The Recession in a Fundraising Letter

Posted by Menachem Lubinsky on December 27, 2009 under Recession | View Comments

The letter to donors of a well-known yeshiva began with a reference to the recession: “As you know, our yeshiva was severely impacted by the recession, forcing the administration to make some difficult choices.” The body of the letter spoke about the yeshiva’s excellent program, its faculty and so forth. It wasn’t until the last paragraph, perhaps what you might call “the punch line,” that the letter again invoked the recession.

“We are once again appealing to your generosity to help us cope with this recession which threatens to force us to make further cuts that will no doubt affect our educational excellence. We are hoping that you could increase your pledge of 2008 to avoid such a dreadful possibility.”

The administrator who shared the letter with me wanted my opinion as to why the letter had not generated any appreciable response. He thought that the letter was an honest and straightforward appeal for help in difficult times. His immediate reaction was that “people just don’t read letters,” an argument I have frequently heard from others defending poor grammar, structure, and content of a letter.

I am totally opposed to the theory that “no one will read the letter anyways,” whether it is for a yeshiva or a marketing letter. I have written on numerous occasions that to adopt such an attitude is to look down at your target audience and to insult their intelligence. Besides, whether people express it or not, they do respond to well-written letters.

Perhaps the yeshiva letter quoted above could have acknowledged that they weren’t the only ones that were victims of the recession. A letter I received from a prominent Jewish social service agency did just that: “I know that like most Americans you are facing the challenges of these difficult economic times. But while you are doing the best you can to address these challenges, you are also eager to help others avoid being crushed by this economic downturn.”

The social service agency letter went on to cite several cases of people who were devastated by the recession, ending with a very moving sentence: “When this recession is over we will look back at our strength and resilience to have survived some difficult days, but we will be even more fulfilled with the thought of how we helped people less fortunate than us pull through.” The agency reported that it managed to match last year’s revenues, which is no small feat in a deep recession.

Perhaps the yeshiva letter was correct in volunteering the fact that the yeshiva was not waiting for outside help to cope with the recession. It spoke of having made some “difficult choices,” which could be construed as trimming their budget. But the letter was short on specifics and did not give the reader the comfort that it was doing everything to avoid falling into a deeper financial bind. While the opening and close dealt with the effects of the recession, the middle paragraphs appeared to be business as usual. Indeed, the administrator admitted that he had used “cut and paste” to construct the letter.

On the other hand, the social service agency used a professional writer to construct the letter from scratch and used many current cases that made the letter believable. It certainly did not adopt the attitude that the letter would not be read.

A letter I obtained from a friend that he had received from another yeshiva on the eve of Chanukah was perhaps a classic example of a letter that should not have been written. The introductory paragraph was more or less a greeting about Chanukah, but the second paragraph was totally written with poor judgment.

“Our board has asked that you consider adding at least $200 to last year’s pledge, which will add up to the $150,000 the yeshiva needs immediately to pay vendors. If you cannot pay this sum at once, please indicate on the above form your intention to pay out this money over a year or two.”

The rest of the letter was no better, but I wondered why the letter was ever sent. My fried had no connection to that yeshiva other than receiving occasional fundraising letters from them. Even if it were addressed to parents, it would be a poorly written and perhaps totally insensitive letter.

So is this marketing? Of course it is. If you want a potential customer (or donor) to respond, you have to be extremely sensitive to their current situation. Phrases like “we recognize your…” or “We know how difficult…” go a long way in connecting with the reader of the letter, just as the social service agency did in acknowledging that the reader was also coping with difficult times.

I know that many not-for-profits are looking for ways to deal with the shortfalls of this recession. There are many creative ways to address the ongoing crisis in fundraising. Perhaps a good way to start is with the letters sent to donors.