Product Description

Write with confidence and reach your donors

You'll learn all the essential components of writing for success from this go-to book for writing for fundraising! Mal Warwick, the nation's premier letter-writing tutor and direct mail expert, shows you the essential tools for making your direct marketing program a success. He gives you both general advice about the most effective direct mail strategies and specific guidance. Learn his step-by-step model through all the critical stages -from laying the groundwork for a prosperous campaign through the importance of thanking donors. Includes ew chapters on E-mail solicitations, monthly and legacy giving and free downloads on josseybass.com.

Refreshed and Revised:

• Gain insight into current trends in the field with updated cases, samples, and examples
• Access more content for small to medium NPOs with limited budgets and resources
• Learn the latest technology with new sections on typography and lay out

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25294 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780787999087
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
According to this practical handbook, a "fundraising letter is like a personal visit." Writing from extensive experience in guiding companies and organizations through fund-raising efforts, Warwick offers detailed advice and analysis along with copious examples and instructive case studies. Warwick, who is both personal and hard-hitting, suggesting a cross between a preacher and a salesman, views fund-raising by mail as a three-stage process. "First, donors are acquired....Then, they are converted into repeat donors...finally donors may be upgraded into higher levels of generosity and commitment." The well-organized instructions include the planning of whole campaigns, the phrasing of appeals, composition and punctuation, information packets, and follow-up. In a time when fund-raising is perquisite to nearly all professions and organizations, library managers of all types as well as library users should find this both fascinating and worthwhile.
Margaret Bush, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Warwick sets the tone for this book, which may prove as valuable for library administrators as for patrons, with the advice contained in the first chapter's title: "You're Writing for Results--Not a Pulitzer Prize." How to get results is the theme here, and the advice offered ranges from the broad ("How a fundraising letter is like a personal visit") to the specific ("What to put on the outer envelope"; the injunction "Use `I' and `you'"). Warwick also examines focus groups' responses to a fund-raising letter and, step-by-step, a successful fund-raising appeal. Attention to detail (e.g., in a whole chapter on laying the groundwork before composing a fund-raising letter and another on thank-yous to donors) distinguishes the book, especially for nonprofessional fund-raisers. An excellent tool for an endeavor in which many people become involved only occasionally, good enough to consult in itself or to use as a guide in hiring a professional. Mike Tribby

Review
"This book is the definitive guide for those working in the development, public relations, or marketing offices of colleges, hospitals, museums, and other nonprofit institutions; for their directors and board members, and for all those who simply want to get better results from their fundraising appeals." (Paul Wellstone, United States Senator, Minnesota)

"And I though I knew something about direct mail letters! Now I do, thanks to Mal's step-by-step guidance. This book is a gem. Mal's remarkable collection of wisdom and practical advice in his 'Letter Writer's Toolbox' alone is worth the purchase price. It contains everything you will ever need to know, beginning with envelope teasers, winning lead sentences, how to use 'you' multiple times, writing challenges, ending a letter well, writing a great P.S., etc., even how not to get results." (James M. Greenfield, author, Fund-Raising Fundamentals: A Guide to Annual Giving for Professionals and Volunteers)

"If you want to learn about basketball, turn to Michael Jordan. If you want the ins and outs of investing, look to Warren Buffett. And, if you want to dramatically enhance your fundraising letters, turn to Mal Warwick—the undisputed master in the field." (Jerry Ciancolo, editor, Contributions Magazine)

"Another homerun for Mal Warwick . . . he has taken a great book and made it even better. Mal goes beyond conventional fundraising writing into the psyche of donors and what makes them tick." (Max L. Hart, director of fundraising, Disabled American Veterans)

"Mal Warwick's engaging writing style, combined with useful sample letters and a wealth of practical tips and helpful hints, makes How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters a must-have reference for any development officer." (Patricia P. Jackson, vice president, education, Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE))

"Mal Warwick has done it again. When the original first came out, it became my Bible. I discovered what direct mail was all about—Mal led me by the hand through every possible aspect of how to write successful letters. The book actually helped me in all my writing. Mal Warwick became my mentor and model. The revision, the new version, is even better." (Jerold Panas, author and consultant)

Customer Reviews

The best book of its kind ...
There are many many books and courses on how to write a funding proposal but few out there on how to write and develop your organization's annual campaign. Fortunately Mal Warwick's is the only book you'll ever need. Thorough, loaded with examples, not only of solicitation letters but follow up and thank you letters as well -- if you're a development professional this is one book you must have on your shelf. Using Mal Warwick's books and website, along with a great deal of marketing reading, I successfully redesigned my organization's membership campaign - raising our overall donations by 33% the first year and an additional 25% the second year.
While geared to annual campaigns/individual donors, this book will also aid you in writing foundation proposals - particularly to those smaller foundations that may merely require a letter proposal. Mal takes the best of both worlds - marketing and nonprofit management - and gives you a guide that the development professional will refer to daily. With the thousands of foundations in the United States, not every one is a Kellogg or a Kresge or a Pew and this book is an invaluable aid to getting your proposal read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (as are all Mal Marwick's books).

My top recommendation for fundraisers
In my seminar on nonprofit communications I strongly recommend several titles, chosen from the dozens on my shelves. Mal Warwick's How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters tops the list. It is pretty much a model, I think, for good how-to books: it is well organized, comprehensive (in ways you'd never anticipate), filled with case studies and annotated examples, brief, to the point, practical, and extraordinarily reader-friendly. I wrote fund-raising letters before I read Mal's book; some letters worked, some didn't. After I read his book, I never wrote an unprofitable letter again. You will not regret buying this book: it removes the veils from so many mysteries of successful direct mail fundraising.

Every Non-Profit Should Have This Book
Fundraising is a very specialized area of copywriting and marketing. Unlike the more common direct mail letter wherein you are selling a product or service, fundraising often offers nothing more to the receipient than a chance to feel good about doing good.

As a consequence, fundraising letters for charities and oher non-profits literally have their own rules that vary from the traditional approach to direct mail. Warwick is the recognized master of this field and is a legend in fundraising circles.

Every charitiable organization and non-profit group should have this book on their shelf, or have a copywriter available to them that does. And even if you aren't going to apply the principles in the book to fundraising, its still a great guide to writing effective marketing copy.