Thank-you Letters, Notes and Cards.

• why your thank-you letter must never ask for another gift
• how to address your envelope so it is as personal as possible
• what type of postage to apply so your thank-you letter is most likely to be read immediately
• when to mail your thank-you letter
• mistakes to avoid in thanking your donors on paper
• one salutation that is guaranteed to extinguish any goodwill your letter may attempt to communicate (and how to avoid it)
• how to start your letter so your donor is compelled to continue reading
• when to include the amount, date and designation of the donor's gift, and why doing so boosts donor loyalty
• why you need to thank your donor more than once in each letter, note or gift
• when to use handwriting
• how often to change your generic thank-you letter
• the most important word in thank-you letters
• how long your letter should be
• dozens of creative ways to communicate your gratitude
• dozens of creative ways to communicate how your donor's gift is making a difference
• things to include with your thank-you letters that inspire donors to give again

Course Materials

Each 90-minute session includes:

• A handout, full-color, up to 30 pages in length, so that you can follow along as Alan speaks, and so that you have a detailed, thorough set of class notes after the seminar is over
• Sample thank-you letters, notes and cards
• Free access to a recording of each session for six days following each session

Review Thank-you Letters from Leading Organizations

During this seminar, Alan Sharpe will help you understand the tips and techniques you are learning by showing you many examples of effective thank-you letters, notes and cards mailed leading non-profit organizations.

What Others are Saying About your Instructor

• "Alan was awesome. Very engaging and clearly knowledgeable about the subject (and made me excited to get started) thank you!"
• "Appreciated the concrete examples."
• "Great presentation. Liked the way I need to think about my letters. Engaging, kept my attention through the whole session."
• "This was a great session. Interesting and interactive. Please thank Alan for doing a great job!"

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 Attend this Seminar . . .

Your trainer, Alan Sharpe

For over a decade, Alan Sharpe has been writing donor acquisition packages for such organizations as Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity and Daily Bread Food Bank.

Today, Alan helps non-profit organizations worldwide to raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors using cost-effective, compelling, creative fundraising letters.

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 over 5,800 professional fundraisers worldwide. He is the author of the book Breakthrough Fundraising Letters, and 25 handbooks on direct mail fundraising.

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).

Alan's teaching style is energetic, fun, helpful and memorable.

Details

Cancellations
You may cancel at any time for any reason up to the day of the telephone seminar and receive a refund minus a $25 service fee. We have to pay someone else a fee to register you and to process your credit card payment. The $25 service fee that we levy covers these expenses that we must incur on your behalf.

Lifetime guarantee
Apply the techniques and skills you learn in this telephone seminar. If you're not 100% satisfied with your results, tell us in writing and we'll refund your entire fee immediately.

Questions
Phone our workshop hotline at 1 877 742-7732 or write to us at

Recording
This telephone seminar is fully copyrighted. What you see and hear is the property of Alan Sharpe. No audio recordings are allowed.