Missionary Fundraising Letters | 7 Tips (+Free PDF)
In this video and article, I am going to give you some of my favorite things to remember when writing missionary fundraising letters.
Whether you are moving overseas with your family or raising money for a short-term trip, these tips for your missionary fundraising letters will help you on your missionary fundraising journey.
One of the most popular ways for missionary fundraising is sending letters. This has probably been one of the most common ideas for at least the past 20 years. It was once the only way to communicate with people from long distances, & now they are used to show value in a relationship and intentionality.
Missionary Fundraising Letters Video Tutorial
Check out this video, where we tell you 7 of our favorite tips for your missionary fundraising letters.
7 Tips for you Missionary Fundraising Letters
Here is a list of the 7 tips to enhance your missionary fundraising letters.
Handwrite your letters
There was a time when sending letters was the only option for communicating with people who lived far away.
More recently, many people will type up a missionary fundraising letter template and print it off. Before they send it, they’ll usually handwrite the person’s name, and then sign the letter by hand.
Doing it like this takes up increases efficiency, which is a plus. The downside is, it can come off as impersonal and can feel similar to receiving spam mail.
Handwriting your letters changes the feel significantly. It feels personal and intentional. This is the goal.
Even though you might not be able to get as many letters written as fast, the likelihood of somebody reading it will increase.
2. Customize the beginning
One perk of handwriting the letters is that you have the ability to customize it for each person you are sending the letter too. But I’m not saying you need to word each letter differently than the one before.
For the most part, the majority of the missionary fundraising letters you will send will be have much of the same content. Adding a personal sentence or two at the beginning will help people feel cared for and valued.
Mentioning some of their family member’s names, talking about seeing them recently, or maybe how you enjoyed meeting them for coffee the other day.
The customized sentences add a personal note that makes a huge difference in your missionary fundraising letters.
3. Share Your Calling
In your missionary fundraising letters, you are trying to communicate what it is that you are raising funds for. It is a lot to put in a letter.
It is important to share the work the Lord is calling you to do, along with how you felt the Lord call you there.
You will need to spend time condensing this so that it can fit into a letter and is still easy to understand. Don’t hesitate to ask some close friends for feedback and help when brainstorming what to say prior to writing your missionary fundraising letters.
4. Ask them to pray and give
Your missionary fundraising letters are a perfect place to ask those receiving them to pray for you. Not only that, but make sure to ask if they would consider financially giving to your mission work.
Give them guidance on how to follow you and receive prayer requests while you are in the field.
5. Giving Instructions
It is incredibly important not only to include asking them to give when writing your missionary fundraising letters but to tell them how to do it. The more touches you can put in there, the better it is.
By touches I mean, tell them your website, and put a QR code at the bottom for them to scan. The more options you provide, the more likely it is that you have provided an option that is convenient for them.
6. Follow-Up
After you send your missionary fundraising letter, give it a few days. You need to give them time to not only receive the letter but also think and pray about it.
After a few days have passed, follow up with them to see if they received the letter. This helps to make sure it didn’t get lost in the mail, to remind them they received it, and to offer the opportunity to talk about it.
Ask them if they have any questions about what you will be doing. Offer to meet up with them and talk more about it if they are interested.
7. Write Thank You Notes
When fundraising, sometimes we can be so focused on our goal that it seems to be the only thing we care about. Most of the time that’s not true.
Missionary fundraising letters do a great job at providing you an opportunity to show you can about people and not just your fundraising goal.
Writing thank-you notes is another way to help show people you care about them. When somebody gives to you, send them another letter telling them how much you appreciate them helping you to answer this call.
I know this can be a lot to remember, so we’ve created a template for you to follow when writing your missionary fundraising letter. Fill out the boxes below to get your free template!
I hope these tips for your missionary fundraising letters were helpful to you. If you are interested in more resources like these, be sure to follow along, as we will release content like this every week aimed to help missionaries fundraise.
Check out our course, Modern fundraising for missionaries, when we teach you everything you need to know about missionary fundraising in our digital age.
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